Kori Schake 🎃

I just received my first copy of the book!

"It is a war so bizarre in design, so flawed in execution, so blissfully unencumbered by strategic foresight, that all previous American misadventures in the region appear vaguely commendable by comparison." @radchenko.bsky.social on the Iran war.

Do your thing, fellow defense nerds! 🙂 Help terrific @marceldirsus.com get even smarter.

Hey @lmchervinsky.bsky.social, your video answering questions about U.S. elections that's up on @wired.com is a great public service. (embed in this story)

Russia’s intense and systematic bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure amounts to a crime against humanity, United Nations investigators concluded.

"If you’re really worried about Russia’s hybrid activity, then don’t go down into a defensive crouch. Use your power to keep Russia at bay, whilst strengthening resilience in your society." - Admiral Sir Tony Radakin

The successful fightback against oligarchy probably started when the Brewers swept the Dodgers

I think a lot of people equate “tanks/ships/aircraft will take casualties in a peer war” with “tanks/ships/aircraft are useless now”. Aircraft carriers were decisive in WW2 in the Pacific, but remind me how many of them were sunk in the process. Both can be true at the same time.

“Trump, who has cut U.S. aid to Ukraine by 99 percent, is sending American money to the Kremlin — and therefore to a Russian war machine that the United Nations says is killing Ukrainian civilians at a ‘new horrifying level.”’ www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/w...

Wrong. Oh so wrong, Marco!

Me: "It cannot be stated often enough or vociferously enough: the Trump Administration is helping Russia to conquer Ukraine. The United States of America has taken the side of an aggressor against its innocent victim. We are helping our actual enemies" www.aei.org/foreign-and-...

"When asked where this agreement had come from, Trump admitted that he had made it up. It was entirely in his head, which is where so many of his great diplomatic triumphs appear to occur." @ldfreedman.bsky.social

Yeah, good. (Many Chinese cars also not allowed on Bundeswehr bases either)

JUST POSTED: A Russian energy giant has secretly moved to acquire a position in a massive Alaska gas project. Its part of talks between Witkoff/Kushner & Putin. But CEO of US company resigns after learning of Russian money in the project. A wowzer of a story. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/u...

A federal appeals court ruled that Trump’s Nat Guard L.A. deployment last year was unlawful. This reinforces a fundamental principle for a healthy democracy. ➡️ Domestic military use is limited to extraordinary circumstances, & courts play a critical role in scrutinizing, enforcing these limits.

"The British aircraft operated alongside those of France’s Strategic Air Forces over the Mediterranean, with Typhoons escorting Rafale fighters, according to the ministry.... the Rafale jets performed a simulated nuclear strike."

“Oops, we dropped Eisenhower’s world and broke it, because we told the experts they weren’t needed.”

Civilians applying for jobs in the Pentagon are also being vetted this way, but worse: asked if Trump won the 2020 election.

"Britain stands thirty-first out of thirty-two NATO countries on an internal alliance measure of how effectively members are meeting their rearmament promises, with only Iceland lower, according to a report by the Defence Committee." ukdefencejournal.org.uk/britain-near...

Three recent policies in particular have targeted the military's most important asset: its human capital. https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2026/october/pentagons-culture-war-hurting-military

In Venezuela last September, I found people hoping for change, but shocked and surprised by US policy, especially opaque oil deals with former regime cronies. The system looks, one economist told me, like “a coalition of two kleptocracies" www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

The US is still important and powerful, of course, but I no longer see it as this unique actor we're tethered to through history and culture and shared experience. It's just another big, oftentimes adversarial power we need to manage. America is becoming more normal, in a way. It's sad

A message from the "humanitarian" in the Kremlin.

that's the first branch of the united states government that he's talking about there

I remember decades ago a few (not many) people worrying that someday through influence and propaganda the Kremlin might pry Canada away from its alliance with the United States. I don't think anyone predicted that it would pry the United States away from Canada.

Milo Minderbinder bombing his own squadron

"Renewed attacks on tankers and energy infrastructure highlight the persistent geopolitical risk even as Persian Gulf flows recover, while shipping costs have soared to stratospheric levels."

"the United States has come to embrace a perverse and unsustainable orientation to the rest of the world: extreme belligerence paired with strategic fecklessness." @jkdemp.bsky.social

"A belief in military force as the sole ingredient for success has enabled a lazy and destructive foreign policy that ignores the will and motivations of both allies and adversaries. Such thinking also elevates tactics above strategy." Great piece by @jkdemp.bsky.social

A disgrace.

“We don’t have a playbook,” he said. “We’re all on audibles. We can go one play at a time.” Truer words never spoken.

We built this scorecard for anyone following the money and looking for patterns of abuse that OMB is building as we head into FY 2027. Get the full scorecard: protdem.org/ombscorecard

My assessment: GEN Caine is modeling restraint in a fraught political environment that it would profit ADM Cooper and others in the military to emulate: www.aei.org/foreign-and-...

Shameful

Shoutout to Phil Sheridan for dropping one of the hardest lines during this battle. After riding 20 miles to the sound of the guns to reunite with his army, an officer saw Sheridan and said “we’re glad you’re here.” He responded “By god I’m glad to be here, let’s go lick ‘em”

"there needs to be a bipartisan reckoning for Mr. Trump’s budding alliance with the Kremlin against Ukraine, Europe and American interests." @wsj.com editorial board

It’s the cowardice that gets me. Every damn time.

One of the basic flaws of Trump foreign policy: the inability to understand that durable leverage depends on exercising restraint, maintaining relationships, and speaking quietly.

Vladimir Putin appears to have concluded that he cannot win the war in Ukraine on the battlefield. His strategy now is to grind Ukraine down. How scandalous that Donald Trump has become his best weapon

Prayers for Canadian Forces, and their friends and families, our kind neighbors and allies.

Insurers are introducing exclusions for AI-related losses as AI agents create new risks. Who pays if an employee's rogue agent hacks a site? Insurance companies may become the most effective AI safety regulators because they can refuse to insure companies that don't take safety seriously.

Zelenskyy that restrictions on Starlink systems remain. Interceptor drones can't function, logistics and operations hobbled. The maximum speed is 161 kph; "exceeding this limit causes the Starlink connection to cut out completely, resulting in the loss of the drone." www.ft.com/content/e267...

“Since its establishment at the country's founding, the American military has differed from its European ancestors, in ways that only make sense if one understands the military as a partner to the American founding rather than a bastard of it.” libertiesjournal.com/articles/the...

Really enjoyed writing this, so many aspects that are relevant to the military as an institution today and its place in protecting our democracy