Space Wars - The Reality

I just finished reading a new book called Space Wars.

If you've ever read an issue of Aviation Week cover-to-cover and you have read more than one Tom Clancy book, you'll definitely want to read Space Wars as soon as possible.

If you prefer James Joyce or William Faulkner, skip it.

The book is heavy on weapons tech and light on character development but it rises above those limitations to grab your attention - particularly if you want to know what's really out there in the "black world" of covert and space military operations. My strongest criticism is that the authors write with a definite conservative political agenda that reduces anyone with an alternative point of view to one-dimensional, self-serving caricatures. The authors make no attempt at all to even guess what might cause other intelligent human beings to hold very different opinions than their own regarding what is right and what is wrong in the world. Even so, because of that very flaw, the book unintentionally opens a window into the mind of those in our country who believe that doves are traitors and hawks are the only true patriots.

But the most profound insight of all is how the authors quite accurately describe the astounding vulnerability of the spaced-based "assets" so many of us have unknowingly woven into the everyday fabric of our lives. As the authors quite accurately illustrate, U.S. national security has come to depend heavily on an incredibly fragile network of unguarded satellites whose amazing hi-tech capabilities can be rendered useless with relatively little effort.

Space Wars tells the story of what might very well happy if that network were attacked and disabled. Yes, the authors see the political world through a soda straw. But as narrow as their view of politics may be, they have an equally broad view of something very few people understand: World War III will be fought in and from a new military battleground - space.

Piece of Cake

Over the years I've been asked many times to describe what it's like to be a fighter pilot. And I've also been asked if air combat is really the way it looks in the movie Top Gun. I always remind folks that Top Gun was produced by Hollywood and was never meant to be a documentary. It's also worth noting that Top Gun was filmed in 1985 - before the dawn of today's mind blowing computer generated imagery (CGI). In fact, it was just the year before that a ground breaking film called The Last Starfighter was released in which, for the first time ever, significant portions of the film were animated exclusively using what were at the time cutting edge CGI sequences - even though that's not what they called it back then. As a closet computer geek I remember reading about the unimaginable computing power it took to create scenes for that movie. And today, Cartoon Network routinely produces episodes of Jimmy Neutron that make the CGI in The Last Starfighter look like it came out of the Crayola factory. So considering the technology available at the time, I'd say that Top Gun did about as good a job as possible in recreating air combat on film and still making a blockbuster movie in the process - and most of the fighter jocks I know would agree. Of course, the movie did not depict real fighter pilots - just a bunch of sailors dressed up like fighter pilots.

If you really want to get an understanding of fighter combat, I highly recommend the new History Channel series entitled Dogfights. It truly is the next best thing to being there. The digital recreations of the actual dogfights discussed are spot on. I've studied those famous aerial knife fights in the past. I've even talked to a few of the aces they interview in Dogfights. But while watching the show I still picked up a few pointers I missed the first time around.

But if you want to know what it is like to be in a fighter squadron - to know about fighter pilots themselves - there's really only one choice in video. Back in 1988 the BBC created a mini-series for Masterpiece Theater called Piece of Cake. The series chronicles the experiences of a Royal Air Force fighter squadron in the days leading up to the Battle of Britain. The characters in the script could have been lifted right out of the F-16 squadrons in my past. Piece of Cake does contain some rather glaring historical inaccuracies. For example, the squadron is flying Spitfires in the movie during a time frame when Hurricanes would have been in use. But if you will just suspend your disbelief you'll be rewarded with what are the best Spitfire and Messerschmidt flying sequences ever filmed. The quality of the DVD version of this film is disappointing. Even so, I recommend the DVD to anyone who is interested knowing what goes on behind the scenes in a fighter outfit.

Restraint

Consider this...

We all know that the U.S. has engaged the Muslim world in many ways post 9/11. Some of those activities have been good, some bad, and some decidedly, profoundly, maddeningly stupid. But the most amazing thing about the U.S. response to 9/11 is what DID NOT happen. In the history of the world there has never been a nation who, so injured, has restrained itself so greatly as the United States since the 9/11 attacks. And that restraint is all the more amazing when you consider the staggering military power possessed by America. I will remind you, dear reader, that WW1 was triggered by the assassination of a single man.

What if the shoe bomb were on the other foot? How would the Islamic world respond if a group of radical American Christians hijacked four Middle East based airliners and flew them into the Dome of the Rock, the central Medina mosque, and the Kaaba at the peak moment of the Hajj so that the largest number of Muslims were killed by the event? What if substantive financial links were found between those hijackers and the government of the United States? How might the Muslim world respond to such a heinous attack?

I'll say it again in a different way - never in human history has one nation possessed greater power to retaliate against attack than the U.S. today. Never in human history has a nation had a more compelling reason to retaliate - even blindly and irrationally - than did the U.S. after 9/11. And even in the context of the United States' ongoing and messy military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, never in human history has a nation chosen to restrain itself so dramatically as has the U.S. post 9/11.

And perhaps the most ironic thing of all is that a large portion of the Islamic world perceives our restraint as weakness deserving of disrespect.

Lincoln on Leadership

Abraham Lincoln wrote...

When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion - kind, unassuming persuasion - should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of vinegar. So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgement of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgement, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart, and though your cause be naked truth itself you shall no more be able to reach him than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a blade of grass. Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best interest.

The Stockdale Paradox

Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties

- AND AT THE SAME TIME -

Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.

Rules for Leadership

• Never say goodbye to a good man with a harsh word.
• Set the example before enforcing the rule.
• Search for the good in people and praise publically.
• Quietly confront incorrect behaviour and discipline privately.
• Praise 4 times more that you discipline.
• Never ridicule or belittle.
• Set well defined goals and objectives.
• Clearly communicate your expectations.
• Regularly review results.
• Hold people accountable.
• Ensure that consequences (both positive and negative)
  - Accurately reflect performance
  - Affect responsible individuals immediately and personally.
• Always associate hard work and sacrifice with a credible higher calling.
• Never waste time - yours or someone else's.
• Discern the difference between a matter of behavior and a matter of character.
  - Matters of behavior can be changed through human effort
  - Matters of character can only be changed by God

Too Stupid to Quit

Teddy Roosevelt wrote...

"It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Alexander Hamilton wrote (at age 14 by the way)...

I'm no philosopher, you see, and may be justly said to build castles in the air. Yet we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant.

Calvin Coolidge wrote...

Press on! Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

Winston Churchill wrote...

It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.

J.D. Williams wrote...

"I've always been persistent but that's because I've always been too stupid to quit."