Writer of crime fiction and creative non-fiction; lover of animals, great mysteries and thrillers. https://nitter.cf/t.co/wTsyhQvcbA
Vancouver, Canada
Joined March 2012
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"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." A.A. Milne
D.G. Peterson retweeted
THE MOST INCOMPETENT WAR IN HISTORY: SARAH PAINE ON TRUMP’S IRAN DISASTER
Dr. Sarah Paine, a leading historian of great-power conflict and strategy, delivers a blunt verdict on the Iran war. She calls it one of the most incompetent wars in human history. The decision ignored basic principles of assessment, put maximum costs on America itself, and left permanent damage to the country’s power and alliances. This is not hindsight—it is the predictable result of hubris meeting reality.
THE CORE VERDICT
➡️ “The Iran war is probably one of the most incompetent wars in human history.”
➡️ A competent war puts the costs on the enemy and minimizes them for yourself.
➡️ This one did the opposite.
THE COST CATASTROPHE
➡️ It trashed the US economy.
➡️ It blew the US alliance system.
➡️ Iran is hurting, but the collateral damage is taking down the world’s economy.
➡️ That transforms the United States from a partner into an annoyance—and for many, a primary adversary—because it is threatening their economies.
➡️ “That’s breathtakingly incompetent.”
THE STRATEGIC BLIND SPOT
➡️ Any serious assessment looks at the enemy’s strengths and your own weaknesses, plus everyone else who might intervene.
➡️ That was absent.
➡️ The first thing Iran would do is shut Hormuz. Narrow seas close in wartime. Ukraine already showed this with the Black Sea.
➡️ Shore artillery, mines, and other tools stop traffic. There is no mystery here.
➡️ The big naval base in Bahrain becomes unreachable. The fallback is Diego Garcia, 2,500 miles away in the middle of nowhere. “That would be a mess.”
THE HUBRIS THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE
➡️ The people making the calls are historically unqualified for the job. That makes them profoundly dangerous.
➡️ Type A hubris assumes all decisions that matter happen in the United States.
➡️ Type B hubris assumes being good at one thing makes you good at everything.
➡️ Half-court tennis: you only watch your own side and never study the other team.
➡️ The Iranians understand Americans far better than Americans understand them.
THE UNFEASIBLE OBJECTIVE
➡️ Trying to “solve” Iran with 90 million people was never realistic.
➡️ Nazi Germany had roughly 80 million and required an occupation force of about 1.5 million just to hold it after the war—before counting everyone else.
➡️ The goal was unattainable. Pursuing it guarantees overextension and a bad ending.
➡️ The lesson the world takes is simple: get a nuke. The war incentivized proliferation.
➡️ This was a pivotal error. The choices that existed before are gone and will not return. “We will never be the trusted partner ever again. It’s done.”
THE BOTTOM LINE
The Iran war did not merely fail. It maximized American costs, destroyed trust with allies, and handed every rival a clearer reason to treat the United States as a threat to their own prosperity. Competence would have contained the problem at affordable cost. Hubris chose the opposite.
This is what permanent strategic damage looks like.
#IranWar #SarahPaine #StrategicIncompetence #HormuzDisaster #USHubris #AllianceCollapse #CatastrophicMistake
HT: YouTube The Diary Of A CEO
If you didn’t know this about Sir Patrick Stewart, you should read this.
In 1952, an English teacher named Cecil Dormand secretly paid for a dirt-poor 11-year-old to take a drama course.
He never told him and the boy didn’t find out until decades later.
By then, he was a knight, that little boy’s name was Patrick Stewart.
He was born into a poor family in Mirfield, a small mill town in Yorkshire and his father came home from World War II a violent man, and he was violent toward Patrick’s mother.
Young Patrick learned exactly when to step between his father’s fist and his mother.
An English teacher put a copy of Shakespeare in his hand and told him to get up and perform.
He never stopped and left school at 15.
By 19 he was completely bald... most agencies told him he'd never make it because of that.
In 1987, the LA Times called him an “unknown British Shakespearean actor” when he was cast as Captain Picard.
Then he became one of the most famous faces on Earth.
You’ve probably heard that part.
Here’s the part you haven’t:
He spent decades as a patron of Refuge, sheltering women and children from domestic violence.
But he never stopped trying to understand his father.
He dug up a 1940 newspaper clipping that said his dad had come home with severe shell shock.
He went to France and walked the ground where his father’s unit was pinned down under bombing for hours.
He learned his father had PTSD, and nobody ever helped him.
So Patrick became an ambassador for Combat Stress, a charity that helps veterans.
In 2013, a young woman at a Texas convention told him she was a survivor of domestic violence.
He asked, “My dear, are you okay?”
Then he hopped off the stage, held her, and told her: “You never have to go through that again, you’re safe now.”
At Dragon Con, a Make-A-Wish girl dressed as Spock came to meet him.
2,000 people were waiting for him to speak... he sat down and talked with her for 15 minutes, making all of them wait.
He told her that since they were friends now, whenever she saw him on screen she could wave and say, “Hello Patrick.”
After 9/11, he felt helpless, so he brought his one-man A Christmas Carol back to Broadway for a full week of charity shows.
He played every character himself and donated every cent.
In 2019 he did it again, and every dollar went to feeding hungry New Yorkers.
In 2017, he fostered a pit bull named Ginger, who had been rescued from a dogfighting ring.
She was his first dog in more than 50 years.
He couldn’t bring her home to England, so he found her a family.
Then he kept fostering more.
When he said he was done with Star Trek so many people told him the show had gotten them through the hardest times of their lives.
So he wanted to see if Picard could do it one more time.
Rest in Peace, Sir Patrick 🖖
D.G. Peterson retweeted
Trei tancuri petroliere aflate pe lista neagră și care transportă 140.000 de tone de combustibil rusesc fac cercuri în Atlantic.
Casa Albă a sunat traderii americani să cumpere motorina lui Putin, dar literalmente zero cumpărători au răspuns la telefon.
În panică din cauza prețurilor la combustibil care au explodat chiar înainte de alegerile de la mijloc de mandat, Casa Albă a încheiat pe 9 octombrie un acord cu Kremlinul prin care sunt ocolite interdicțiile de import. Trump se aștepta ca traderii de pe Wall Street să se repeadă la motorina rusească ieftină. În schimb, aceștia au tratat marfa ca pe deșeuri nucleare.
De ce? Pentru că aspectul legal al afacerii le poate fi fatal. Congresul a incriminat în mod explicit importurile de petrol rusesc în 2022.
O scutire pe hârtie din partea Trezoreriei SUA nu are nicio greutate împotriva unei interdicții a Congresului, ceea ce înseamnă că orice comerciant care se atinge de motorina sau benzina rusească riscă închisoare federală și citații din partea Congresului.
Haosul de pe ocean este de un absurd kafkian.
Petrolierul Agioi Fanendes a plecat din Sankt Petersburg cu destinația New York, dar s-a oprit în mijlocul oceanului și așteaptă „noi instrucțiuni”, traducere maritimă pentru „plutim fără țintă pentru că nimeni nu vrea să ne cumpere marfa”.
Restul flotei din umbră a lui Putin nu se simte nici ea mai bine. Talisman este inclus pe lista neagră de Washington și Europa, în timp ce Leruo este interzis în întreaga UE, Marea Britanie și Canada. Cu toate acestea, oamenii lui Trump de la Casa Albă au înroșit telefoanele în încercarea de a ancora navele rusești în porturile americane.
Însă reacția Wall Street-ului a fost rece ca gheața. Chiar și cu Moscova oferind reduceri substanțiale, traderii de petrol de pe piața gri s-au ascuns pe sub birouri. Foști oficiali ai Trezoreriei SUA au avertizat deja că orice contact cu aceste nave este sinucidere corporativă, așa că 140.000 de tone de motorină plutesc în Atlantic fără un singur cumpărător la orizont.
În plus, Congresul a apucat barosul.
Democrații și câțiva republicani au avertizat cumpărătorii cu privire la riscul comiterii unei infracțiuni federale, în timp ce senatorul Blumenthal a trimis scrisori de avertisment direct către proprietarii navelor, cerându-le să facă imediat drumul înapoi.
Guvernatoarea statului New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, fost ofițer de marină și procuror federal, a numit afacerea lui Trump „coruptă și ilegală”. Ea a pregătit deja o serie de măsuri pentru a bloca terminalele principale de combustibil de pe coasta de est de la Bayonne, Linden, Carteret, Perth Amboy și Port Reading.
Cu porturile americane închise și amenințările Congresului planând deasupra capetelor, Washingtonul și Moscova se agită frenetic în căutarea unei soluții de ieșire din încurcătură. Specialiștii din energie spun că, fără un singur cumpărător american dispus să riște, motorina rusă respinsă va trebui descărcată în America de Sud la prețuri derizorii, în pierdere.
Planul disperat al Casei Albe pentru a ocoli legea federală, a scădea prețurile la motorină înainte de alegerile din 3 noiembrie și a direcționa bani către Moscova se pare că a eșuat. La fel ca navele din flota fantomă a lui Putin, care rătăcesc pe mări și oceane, fără niciun port unde să acosteze.
(Sebastian Duma / FB)
D.G. Peterson retweeted
Cat names from Old Irish legal texts:
Bréone = ‘little flame’
Cruibne = ‘little paws’
Glas Nenta = ‘nettle grey’
Méone = ‘little meow’
🎨Book of Kells. Source: Kelly, Early Irish Farming p123. #NationalCatDay 🐈
D.G. Peterson retweeted
Fox: Why are you here this morning?
Trump rally attendee: Well, in the late 70s, I was a little too young to go to South America for the Jonestown Massacre. But this is as close as I'll ever get, so that's why I'm here. There's nothing like seeing a cult right up front.
D.G. Peterson retweeted
MORE TRUMP CHEATING
Three Dems running for Congress have been injured in car crashes in recent days, and not one of them is quitting.
Mary Peltola was stopped at a red light in Anchorage with her family, headed to the Alaska Federation of Natives banquet, when a driver rear-ended them and pushed their car into a third vehicle.
Her doctors told her to rest, so she moved two campaign stops. Her team says she’s eager to get back out there.
Just one day earlier in Memphis, Heidi Kuhn and her husband Matt were caught in a three-car crash on I-240. She came out of it with a broken nose, whiplash and other facial injuries, and called it “quite a traumatic accident.”
Kuhn is running under a new map Tennessee Republicans drew this year to wipe out the Democratic district in Memphis.
Broken nose and all, she’s still taking on Republican David Kustoff.
Back in August, 80-year-old Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in House history, was riding to church in Toledo when another driver slammed into her car and ran from the scene.
Police arrested a suspect this month and say speeding on wet roads caused the crash.
Within weeks she was recording videos for supporters from a wheelchair. Now she’s fighting for a 23rd term.
Police say they’ve found no sign the Peltola or Kaptur crashes were deliberate. None of these women waited around for answers anyway. They got hurt, and they got right back to work.
Wish them a speedy recovery, then go vote like they’re counting on you
D.G. Peterson retweeted
BREAKING: MIC DROP! Senator Mark Kelly delivers the best takedown of Trump's failed Iran War that we've ever heard — just in time for the midterm elections!
This is an absolute slam dunk...
"We had a President take this country to war without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline, and without an exit strategy. And now he's stuck. He doesn't know what to do," Kelly said, while campaigning for Senate candidate Troy Jackson in Maine.
"I sit on the Armed Services and the Intelligence Committees, both of them. And I will say, from what I know about this, the Iranians weren't any closer to developing a nuclear weapon this year than they were when I first got to the United States Senate in 2020," said Kelly. "And it's this President who, by the way, tore up the deal in 2018 that started them to enrich the uranium at a higher level."
"So if you think there was a problem, this President created the problem!" he continued. "But he didn't need to go to war and put Americans in harm's way. We have now 20 deceased service members. Over 800 injured."
By now, most discerning people have come to realize that this war was never about nuclear weapons. Trump launched this war because Israel convinced him that he could win a quick, splashy victory and Israel wanted this war because they want to destroy a regional adversary. American interests were never at stake.
"And what did the American people get out of this?" asked Kelly. "They got nothing. They got higher gas prices. They got higher food prices."
"We've got service members deployed for record numbers of days on the USS Abraham Lincoln. And I understand going on cruise can be hard. It's challenging," he went on. "But really, they had eight service members who tried to commit suicide because of the conditions aboard the ship. And I've got to tell you, the worst thing about that, by far, for me, was to see the Secretary of Defense go straight to camera and say, there's no problem, and we give commanders everything they need. That is not leadership."
"Leadership has taken some responsibility for whatever the situation is," added Kelly. "And by the way, how hard would it have been for him to say, hey, I recognize there's a problem. We're going to look into the problem, and we're going to make things better for these service members because they deserve that. It's not hard to do. This Secretary of Defense was incapable of doing that."
Kelly is right to lay the blame for this disastrous war as much at Hegseth's feet as Trump's. Our booze-breathed, Fox News-fried "Secretary of War" is more interested in posturing as a tough alpha male than he is in actually leading our troops.
These midterm elections are, among other things, a referendum on this war. If you're sick of wasting blood and treasure on endless wars, vote blue!
Please ❤️ and share if you think that Mark Kelly nailed it!
D.G. Peterson retweeted
33-year-old Alex Klinner died in Trump’s war back in March. But since, 7 months later, Trump still isn’t calling it a war — his widow and their three small KIDS (7-month-old twins and a 2-year-old son) are being denied basic benefits.
Because those are only available to soldiers who die in WARS — not “excursions.”
I don’t ever want to hear from another Republican that their party “supports our troops.” You send them off to die, then desert them when they do.
D.G. Peterson retweeted
In the middle of World War Two, German soldiers in southeastern Poland started avoiding a cluster of villages.
They wouldn't go in. They wouldn't take people out for forced labor. They put up warning signs and stayed away.
They believed the area was infected with typhus.
It wasn't. Two doctors had invented the whole thing.
The man behind it was Eugene Lazowski, a young Polish doctor working for the Red Cross in the town of Rozwadów. He was watching the Nazi occupation tear his country apart. Executions. Deportations. People shipped off to labor camps, many never coming back.
He wanted to stop it. He had no weapons, no army, and no way to fight.
What he had was medicine.
His friend and fellow doctor, Stanisław Matulewicz, had discovered something strange. If you injected a person with a harmless, dead strain of a certain bacteria, their blood would test positive for typhus.
They wouldn't be sick at all. But on paper, they'd look like they had one of the most feared diseases of the war.
And the Germans were terrified of typhus. It spread fast, it killed, and it could tear through an army. When the Germans found it, they quarantined the area and kept their distance.
Lazowski realized what that meant. If he could make enough people look infected, the Germans would leave the whole region alone.
So he started injecting his patients.
He chose carefully. He sent the blood samples to German labs for testing, exactly as the rules required. The results came back positive. Again and again.
The Germans declared an epidemic zone. Villages were quarantined. Soldiers kept out. People who would have been seized for forced labor or worse were left alone, because nobody wanted to go near them.
Lazowski had to be careful. If too many cases looked fake, someone would ask why nobody was dying. So he spread out the injections over time and kept the outbreak believable.
Eventually the Germans did get suspicious. They sent a team of doctors to inspect.
Lazowski met them with food and vodka and played the gracious host. He guided them toward the sickest looking, dirtiest patients he could find, in the most crowded rooms. The German doctors, worried about catching typhus themselves, took a few samples and left in a hurry.
The tests came back positive.
The fake epidemic lasted until the end of the war. Estimates say it may have protected around 8,000 people.
Lazowski also secretly helped Jews from the nearby ghetto, giving them medical care at enormous risk.
After the war he moved to the United States and became a professor of pediatrics in Chicago. For decades he barely talked about what he'd done. Late in life he finally wrote a memoir. He called it My Private War.
He died in 2006.
He never fired a shot. He beat the Nazis with a needle and a lab test.
D.G. Peterson retweeted
The courtship dance no other bird can compete with….
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
The video shows an AI-generated visualization inspired by the Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise, not real footage of its courtship display.
youtube.com/shorts/aNyNYoU…
academy.allaboutbirds.org/wilsons-bird-o…
youtube.com/watch?v=BvIuUA…
D.G. Peterson retweeted
Humanity isn't just a feeling, it's the courage to act when a life needs you. 🤝 💕
D.G. Peterson retweeted
Msituni was born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park with a deformity in her front legs that prevented her from standing to feed. Already measuring 178 cm, her life was in serious danger.
To save her, the zoo contacted Ara Mirzaian, a renowned human orthotist.
After studying giraffe anatomy intensively day and night, he designed custom orthopedic braces that corrected her posture and ultimately saved her life. ❤️❤️
D.G. Peterson retweeted
HERO IN THE DARK! A 24-year-old Coast Guard swimmer jumped into a pitch-black ocean, battling 8-foot waves and exhaustion to save 16 strangers from drowning.
Some had injuries consistent with SHARK BITES. For nearly two hours, he was the only rescuer in the water, refusing to give up on the people fighting to survive.
His name is Josh Law, and what he did deserves recognition.
On October 16th, a boat carrying 27 people capsized about 140 miles off the coast of Mexico.
By the time a Coast Guard helicopter arrived, survivors had spent hours in the freezing Pacific, clinging to wreckage, flotation devices and each other.
Josh was lowered into the darkness, guided by little more than the helicopter’s searchlight.
One by one, he swam to survivors, pulled them through the waves and helped lift them into a rescue basket.
His own suit began filling with water. His strength was fading.
But he kept going.
Speaking to The Associated Press, Josh acknowledged his exhaustion but said what he was experiencing was nothing compared to what the people in the water were enduring.
And he wasn’t alone in making this rescue possible. Helicopter pilot Lt. Miyako Miller and the rest of the Coast Guard crew worked above him, locating survivors and hoisting them to safety.
Sixteen people made it out alive.
Tragically, 11 others were never found despite an extensive search.
What stays with me is that Josh had no idea what was beneath those dark waves. He only knew there were people who needed him.
At just 24 years old, he helped give 16 people another chance at life.
Would you join me in thanking Josh and his fellow Coast Guard crew members?
What would you say to a young man who risked his own life to save people he’d never met?
And please keep the families of those 11 missing people in your prayers.
D.G. Peterson retweeted
IN MEMORY OF JESSE ADAMS 🕯️
On October 25, our dear friend and rescuer Jesse Adams, founder of RainCoast Dog Rescue Society, was killed in an FPV drone attack while evacuating animals from Kramatorsk.
Hundreds of animals are alive thanks to him.
We’ll never forget you, Jesse❤️🩹
Thank you to CA ASBREY, Scottish mystery author, for reposting my post. I had forgotten all about it and love it just as much now as I did in 2024. It’s even better with the sound. 💞
D.G. Peterson retweeted
Sometimes I think Labradors are so ridiculously friendly that evolution simply forgot to explain to them that not every small creature they meet is their responsibility.
Back in May 2018, at Mountfitchet Castle in Essex, England, a 10-year-old Labrador named Fred somehow ended up becoming a single father to nine ducklings after their mother disappeared and while the staff were understandably worried about what would happen to the little birds, Fred apparently decided that this was now his problem.
And the best part is that the ducklings seemed perfectly happy with this arrangement, following him around, climbing onto his back, cuddling up to him and even accompanying him into the castle moat for a swim, because apparently nobody involved in this situation was particularly concerned about the fact that their new father was a dog.
You'd think that raising nine children who aren't even the same species as you would be enough parenting experience for one lifetime, especially when your children insist on using you as public transport, but Fred apparently disagreed.
Because in 2022, when he was around 15 years old, another mother duck disappeared, leaving behind 15 ducklings, and Fred once again took on the job of looking after them. At an age when most dogs would probably prefer a comfortable bed, a quiet afternoon and absolutely no responsibilities, this Labrador somehow found himself running a daycare center for an entire flock of tiny yellow creatures. And honestly, I find it fascinating that an animal can be so gentle and tolerant towards creatures that aren't even remotely related to it.
Fred didn't care that they were ducks. They were small, they needed someone, and apparently that was enough. Although I do wonder whether, at some point, he looked at all 15 of them sitting on his back and thought: "I really need to stop making eye contact with unattended children."
D.G. Peterson retweeted
Italian actors recreating Caravaggio paintings.
#HappyTuesday 🧙🧹
