Hypersonic Missiles -- FGFD: Field Guide to Flying Death

 

Hypersonic missiles recently exploded into the news when China tested their own version of the WMD du jour.

Speed is just one of many ways to classify missiles: from the subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile flying 500mph to the ICBMs breaking free of earth's gravity at more than 15,000 mph.   Hypersonic missiles fall in between at fives times the speed of sound around 4,000mph.  

As with aircraft, speed is not the only measure of missiles. Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) are very fast, but since ballistic means without power, they follow a very predictable parabolic flight/glide path to target.  They accelerate to 15,000 mph to break free of the atmosphere, then coast over the the north pole to their final destination. The intercept path is very predictable.  

At the other end of the scale, a Tomahawk (or other) subsonic cruise missile flies about the same speed as an airliner at around 500mph. They are very small, very light aircraft that are flown to their target. They can evade, maneuver and fly just feet above the ground and hit a target so accurately they can be flown into a particular car in parking lot.  

Hypersonic missiles fly five times the speed of sound, in the range of 4,000 mph, in powered flight. They can fly high, low, maneuver, and evade just like a subsonic cruise missile, but fly from New York to Los Angeles in 45 minutes.  Planes are very hard to shoot down. A hypersonic missile flies almost twice as fast as the Sidewinder air-to-air missile.  It flies faster than the bullets from every US Army rifle and machine gun, faster than 30mm cannon rounds from the gatling gun on the A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack fighter.  

If China has operational hypersonic missiles, as recent news reports suggest, they could threaten other nations, including us, with dangerous, nuclear capable missiles.  

If Taiwan becomes Crimea Part II, hypersonic missiles may be the threat that keeps America from defending a nation that has been very loyal to us.  President Obama did nothing to stop Putin from seizing Crimea or invading eastern Ukraine.  President Trump sold out the Kurds in Syria after one phone call from the Turkish President.  Hypersonic missiles might seal the deal that puts Taiwan on the same path as Hong Kong.  

Other entires in Field Guide to Flying Death:

Cruise Missiles

Artillery 

Apache Helicopter 

Mutually Assured Destruction 

Gunships 

Armor piercing ammo 

And then there's the Sam Fender song, Hypersonic Missile

Why Doesn't He Care About His Legacy? Why Rush Limbaugh Lied with his (literal) dying breaths

Rush Limbaugh, 1951-2021 

Some very smart people I listen to wondered aloud in the past year why Rush Limbaugh did not care about his legacy? Why did he keep on lying for Trump with his dying breath. Hannah Arendt has an answer. 

Most of what is good in public life in our world we inherited from the the Ancient Greece and Rome.  In both of those cultures, reputation and legacy and honor were what elevated people.  We think of character as something within ourselves.  The Greeks saw character as the imprint of the culture on a person. Courage imprinted Heracles--as if Heracles were the coin and courage was the stamp that identified it.  

The Greeks and Romans lived in worlds where exile was a punishment as bad as death because true existence was in community. It is from Rome we get the compliment that someone is "A man among men."

In an age of faith, a scoundrel might repent when he knew death was near.  That repentance could be true and sincere because the spiritual world was real to everyone in the culture--even those who mostly ignored it.

But we live in an age of the Will.  We do not live for reputation, but live to control the future, to impose our desires on the future.  In an age such as ours, Hannah Arendt writing about the Will in her book Life of the Mind says:

"...old age consists in a shrinkage of the future dimension, and man's death signifies less his disappearance from the world of appearances than his final loss of a future."  

Limbaugh saw his future shrinking and became more desperate to control what time he had left. He wanted to remain relevant to the end.  I have known other rich old men who used what time and strength they had left in their 80s or 90s to remain relevant in the places they once had power.  

People who live for reputation and contemplation put their lives in order, to use an old phrase, when they know the end is near. Those who lived with a will to power go to death grasping and ignoring every form of goodness.  

If C.S. Lewis is right and the doors of Hell lock from the inside, Rush Limbaugh slammed and bolted that door--as an act of Will.

Machiavelli on the Problem of Monotheism

 

This week I listened to a talk by Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield.  You can watch it here or listen to the podcast. One thing that came up which I had never considered before is how important it is that the Church (and the Temple and the Mosque) be separated from the state to have an effective government.

Machiavelli, like no political philosopher before him, squarely faced the problem of leading a government in a culture with a monotheistic religion. The Greek democracy and the Roman republic were not subject to absolute gods. Both fell to tyranny, but not to priests with power.

Monotheistic religions, especially at their extremes, see the entire universe as subject to their One God. Whether they are right or wrong in theology, we know what happens when priests control politics: Cruelty.

Eventually the heretics will be defined by prophets, condemned by priests and killed by mobs.

The brilliant, brave leaders who founded America knew this well. They wanted religion in the populace, but not in politics.

A priest, a Rabbi and an Imam can walk into a bar anytime they want to. But I never want them in charge of government.

----

I re-read The Prince every four years in a Presidential election year to remind myself how politics works.

I have written about Machiavelli on Leadership, about re-reading The Prince under Trump, and comparing Trump and President Obama using The Prince.

How Many Books are You Reading Now? A Lot.

Every few weeks I get a version of the question, "How many books are you reading now?"  On some online book groups, the question might be, "Do you read more than one book at a time?"  

Right now the count is ten physical books, pictured above, two books on Kindle and two on Audible.  

If reading multiple books at one time seems weird to you, think about how you interact with friends and family especially during the recent pandemic.  

My six kids live in three different states (not to mention six very different states of mind). I see and speak with them mostly on the phone and occasionally see the local kids in person.  

I have friends on four continents around the world that I am in touch with once in a while.  I have friends from the west coast of America to central Europe I am in touch with regularly. I talk to them, write to them, text them, and keep the relationship we share separate from every other relationship I have. 

I listen to a lot of podcasts. Some daily, some every few days or weekly, some less often. Again, no trouble keeping "The Jewish Story" podcast completely separate in my mind from "The Eastern Border" podcast or "The Bulwark" podcast.

A few years ago, I got a formal diagnosis that said I am ADHD, but this pile of books was really all I needed to say I have a mind that bounces from one thing to another.   

In fact, when I started college in my late 20s after the Army, I never had a problem with multiple classes and different books for every class.  

I am not just randomly reading books from my own shelf or from recommendations.  I am part of several book groups and read books with friends.  So there is more order to my reading than it my appear.

The List:  

--I listen to a podcast called "Honestly" by Bari Weiss and am reading her book "How to Fight Anti-Semitism."

--The weekly Virtual Reading Group of the Hannah Arendt Center is reading "The Life of the Mind by Arendt. We read and discuss about 30 pages per week.

--The Evolution Round Table at Franklin and Marshall College is reading "From Darwin to Derrida" this semester, a chapter or two per week.

--"Maphead" is a book about people who are obsessed with maps, including the author. I am clearly a maphead.

--I read Leonard Cohen's "Book of Mercy" a book of poetry while I am on the train. Sometimes I write after reading him. Even his prose is lyrical. 

--I am reading "To the End of the Land" with a friend who loves David Grossman's writing. I have never read him, but had heard a lot about him.

--With another friend, I am listening to all five books of the "Game of Thrones." I am currently at the beginning of book five. I am hoping the 70-year-old author of the series, George RR Martin, remains healthy long enough to finish the final novels--a total of seven.

--The other book on Audible is "The Greek Way" by Edith Hamilton. Published in 1930, this book summarizes Greek culture in a lovely review of art, history, politics, drama, comedy, philosophy and how they all fit together.

--"The Quick and the Dead" by Alison Joseph is one of the books I am reading on Kindle. I read her pandemic book "What Dark Days Seen" last week and am reading this one because it is the first book with the main character, Sister Agnes.

--The other book on Kindle is "Critique of Pure Reason" by Immanuel Kant. Along with it I am reading "Kant" by Karl Jaspers. These books are part of a weekly Karl Jaspers group related to the Hannah Arendt group. We read a chapter or two per week from either or both books.

--"Understanding Beliefs" is part of the delightful MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series as is "Irony and Sarcasm." I read occasionally from both. 

--Finally, I took "QED" off my shelf and started reading a few pages at a time because I want to know as much as I can about light and quantum electrodynamics.

Do I confuse the books? Do they collide in my head?  Sure. But I have friends and relatives who are very different people and keep them all separate, mostly.  The books I read have vastly different character and subjects so they are as distinct as friends.  

QED.....[quod erat demonstrandum] 

 

Colin Powell, an Arduous Road to Great Success

 

In 1958, when Colin Powell was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army, the former slave states still had Jim Crow laws in effect and the rest of the states had other discriminatory laws. Just a decade before in 1948, President Harry S. Truman desegregated the Army. Truman opened the path of leadership to Black soldiers, but that path was not easy.

In World War II and before, Black soldiers were in segregated units, nearly always with white officers.  My Dad was one of those officers during World War II, commander of a Black supply company at a supply base in Shenango Township, Pennsylvania.  His next assignment was Jewish commandant of a Prisoner of War Camp for soldiers of the German Afrika Korps.

While desegregation was law in the Army nearly two-thirds of the soldiers in the Army were (and are) from the South and the West.  Black officers had to lead soldiers who did not believe they should be officers.  

Four years ago I went to a promotion ceremony for Myles B. Caggins, III. He was a major when we served together in Iraq in 2009 and was being promoted to Colonel.  His father, retired Colonel Myles B. Caggins, Jr., was there to see his son wear eagles on his shoulders.  

Like Colin Powell, Caggins, Jr., served in the Army before and after passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Both Powell and Caggins served in the Vietnam War, leading soldiers in battle.  Leadership is always difficult, the road Powell and Caggins walked was grueling. 

I have already seen criticisms of Colin Powell.  

None of those critics have ever overcome the obstacles the Powell surmounted, and none have achieved what he achieved.  May Colin Powell be as blessed in the next life as he was brave in this life.

Field Guide to Flying Death: With Gunships, Slower is Better

 

AC130 Gunship in the air and on the ground 

Air support for troops in the Vietnam War began with the latest and fastest jets of the 1960s. Whether they we land-based or carrier based, these jets could swoop in with bombs, missiles and guns. But then they were gone.  High performance jets can't hang around. And they are not made to go slow. 

F4 Phantoms would lower their landing gear on close-support missions to get their weapons on target.  

The first solution to the problem was to go retro:  The Douglas A4 Skyraider.

Developed during World War II, the Skyraider first flew in March 1945. The war ended before it could be deployed in significant numbers.  By 1967 the design was far out date in the jet world, but the A4 could fly for more than six hours with its basic fuel load. 

The single-engine propellor-driven aircraft carried four 20mm cannons with 200 rounds of ammo for each gun and could carry 8,000 pounds of bombs, rockets and any other ordnance that could be hung on its wide wings.  In a ground support role, the Skyraider could attack a target and wait in the area to see and respond to the enemy's next move.  

In the same way, the C130 Hercules can stay over the target area carrying tons of ammo for miniguns and cannons up to and including a 105mm howitzer.  The newest model reported in Task and Purpose now has a laser capable of disabling trucks.  

This four-engine tortoise in a world of supersonic hares can loiter of hours over a battle supporting the troops on the ground long after jets have sped away.  

 

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel: The Book and the Musical

 

Two weeks ago I saw the musical "Fun Home" an adaptation of a memoir of the same name by Alison Bechdel.  A week later, I started reading the graphic memoir which the musical is based on.  I finished it this morning.  

This sad, compelling story presents the pain and mystery of the suicide, or maybe not, of Bruce Allen Bechdel, Alison's father.  Bruce was gay. Alison finds out her father was gay only when she discovers she is a lesbian while at college.  Bruce's suicide or accidental death happens soon after Alison comes out to her family.  

Though presented in a musical and graphic format, the memoir is serious and deeply revealing.  I felt the love Alison had for her father, the tension between her parents, the confusion Alison felt throughout her childhood about herself and her family, and the isolation each member of the family lived in.  

In the graphic book, Alison uses maps to show the small area in which her father lived his life: a circle of a few miles covers his birth, life, work and death.  Alison notices on recordings of her father's voice she heard after his death that he had a local accent.  And yet, he aspired to the world: loving beautiful things and teaching great literature.  

Alison is 20 when her father dies.  She goes on to become as notably out as her father was closeted.  She created the comic strip "Dykes to Watch Out For" which is where she introduced the Bechdel Test: a measure of the representation of women in fiction. It asks whether a work features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.

I have read many memoirs. They are among my most and least favorite books.  Truth, unvarnished truth, must be at the center of memoir, because we readers will sense when we are being served the public relations story rather than reality. This memoir is among my favorites. The struggle of Alison finding who she is had me from the first act and the first page.