Welcome to the Tactical Notebook

More on the method in our madness

When I started this blog, I imagined it as a venue for the flotsam-and-jetsam of the five decades I have devoted to the study of military matters. Many of these odd bits of writing were articles originally written for the first incarnation of the Tactical Notebook, the ink-on-paper publication of the early 1990s. Others were pieces that, for one reason or another, had failed to find a home in a book or magazine.

Over the course of the past three months, I have discovered a number of things. One is that the literary quality of much of the aforesaid flotsam-and-jetsam falls short of my current standards. The other is that, thanks to the internet, I enjoy access to sources that I wasn’t even aware of thirty years ago. As a result, I find myself spending much more time than I had anticipated in the refurbishment, and, indeed, rewriting of older pieces.

This is not, I think, a bad thing. After all, well-done (or, to be more precise, redone) beats half-baked nearly every time. Nonetheless, I must frequently remind myself that the Tactical Notebook is no place for attempts to offer the last word on any given subject. Rather, in keeping with the meaning of the word “notebook,” it exposes readers to events and ideas that might otherwise escape their notice.

The same philosophy governs posts of more recent vintage. Whether reviewing a book or commenting upon current events, I aim to provide information, insights, and, most of all, questions, that cannot easily be found anywhere else.

So, Gentle Reader, welcome to my world.