While all of my brothers but one went into U.S. military ground forces: a tank commander, an airborne trooper, a ranger and a back-hoe operator, I played simulation war games, like proud Monster, Panzerblitz, Squad Leader and the Operational Combat Series, all of which confirmed in my mind the wisdom of not having enlisted. Last night when Columbine Joe asked me what I thought of the Trumpian god smack, I referred to this line that a game designer once told me as we setup for a grulling weekend of tabletop carnage:

"The Germans go around the hill and cut them out of supply.

The Russians go up the hill and get mowed down until the hill runs out of ammunition, then it's payback time.

The Fins sneak in at night and slit throats.

The British spend a week building approach trenches until the Americans show up.

The American commander calls in naval and army artillery, bracketed by air force bombing runs and then, when the smoke clears, removes the elevation icon from the portion of his map which once included the hill."

Many people may not know that this method served poorly in Vietnam, a conflict in which the U.S. dropped more ordinance on that country than was expended in all of WWII. On the upside, in the 1980s and 90s, as the Vietnam timber industry was hitting the skids due to their shrapnel-impregnated lumber breaking mill blades, they made a good living on recycling scrap metal from U.S. bomb casings, and selling enough steel to Japan to provide engine blocks for the cars Japanese automakers sold to American consumers, some of whom were possibly retired Vietnam aviators who had the opportunity to drive around behind the same steel they once dropped.

Baruch has done a fine, smart-ass job of assessing the devastating hammer-blow that avenged a U.S Special Forces soldier, who was presumable worth a lot of hajis and was most certainly killed at less expense to the enemy than the steak dinner Trump celebrated with cost the U.S.

Check Baruch out at the link below: