Command & Couture
@burnafterbriefing.bsky.social
Moodboard of late empire. Friction is foreplay for the strategically inclined.
Huh. It seems my niche personal passion project of 11 years has become a topic of national interest. Enjoy my strat-level snapshot of a standards-based framework for readiness based on a decade of research & evaluation on readiness? I guess? Or is this about ponytails again? 1/
October 2, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Huh. It seems my niche personal passion project of 11 years has become a topic of national interest. Enjoy my strat-level snapshot of a standards-based framework for readiness based on a decade of research & evaluation on readiness? I guess? Or is this about ponytails again? 1/
Reposted by Command & Couture
Deference can be compelled. Respect cannot. It's earned. #OnObedience
September 17, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Deference can be compelled. Respect cannot. It's earned. #OnObedience
I’m grateful too, and overall they performed admirably. As I just threaded to my following of 2, my hope is that this historical moment in public health also includes a gathering in and course correction on our behalf, too. ⚕️❤️
Grateful to the scientists standing up for the integrity of institutions essential to the health & well-being of our whole society
Evidence-based approaches are especially critical to the health of infants & children, whose health depends on reduced community spread of infectious diseases
Evidence-based approaches are especially critical to the health of infants & children, whose health depends on reduced community spread of infectious diseases
September 17, 2025 at 5:15 PM
I’m grateful too, and overall they performed admirably. As I just threaded to my following of 2, my hope is that this historical moment in public health also includes a gathering in and course correction on our behalf, too. ⚕️❤️
I'm listening to the "CDC Restoring Trust" hearing as I work. Most of it's mortifying, but I'm utterly unsurprised at the sorry state of vaccine affairs. True to the two oaths I swore, one Hippocratic and one to the US Constitution, I admit: there's one thing the anti-vaxxers are dead on about. 🧵
September 17, 2025 at 4:46 PM
I'm listening to the "CDC Restoring Trust" hearing as I work. Most of it's mortifying, but I'm utterly unsurprised at the sorry state of vaccine affairs. True to the two oaths I swore, one Hippocratic and one to the US Constitution, I admit: there's one thing the anti-vaxxers are dead on about. 🧵
Overton window. But more interestingly, Elliot Ackerman in The Atlantic, a year ago: share.google/N3nzuLJtWYBN...
Bring Back the War Department
If you want a clear strategy for winning wars, don’t play a semantic game with the name of the department that’s charged with the strategy’s execution.
share.google
September 10, 2025 at 3:45 AM
Overton window. But more interestingly, Elliot Ackerman in The Atlantic, a year ago: share.google/N3nzuLJtWYBN...
Age verification?
I printed my undergrad honors thesis out…on a dot matrix printer.
I printed my undergrad honors thesis out…on a dot matrix printer.
age verification
i still remember my compuserve ID number
i still remember my compuserve ID number
Age verification? The first time I saw The Simpsons was on The Tracey Ullman Show.
September 10, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Age verification?
I printed my undergrad honors thesis out…on a dot matrix printer.
I printed my undergrad honors thesis out…on a dot matrix printer.
They don’t really believe their own lies. But they absolutely believe that refuting even the most plain evidence bends reality to their will.
The trick is to see the madness in that for the strategic weakness it is.
The trick is to see the madness in that for the strategic weakness it is.
Legit curious how these Republicans came to suspect someone in 2003 had the foresight to fake Trump's signature on a letter and induced Ghislaine Maxwell to include it with the rest for binding in a book in Epstein's possession in order to impugn Trump 22 years later in his second term as president
September 10, 2025 at 2:00 AM
They don’t really believe their own lies. But they absolutely believe that refuting even the most plain evidence bends reality to their will.
The trick is to see the madness in that for the strategic weakness it is.
The trick is to see the madness in that for the strategic weakness it is.
This is 100% worth your time.
“Winning the war within our own minds is the prerequisite for winning the wars of the future” argues J. William DeMarco.
The Dialectic of Deception: John Boyd and the Cognitive Battlefield
Imagine an AI system analyzing the social media history of a deployed soldier and his spouse. Within seconds, it identifies a vulnerability to jealousy
warontherocks.com
September 10, 2025 at 1:39 AM
This is 100% worth your time.
Now that I’ve poured a crisp Chablis to pair with this evening’s selection of constitutional crisis (and trash-panda optics), let me explain precisely how using Sec 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act’s dusty ass provisions could go down in the courts and for we wayward children of American natsec.🧵1/7
The thing the military will have to reconcile is the tacit agreement among the two political parties that the us military would be used domestically would only be in extraordinary circumstances and not in a partisan manner and one of the two parties is like, “ya fuck that”
Mike Johnson: "I cannot for the life of me understand how the Democrats think this is some kind of winning political message. Yield man! Let the troops come into your city and show how crime can be reduced."
September 10, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Now that I’ve poured a crisp Chablis to pair with this evening’s selection of constitutional crisis (and trash-panda optics), let me explain precisely how using Sec 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act’s dusty ass provisions could go down in the courts and for we wayward children of American natsec.🧵1/7
Who amongst us hasn’t wanted to hock a loog on the Cowboys tho? 💚🦅
September 5, 2025 at 12:34 AM
Who amongst us hasn’t wanted to hock a loog on the Cowboys tho? 💚🦅
The coup d’œil tea leaves tell me my government service in natsec is Sophie’s Choice in uniform: withdraw and the bastards advance, remain and the bastards entrench. My current strategy is entirely comprised of watching my cat sleep while writing poetry on my notes app.
September 4, 2025 at 2:22 AM
The coup d’œil tea leaves tell me my government service in natsec is Sophie’s Choice in uniform: withdraw and the bastards advance, remain and the bastards entrench. My current strategy is entirely comprised of watching my cat sleep while writing poetry on my notes app.
Reposted by Command & Couture
Why is it so hard to study war seriously in American academia? From Clausewitz to West Point’s new major, I dive into the fragmentation, disappearance, and possible revival of war as a subject of tactical, operational, and political thought. My Latest⬇️
The "War Studies" Problem
The Challenges of a Disciplinary Approach to a Multidisciplinary Problem
secretaryrofdefenserock.substack.com
September 3, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Why is it so hard to study war seriously in American academia? From Clausewitz to West Point’s new major, I dive into the fragmentation, disappearance, and possible revival of war as a subject of tactical, operational, and political thought. My Latest⬇️
Frankly I would have been fine with the rename to War Department considering I’m fighting for my life here in defense policy hell.
September 3, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Frankly I would have been fine with the rename to War Department considering I’m fighting for my life here in defense policy hell.
The first 3 paragraphs of this article constitute such a finely honed sick burn that I actually snarfed my coffee.
"Civilian faculty in military educational institutions play a crucial role: Unlike their military colleagues, they can devote a lifetime to mastery of their specialties, including teaching. They can bring cadets and midshipmen into contact with a wider world"
#PME #CivMilSky
#PME #CivMilSky
Pete Hegseth "seems determined to bar academics or anyone who faintly resembles one from contact with the armed forces," Eliot A. Cohen writes:
August 6, 2025 at 12:16 PM
The first 3 paragraphs of this article constitute such a finely honed sick burn that I actually snarfed my coffee.
Reposted by Command & Couture
I think writing about how pop music is part of the Hegelian unfolding of consciousness is as helpful to national security as actually writing about sustaining bilateral relationships with our Pacific partners at this point.
July 25, 2025 at 1:39 AM
I think writing about how pop music is part of the Hegelian unfolding of consciousness is as helpful to national security as actually writing about sustaining bilateral relationships with our Pacific partners at this point.
To be completely fair, a light breeze shifts defense priorities these days.
Nuclear modernization, space capabilities, icebreakers, and more — what did Congress just greenlight for the Pentagon? warontherocks.com/20...
How the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Will Shape Key Defense Priorities - War on the Rocks
Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 3, and U.S. President Donald Trump signed it into law on July 4. The bill includes an increase in
warontherocks.com
July 25, 2025 at 4:17 AM
To be completely fair, a light breeze shifts defense priorities these days.
From the Allegheny Laurel Highlands through Hallowed Ground
July 25, 2025 at 4:03 AM
From the Allegheny Laurel Highlands through Hallowed Ground
Reposted by Command & Couture
A very good article, go read
July 16, 2025 at 9:26 PM
A very good article, go read
My mentorship approach when asked about my doctorate now consists solely of maniacal laughter.
telling undergrads "you should consider a PhD" like I'm passing on the demon from It Follows
July 17, 2025 at 1:08 AM
My mentorship approach when asked about my doctorate now consists solely of maniacal laughter.
Fuck your little list of salacious horrors. Now *this* is the full-on zombie apocalypse I’ve been working on my crossbow technique for.
The Trump administration halts “dangerous” research on viruses and pathogens despite recommendations of scientists at the National Institute of Health, who argue the move could block experiments that are safe and potentially lead to new treatments.
Trump officials halt ‘dangerous’ research, overriding NIH career scientists
The Trump administration’s actions on NIH gain-of-function research have raised concerns among scientists, who argue the move could block experiments that are safe and potentially lead to new treatmen...
www.washingtonpost.com
July 17, 2025 at 12:57 AM
Fuck your little list of salacious horrors. Now *this* is the full-on zombie apocalypse I’ve been working on my crossbow technique for.
Finally, national security questions from the fam I can actually answer. 🖍️❤️🫡
July 11, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Finally, national security questions from the fam I can actually answer. 🖍️❤️🫡
Reposted by Command & Couture
In a letter drawn from a posthumous collection of correspondence, published in 2019, the neurologist Oliver Sacks argued that society had no immunity to the seductions of digital life. “What we are seeing—and bringing on ourselves—resembles a neurological catastrophe on a gigantic scale,” he wrote.
The Machine Stops
The neurologist Oliver Sacks on steam engines, smartphones, and fearing the future.
www.newyorker.com
July 10, 2025 at 4:03 AM
In a letter drawn from a posthumous collection of correspondence, published in 2019, the neurologist Oliver Sacks argued that society had no immunity to the seductions of digital life. “What we are seeing—and bringing on ourselves—resembles a neurological catastrophe on a gigantic scale,” he wrote.
Same reason why mine is Ken’s “The War”, I reckon. He treats the niches that beckon to our souls with the reverence they warrant.
Can someone explain to me why my comfort TV is Ken Burns Civil War
July 2, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Same reason why mine is Ken’s “The War”, I reckon. He treats the niches that beckon to our souls with the reverence they warrant.
I adore @warontherocks.bsky.social but isn’t this a bit of a belated insight considering the unprecedented god-tier access to natsec info we have granted certain self-styled titans of industry (who also happen to be foreign nationals)?
What if the next great threat to U.S. national security doesn’t come through cyberspace or airspace, but through a shipping terminal? warontherocks.com/20...
The Case for an Economic Fusion Center to Prevent Strategic Surprise - War on the Rocks
The next major threat to U.S. national security won’t arrive through a missile silo or a cyberattack but through a port terminal, a biotechnology lab, or
warontherocks.com
July 2, 2025 at 11:22 PM
I adore @warontherocks.bsky.social but isn’t this a bit of a belated insight considering the unprecedented god-tier access to natsec info we have granted certain self-styled titans of industry (who also happen to be foreign nationals)?
I get this. I do. And this isn’t snark, but - what other instrument do I have to protect the people and ideals I swore to protect? Feels like a bad rap for we good fairies of institutionalism. In war we defend our people…and our assets.
Institutionalists will protect the Institution first. This should not surprise.
July 2, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I get this. I do. And this isn’t snark, but - what other instrument do I have to protect the people and ideals I swore to protect? Feels like a bad rap for we good fairies of institutionalism. In war we defend our people…and our assets.