Today is the one year anniversary of me publishing my first blog post “World War II, Foreign Policy, and the Global Effort to Manage Threats.” Since my journey as a self-proclaimed “national security blogger” began, I have been fortunate to make many new friends who have mentored me along the way. Most notable among these are Ty Mayfield, John DeRosa, Nate Finney, and Eric Simmers. Gentlemen, I am forever indebted to you all.
I wanted to note this one year anniversary as I honestly didn’t think my blogging efforts would go as far as they have gone. I am still often shocked that people other than me want to publish my thoughts and that people other than me think enough of my writing to share it. When I look in the mirror I see “average guy fearing failure” vice “national security genius and super-blogger.” On that note I wanted to share with you my top five favorite pieces that I have written thus far.
With this piece I enjoyed breaking down how an “intelligence failure” could occur. I dislike it when the intelligence community is accused of failing when there are so many factors beyond their control.
This is the first piece of fiction I have ever written and frankly, I really enjoyed writing it. It was also fun to team up with Nate Finney and Diane Maye from the Military Writer’s Guild as their background and perspectives were both different from mine and highly valuable.
I wrote this when it seemed that while so many were advocating for offensive operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, so few were asking “And then what?”
This piece built on a theme that is always in the back of my mind — that the U.S. military’s success in World War II negatively influences how the U.S. addresses national security issues today.
I am most proud of this piece as I believe it describes an area in which Congress should be more involved. I am also proud of it because I am not a lawyer and I spent more time writing, editing, and re-writing it than any other piece. One night I spent three hours on the couch working on it and could barely stand up when I was done.
Throughout the next year my BlogTempo ™ © will slow down due to graduate school. Based upon time constraints you may see more personal pieces as they are easy to write or some recycled graduate school homework. Regardless, I am very fortunate to have undertaken this journey over the last year. I am grateful to my mentors and followers. I look forward to moving into the future with all of you.
