Browsing: Military

A Brief History On July 8, 1775, the Continental Congress, forerunner of what would become the government of the United States, signed the so called “Olive Branch Petition,” a last ditch effort to prevent a war of independence against Britain by the American Colonies.   Adopted by the Continental Congress on July 5th, the signing made this last effort at peace official.  The acceptance of this American overture to the British government had little chance of success, especially since the Continental Congress had already authorized the invasion of Canada and on July 6, 1775, had issued a “Declaration of the Causes…

A Brief History On July 4, 1987, justice came late, but better than never, when Nazi German war criminal, Klaus Barbie, known as the “Butcher of Lyon” was sentenced to life in prison for his crimes.  A member of the SS and officer of the dreaded secret police, the Gestapo, Barbie was known to personally torture prisoners while in charge of the Lyon, France, Gestapo station during World War II.  Despite fierce French animosity toward this monster, the United States intelligence apparatus helped Barbie escape Europe for Bolivia, South America, where the US used him as an anti-Marxist agent.  Barbie…

A Brief History On November 3, 2020, the 2020 United States of America (U.S.) presidential election will be the 59th quadrennial U.S. presidential election.  The president of the U.S. is the head of state and head of government of the U.S.  The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.  This article therefore indicates the executive and military experience of the major party candidates currently running for president.  For the purpose of our table below, “executive experience” refers to holding an executive political office such as mayor or governor and…

A Brief History On June 23, 1942, Oberleutnant Armin Faber of the German Luftwaffe made an historic blunder when he landed his state of the art Focke-Wulf 190 fighter plane at a Welsh airfield at RAF Pembrey, handing the British Germany’s latest and best fighter aircraft complete and in flyable condition.  Faber apparently mistook the Bristol Channel for the English Channel which caused his navigational error.  So eager were the British to capture an example of the FW-190 they actually considered mounting a commando raid in order to steal one of the high performance fighters.  Lucky for the British, Armin…

A Brief History On June 12, 1999, the next day after the end of the Kosovo War, some 250 Russian peacekeeping troops occupied the Pristina International Airport ahead of the arrival of NATO troops and were to secure the arrival of reinforcements over the air.  American NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Wesley Clark ordered the use of force against the Russians.  Mike Jackson, a British Army general who contacted the Russians during the incident, refused to enforce Clark’s orders, famously telling him, “I’m not going to start the Third World War for you.” World War III is an unlikely…