Hastings & Howard.

This is coolbert:

Courtesy of the Pritzker Military Library and Museum we have an outstanding Podcast. I recommend highly, without qualification or reservation.

The eminent English journalist and historian Sir Max Hastings is interviewing the eminent English historian Sir Michael Howard on a range of topics.

"Sir Michael Howard"

"Acclaimed British Historian and 2015 Founder′s Literature Award Recipient Shares a discussion of his life′s work with Sir Max Hastings"

Some key points.

* China not an existential threat. A problem on the world stage only perhaps but the situation can be managed with able and skillful diplomacy.

* Drones and warfare as conducted by drones [Hellfire missile] not a difficulty. Killing your enemy from a distance without there being danger to yourself not immoral.

* Surveillance as conducted by the American National Security Agency [NSA] not such a great danger to the society as a whole. Nation-states are ALL security states. The very essence of a nation-state is to protect the citizenry, using whatever methods as deemed necessary to provide that proper degree of protection!

* Think not VICTORY at war but rather establishing a stable peace in the aftermath of the war.
    
     * Battlefield victory at Waterloo and approximately one hundred years of continental [European] stability. GOOD!!

     * Battlefield victory [for the allied powers] at the end of the Great War but an unstable peace to follow. NOT GOOD!!

Stable peace a difficult goal?  Stable peace through amicable negotiations or enlightened occupation and rule hard to achieve!

coolbert.