In the winter of 2004 a joint US, Iraqi, and British operation kicked off in Iraq. Local forces called it Operation Al-Fajr. Allied troops titled it Operation Phantom Fury. The world came to know this simply epic scrap as the Second Battle of Fallujah.
Will Dabbs
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Bukit Kepong: The Malaysian Alamo
Updated: November 4, 2022There is something visceral about the last stand. A small forlorn band bereft of support arrayed against insurmountable odds fighting to the last simply strikes a primal chord. Examples are well-documented. The Hot Gates at Thermopylae, Custer’s slaughter, and the Alamo stand out. These many tales of selfless bravery are profound and powerful. One lesser-known example is the siege of Bukit Kepong.
Albert Johnson: The Mad Trapper of Rat River
Updated: October 25, 2022Why the heck couldn’t they have just left this poor guy alone? He lived in a cabin about the size of a large dinner table some sixty miles from civilization. He clearly just wanted to be by himself. Yet the Canadian government just couldn’t stand it.
Roy Chapman Andrews: The Real-Life Raider of the Lost Ark
Updated: October 23, 2022The similarities between Roy Chapman Andrews and the fictional Indiana Jones were uncanny.
Marc Lépine, Militarized Misogyny, and the Ecole Polytechnique Massacre
Updated: October 14, 2022I don’t carry a gun every day because I am paranoid or insecure. I carry a gun because my family and I share the planet with homicidal lunatics like Marc Lépine. If you feel differently then good for you. Do whatever you want, just leave me alone to make my own choices. There was exactly one thing that could have stopped Marc Lépine on that horrible day in 1989, and it wasn’t some ill-conceived piece of feel-good legislation. It was a good guy with a gun.
Joseph Stalin: The Short-Statured Weatherman who Killed 9 Million People
Updated: October 8, 2022Stalin was likely personally responsible for the deaths of around 6 million people. His lunatic policies claimed another 3 million lives beyond that.
Terrion Pouncy: Tactical Darwinism and One Perforated Hot Dog
Updated: October 2, 2022As anyone who has watched the news will tell you, Chicago has a bit of a violence problem these days.
Abu Khayr al-Masri and the Ginsu Missile
Updated: September 25, 2022A friend of mine was one of a group of five military officers who first developed the concept of arming an unmanned surveillance drone. Then these guys decided to hang a couple of missiles under the wings, and the whole earth moved just a little bit.
Maria Susan Flores Gamez: Beauty and the Beasts
Updated: September 17, 2022Maria Gamez was not the first Mexican beauty queen to get caught up in cartel violence. However, she was the first I could find reference to who was killed in action. Powerful criminals always seem to surround themselves with pretty girls. It has become a trope in movies.
The F4U Corsair: The Gull-Winged Whistling Wife Killer
Updated: September 11, 2022Arguably the most venom I have ever seen has come from spouses spurned. It is simply amazing to see the depths of unfettered hatred that can spawn from a relationship presumably originally based upon mutual love and affection. Such powerful angst can precipitate some remarkably egregious behavior.