Gotta love it

It's a little like the Kash Patel inverted-universe story, but oddly more satisfying: a maverick anti-fraud junior bureaucrat temporarily snags the top seat at the Social Security Administration after being targeted for termination when he cooperated with DOGE.

It's like Richard the Lion-Hearted reappearing and rewarding Robin Hood.

Anabasis XVII

The next day they march down off the mountain from which they saw the sea, and ten parasangs later reach the river that is the border between the Macrones and the land of the Scythians. (You can see this on yesterday's map: the Macrones' land is labeled due west of the blue circle, and the 'Scythini' south of it.) The army finds itself trapped between the rugged mountains and a river, which they must cross, and a thick forest on the other side. 

They begin trying to cut down trees in order to make a road for themselves, but they are soon set upon by an army of Macrones. These are poorly and very lightly armed, wicker shields and spears and stones that they are throwing rather than the clever slings with lead bullets that the Persians were using. One of the Greek peltasts comes to Xenophon and explains that he was originally from this country before being made a slave by the Athenians, and later winning his freedom as a soldier; he thinks he can talk with them. Xenophon assents, and so the peltast goes to them and asks why they are attacking the Greek Army. The Macrones reply that they have come to resist the invasion of their country; the Greeks explain that they don't really intend an invasion, but instead are returning from one and just want to get back to Hellas. 

The Macrones are quite delighted by this news, and once they have exchanged pledges and tokens guaranteeing it, immediately throw themselves into the road-building. What could be better than a good road for a potential enemy and hungry army to leave upon? Speaking of the hungry army aspect, the Macrones have the good sense to sell food to the Greeks, creating an impromptu market for them to spend some of their Persian silver.

The Macrones escort them across their land to the border of the land of the Colchians, thought to be ancestors of the modern Georgians, who are drawn up in battle array and intend to fight. Once again the generals led by Xenophon reorder their army into a new battle order in deference to the mountainous terrain. For this advance over uneven and ascending ground, they form a series of columns by company out of the heavy infantry, with the light infantry and skirmishers as supporting divisions. (The 'companies' are about 100 men, per Xenophon; the divisions are about six hundred men each.)

Now, you should know enough by this point to understand what is about to happen. The flower of the Persian army could not stand up to these hoplites drawn up in battle array and on the advance. These proto-Georgians make an actual attempt to resist, but they are pulled apart trying to contain the Greek companies and their center gives way. Much as happened at the Civil War-era Battle of Chickamauga, this hole is advanced into somewhat by mistake and chance, with a light division finding itself punching through easily and a heavy company following behind them. The broken Colchian army flees when it realizes that it has been split and penetrated, and the Greeks have seized the high ground. 

The Greeks capture some supplies and find themselves also amongst a lot of honey beehives that belonged to the locals. The honey for some reason makes them sick, and they spend a day of vomiting and other illnesses that would make you think that you had come upon them in a condition of military defeat; but the next day nobody had died of it, so they march on.

Another seven parasangs and they find themselves at the sea!

[They]reached the sea at Trapezus, a populous Hellenic city on the Euxine Sea, a colony of the Sinopeans, in the territory of the Colchians. Here they halted about thirty days in the villages of the Colchians, which they used as a base of operations to ravage the whole territory of Colchis. The men of Trapezus supplied the army with a market, entertained them, and gave them, as gifts of hospitality, oxen and wheat and wine. Further, they negotiated with them in behalf of their neighbours the Colchians, who dwelt in the plain for the most part, and from this folk also came gifts of hospitality in the shape of cattle. And now the Hellenes made preparation for the sacrifice which they had vowed, and a sufficient number of cattle came in for them to offer thank-offerings for safe guidance to Zeus the Saviour, and to Heracles, and to the other gods, according to their vows.

James mentioned the frequency of the prayer and the oracles in his post on this subject; I want to point out, at least as Xenophon reports it, their efficacy. Now, if their prayers hadn't been answered we might not have the book to go by, so to some degree this is like the 'what are the odds of Earth existing with such a perfect balance of conditions for life?' questions. (The answer is that the odds are 1, given that we're here talking about it.) Yet I am struck by how effective their devotions and prayers turned out to be; even Xenophon's dodgy request to the Oracle of Delphi somehow aligned with him coming through this adventure. 

It could be that prayer per se is good for the soul. Hundreds of years before Christ, they preyed to Zeus whom they knew and it seems to have worked. But then one thinks of the Aztecs and their blood magic and human sacrifice, and perhaps it's not quite as simple as that. 

Vance in Germany

I expect you saw coverage of VP Vance's speech in Germany, and maybe read the transcript. Foreign Policy, which is not a fan of Vance or the current administration but does like the international elite, quotes a German response.

Another official had far stronger words. “It was total bullshit. We don’t know what planet he is on,” the official said. “At least when we met Keith Kellogg, we could talk geopolitics,” they added, referring to Trump’s special envoy for Russia and Ukraine. “With Vance, we can’t even agree what a democracy is.”

That last sentence, at least, appears to be accurate. They definitely don't agree on what a democracy is, or should be, or what force it ought to have if voters want things like Brexit. I've been observing the EU from afar for a long time, as we all have, and I'm not sure I understand what they think the function of the democratic aspects of their governance ought to be. They keep holding elections, but they definitely don't seem to let them get in the way of doing what the elite thinks is right. 

Update on Social Security

In the prior post, I noted that a large potential set of suspect payments had been discovered, and that a reconciliation of the numbers was needed. The head of the Social Security Administration has now given a statement on the topic.

“These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits,” Dudek said, while expressing confidence in the audits conducted by DOGE, which Trump has tasked with uncovering any fraud, waste, and abuse in government spending.

“I am confident that with DOGE’s help and the commitment of our executive team and workforce, that Social Security will continue to deliver for the American people,” Dudek said.

It may be that the final figures after reconciliation aren't as gigantic as their potential to be is before we go through that process. It's good to see them cooperating with the inquiry, and committed to squaring things up.

On "Who Goes Nazi?"

AVI is revisiting the famous essay, which we have discussed before in this space as well: Tex had a post about it in 2010, and I had one in 2015 (i.e. both during the Obama years, before the Trump period).

It's a good essay. As I indicated in 2015, "Mr. H" is the one that sounds to me most like myself; the one who "has never doubted his own authentic Americanism for one instant" because "this is his country, and he knows it"; whose "ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War and in all the wars since," as did mine. He is both intellectual and practical, and one of two men in the room who will certainly pick up a gun to fight if necessary.

While it's worth considering all this from time to time, it's interesting to see it come up in the present moment. There's a lot of talk about Trump supporters being fascists, even Nazis, but it is mostly ridiculous. Fascists believe in the state as the absolute center of human life, the definer of all values in the post-religious age, with which all churches and families must align, and nothing can be allowed to oppose. The centrality of the state is total:  as Mussolini put it, "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State."

A movement built around slashing the government so that it exercises less control over individuals and families is certainly not fascist in any sense of the word. 

The current SECDEF is proposing to cut the military budget by ~40%(!!!).* This is not the rising militarism associated with Nazi Germany or Fascist Anywhere. Pushback from within the Republican party is that there's no way it will happen, not because they have designs on conquest but because Congress won't agree to spend that much less.

The Trump administration has also got another sense of meaning and rightness that isn't just state dictates. Rightly or wrongly, they interpret sex according to nature, and want the state to comply with that external natural order. 

There may be fascists in America somewhere, but they aren't at the Daytona 500. 

Trump's ideas may be ill-advised or outright wrong in some places -- the Gaza plan is madness, for example. They may be ill-executed by the team of outsiders and amateurs he's putting together even when they're good ideas. What they are doing may cause unintended harms as well as the intended goods of debt reduction and a more sustainable government structure. There are lots of fair criticisms to raise and entertain. 

But fascism? Nazi? Completely ridiculous. 

* SECDEF Hegseth clarified the next day that he is proposing to reassign 8% of the annual budget each year for five years. He does not anticipate cutting it by 8% each year for five years as reported by CNN at the link.

Anabasis XVI

Out of the snowy mountains, the Greek army finds pleasant villages for a while; but then they come into a hard country where their provisions fail. In this country, the land of the Taochians, men have seen enough raiding armies that they have no pleasant villages. In the manner that would later become true of the Scottish Borders, where English raiders were constantly riding in -- or the English borders, where Scottish reivers were constantly riding in! -- the people of this land had fortified their homes, and were in the habit of keeping their provisions behind stone walls. The Army finds nothing to purchase or plunder, and soon are out of food. 

I have circled in blue the land of the Taochians.

Finally Cheirisophus, commanding the vanguard, just attacks one of the fortified places because he needs the food. The Greeks are driven back by a hail of stones, until at last the whole army has come up before the walls. Once Xenophon and the rear guard are there, the two generals consult and determine that the stones are survivable in the heavy armor, and once they are expended there are too few behind the walls to put up any effective further defense. Therefore, they begin passing an area to draw the fire with the clear plan of making their enemies run out of ammunition. 

It turns out to be a fun game.

Callimachus hit upon a pretty contrivance--he ran forward from the tree under which he was posted two or three paces, and as soon as the stones came whizzing, he retired easily, but at each excursion more than ten wagon-loads of rocks were expended. Agasias, seeing how Callimachus was amusing himself, and the whole army looking on as spectators, was seized with the fear that he might miss his chance of being first to run the gauntlet of the enemy's fire and get into the place. So, without a word of summons to his neighbour, Aristonymous, or to Eurylochus of Lusia, both comrades of his, or to any one else, off he set on his own account, and passed the whole detachment. But Callimachus, seeing him tearing past, caught hold of his shield by the rim, and in the meantime Aristonymous the Methydrian ran past both, and after him Eurylochus of Lusia; for they were one and all aspirants to valour, and in that high pursuit, each was the eager rival of the rest. So in this strife of honour, the three of them took the fortress, and when they had once rushed in, not a stone more was hurled from overhead.

The fun stops when they gain the fortress, however. Expecting the severe treatment that has caused them to adopt such a hard way of life, the women atop the fortress hurl their infants to their deaths, and then leap to their own. The men of the fortress follow suit. One Greek officer, Aeneas the Stymphalian, tries to grab one of the men to keep him from suicide, but the man wraps him up and carries him off the cliff down to the crags below, killing them both. 

They recover a large flock of sheep from this endeavor, as well as cattle and asses. This is helpfully mobile food for an army, and the prize that it turns out the people were defending with their lives. 

The army has come through the worst of the mountains now, as you can see from the map. They gain a guide at the next city, who promises them that he can lead them to the sea. The land he takes them through is undergoing a war of its own, and they end up having some skirmishes with forces arrayed to fight another set of invades. 

Yet on the fifth day, when Xenophon and the rearguard hear shouting before them as the army climbs atop a mountain, it is not as he first thinks the sound of combat. The Greeks are shouting with joy. 

"THE SEA! THE SEA!"

[W]hen they had reached the summit, then indeed they fell to embracing one another--generals and officers and all--and the tears trickled down their cheeks. And on a sudden, some one, whoever it was, having passed down the order, the soldiers began bringing stones and erecting a great cairn, whereon they dedicated a host of untanned skins, and staves, and captured wicker shields, and with his own hand the guide hacked the shields to pieces, inviting the rest to follow his example. After this the Hellenes dismissed the guide with a present raised from the common store, to wit, a horse, a silver bowl, a Persian dress, and ten darics; but what he most begged to have were their rings, and of these he got several from the soldiers.

The sight of the sea is one of the most memorable parts of the Anabasis. These men, hardened now by difficulty, war, and the terror of seeing true horrors, are filled with joy to tears. They have not reached the sea, but they can for a moment see it, and they know for certain now how much further they have to go until they can hope to find ships for home. 

Anabasis XV

The army continues quickly after its success of the last chapter, but finds it is pushing through very deep snow in the Armenian mountains. This is a new peril -- very different from the sands of Arabia, or the dry mountains of Kurdistan. They lose quite a few men and beasts in the snow, and have to abandon others who are snowblind or who lose their toes to frostbite. They learn that the shoes they have been making not of leather but the rawhide of recently slain animals, to replace their good shoes now worn, are partly to blame; and that they must remove the shoes at night to avoid having the rawhide freeze to their feet.

Eventually they come to a set of mountain villages that have adapted to the snow in interesting ways. They have built homes that are underground, with entrances like wells that broaden out as you descend. They also dig passages for their animals, who live underground in these homes with them. And they have great bowls filled with all manner of edible grains, floated in barleywine that has become quite strong. They pull out the grains to eat, and drink the strong beer, to keep themselves through the winter. They are not delighted by the arrival of the Greeks, but do not resist them and indeed make them welcome for a short time. 

Xenophon takes the headman* of one of the villages as a guide, promising that his family will not be troubled in return for his good service. Yet the Greeks also take his young son along, a babe, clearly as a hostage for his good behavior even though Xenophon never uses the term. In fact, during the next passage through the snow another of the Greek generals grows cross because the headman has not lead them to more villages, and strikes him. The headman flees, abandoning his son. The Greeks at least proved fond of the boy, and took care of him.

They come then upon a contested mountain pass, and seize it by a clever maneuver. They have some other local guides they have captured, and those young men help them find goat and sheep paths to grounds above the enemy army. They light fires once they have seized the high ground, so that the enemy below knows they have been outflanked. When the main army pushes up against them, and the flankers push down, the enemy -- now unnamed, because the Greeks no longer really know whom they are fighting -- readily gives way in the face of disciplined attack. 

* If you want to hear what "headman" sounds like in Greek, there's a great scene in The Thirteenth Warrior (1999) in which the Arabic-speaking characters try various languages in order to identify who is in charge of the Viking encampment. One of them is ἡγεμών, "hēgemṓn," or 'headman.' This is not actually the word Xenophon uses; he gives άρχοντας, which is usually translated as "archon" or ‘ruler’. But at least you can get a sense of what it might be like to try to sort out who is in charge in various languages, one of which is Greek.

The one that works in the movie is Latin, “noster Rex,” or ‘our King.’

Ambiguities of Language

I notice that there is a significant usage of ambiguous terms going on in this NYT story about the resignation of the Social Security head in protest of DOGE. There is a very careful construction at work in deploying these terms in this way.

The resignation of Michelle King, the acting commissioner, is the latest abrupt departure of a senior federal official who refused to provide Mr. Musk’s lieutenants with access to closely held data. Mr. Musk’s team has been embedding with agencies across the federal government and seeking access to private data as part of what it has said is an effort to root out fraud and waste. [Emphasis added.]

"Private" data? It's clearly not private, because it is owned by the government. It is thus, to use another ambiguous term that is at least as just, public information. 

But it isn't really public-public, just as it isn't really private-private. It's akin to the copies of your emails that Google or Yahoo owns, and which they can freely choose to share with the FBI if they are asked. They don't need your permission, and you have no legal expectation of privacy. Here, the government owns this copy of the information, which DOGE has lawful authority to access. 

Which brings us to "breach."

“S.S.A. has comprehensive medical records of people who have applied for disability benefits,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, a group that promotes the expansion of Social Security. “It has our bank information, our earnings records, the names and ages of our children, and much more.”

Warning about the risks of Mr. Musk's team accessing the data, Ms. Altman added, “There is no way to overstate how serious a breach this is.” [Emphasis added.]

It's not a "breach" in any normal sense of the term; it's just a government agency with oversight powers accessing the records of another agency over which it has oversight responsibilities. They're not stealing the information. They're not 'breaching security.' They are part of the security; this is their job.

Now the use of 'private' was in the Times' own voice; here they are simply quoting someone who said something they liked even better. It's misleading and without context, which makes it even better for them because the point of the article is to lead the reader in a particular direction.

Class Warfare in the USA

I don't quite buy this argument, but there is something to be said for doing a class-based analysis of the present moment. I think he has the classes wrong. His opening statement is to the effect that it's a war between factions of the elite, in which the working class is powerless. 

It might strike some as odd: The new president of the United States won the election by rallying the working class against the establishment swamp, yet he has placed at the helm of his assault on the elite-controlled Deep State none other than the richest man in the world. But this is only a paradox if you grant a couple of assumptions that the above description presupposes: that the “working class” is actually represented at all in our political system, and that anyone but the “elite” is involved in the power struggles within it. Understanding what’s really happening in the second Trump administration requires disabusing ourselves of both of these notions. What we’re seeing is the latest battle in a long war between two factions of the American elite. The working class are just extras on the set—moral props in a struggle that has nothing to do with them. 

It's definitely true that neither Trump nor Musk are nor ever have been 'working class.' However, they are both outliers from their economic class, and in any case individuals and not classes. The story the author wants to tell is about an elite that is divided into two factions by whether they possess more cultural or more economic capital.

Generally speaking, members of the elite are relatively affluent in both economic and cultural capital. But the composition of one’s portfolio matters. Within the ruling class, Bourdieu regards those who are far richer in cultural capital than economic capital as structurally subordinate—in his words, “the dominated fractions of the dominant class.” Those with the inverse mix—who are rich in money but don’t necessarily boast the most illustrious educational credentials—are the dominant fraction of the dominant class. 

So the story is that Trump represents the dominant fraction of the dominant class, as does Musk; and they are striving to further subordinate the faction that is defined by its cultural capital, e.g. education and cultural knowledge. These are the two classes, the rich wanting more freedom from regulation, and the educated wanting comfortable government jobs programs. 

The problem for me is Weber's insight that the bureaucracy constitutes its own class with its own class interests that diverge from the rest of the citizenry -- even from the 'class' they were drawn from. And it has its own power, too: far from being subordinate, that Administrative class functionally deposed the last President and governed without him exactly as they wished. They ran the police, they ran the military, they ran the government from stem to stern. Even though the government includes many 'working class' men -- soldiers and police officers usually are, for example -- they were led by a class whose interests did not align with theirs, or indeed with any other citizens'. 

It's true that we are finding out that USAID and other mechanisms established something like a 'jobs program' that itself pursued political ends from outside the government. Wealthy networked NGOs and activist groups molded politics in the precise interests of the Administrative class. Because it paid their comfortable salaries, the Administrative class aligned that part of 'those far richer in cultural capital than economic capital' with itself. There is no doubt, however, that the Administrative class was dominant: it set their agenda in its own interest. DOGE is effectively severing that tie, which may in time lead to those two factions drifting apart.

Meanwhile, the rich part of that class seems often to align itself with the Administrative class, just because they end up subject to its powers. Facebook was all about joining in on unconstitutional Administrative efforts towards backdoor censorship, as was Twitter until Musk bought it. All the big corporations were lining up in favor of Wokeness until Bud Light crossed -- well, it crossed the working class. That was really the first blow, Bud Light's loss of its majestic stature and wealth brought about by working people refusing to drink the stuff any more. They too are why Trump got elected in numbers to big to 'fortify.' 

So I don't think this analysis is quite right, but I do think it's a useful exercise to examine what classes there are and try to sort out how they are trying to influence the game. The working class has not proven powerless, and the elite isn't quite divided up the way the author thinks. It is worth thinking about, though.

Two Charts on US Population

Sourced from Wikipedia.

Sourced from the Social Security Administration, according to Elon Musk.

Some reconciliation of these numbers needs to occur. The obvious place to start is verifying Musk's figures are accurate, and the Social Security Administration does in fact have these figures. If that's right, then there's a significant delta that needs to be figured out.

Review: Knightriders

So I don't know how I never heard of this movie before last week, because it seems like the kind of thing that somebody should have suggested to me before now. Knightriders is a 1981 film about a group of medieval re-enactors who joust on motorcycles instead of horses, which is as close as you could easily come to the way I spent the 1990s-2010s aside from the trips abroad. We did Scottish Highland Games instead of Renaissance Fairs, but it was just a big bunch of bikers teaching people how to use historic weaponry on the weekends in our spare time. The movie should have come up.

It never did. It took the algorithm to find it for me, giving me an AI-generated review of the thing. It stars Ed Harris, who is a great actor and wasn't bad here. The plot is less Excalibur than Roger Corman, although Excalibur is probably why this movie didn't become very famous. It was also 1981, and swallowed up all the attention for Arthurian-themed moviegoers.

There's a connection, though: the sword from the more famous movie ended up in the hands of an outlaw biker who changed his name legally to Arthur Pendragon. That's exactly the sort of thing the hero of Knightriders would have done.

In the end he walks into a schoolhouse and surrenders his sword to a boy who'd come to him earlier in the film, right in front of the teacher and everything. Nobody says anything against it. 

I think it's an interesting meditation on what would have happened in Le Morte Darthur if Arthur had just accepted events instead of contesting them: surrendering his throne to Mordred, his wife to Lancelot, his sword to the next heir. If Arthur had simply accepted that his time had come and let go, wouldn't it all have been better?

Maybe. That's the hard part, though, isn't it? 

 “There likewise I beheld Excalibur

  Before him at his crowning borne, the sword

  That rose from out the bosom of the lake,

  And Arthur rowed across and took it—rich

  With jewels, elfin Urim, on the hilt,

  Bewildering heart and eye—the blade so bright

  That men are blinded by it—on one side,

  Graven in the oldest tongue of all this world,

  ‘Take me,’ but turn the blade and ye shall see,

  And written in the speech ye speak yourself,

  ‘Cast me away!’  And sad was Arthur’s face

  Taking it, but old Merlin counselled him,

  ‘Take thou and strike! the time to cast away

  Is yet far-off.’  So this great brand the king

  Took, and by this will beat his foemen down.”

Anabasis XIV

The Greeks find the broad river between the land of the Kurds and Armenia to be too deep to cross while it is contested. They stay for more than a day, the Kurds having taken over their better camp behind them, trapped between two enemy forces with a river to cross. 

Xenophon has a dream of being held in iron fetters that fall away. He relates this the next morning, and just about the time he finishes some young men come up all excited. They tell him that they've seen some old women washing clothes further down the river, and that they thought the river therefore must be safe to cross at that location. They stripped naked and crossed with only their daggers, and found that at no point was the river so deep as their crotch. Xenophon and his companions are delighted and pour libations, and determine to cross the river in two divisions, the vanguard taking the opposing shore, the baggage train passing between, and the rearguard -- commanded by Xenophon -- crossing at the end to hold off the Kurdish assault.

This works more or less well, as the enemies on the opposing side once again don't really want to fight. The Kurds really do and do their best to kill as many Greeks as possible on their way out, but the strategy is sound and it brings the Greeks out of Kurdistan at last.

On the far side of the river they march for a few days until they are confronted by a large army. The army's commander, a local grandee, says he wants to let them march through if they will do so without burning the land -- although they may take supplies if needed. The Greeks agree to this, but once again it turns out that keeping your word is not a virtue much respected by these denizens of the Near East. The Greeks are used to this by now, and keep careful watch for betrayal; when it happens, they storm and capture the camp of the grandee, plundering it for its goods. 

Armored MMA

What fun! I enjoyed historical European martial arts among several other kinds, and was our university co-president for ARMA for some years. I would have liked doing this even a few years ago. 

Imagination Time

Al Sharpton has a hypothetical for you.

UPDATE: More imagination. 

The most generous interpretation of her remarks is that she thinks the Nazis were allowed free speech by Weimar and that’s how they got into power. That isn’t true either, however. The Weimar Republic censored hate speech and particularly anti-Semitic speech. The Nazis came to power in spite of censorship, not because of a lack of it. 

Shane vs. High Noon

Althouse has an amusing reply to a Maureen Dowd column that notes, in passing, that the headline writers don't know the difference between Shane and High Noon. We do here! Both of those films have featured regularly in commentary for the decades that the Hall has been in action.

Here are a few relevant pieces for old time's sake. 

And here's a celebration of Jack Palance, the anti-hero of Shane, on the occasion of his passing.

Wild World of Sports

Donald Trump became the first sitting President to attend a Super Bowl in person, and apparently did a flyover of the Daytona 500 as well. Both the football and the NASCAR crowds seemed to appreciate him.

Meanwhile in Canada, Justin Trudeau attended the USA/Canada match of the "4 Nations Tournament" (the other two are Finland and Sweden). The crowd booed the US National Anthem, and perhaps consequently there were three fistfights between opposing hockey players in the first nine seconds of the game. The USA won 3-1, and will play the winner of the other two nations in the final.

It's not that weird for big sporting spectacles to end up tying in with politics, in the manner of Roman emperors attending the games at the Coliseum. Is it a healthy way to let off some of the stress and steam? Maybe.

Anabasis XIII: Towards the Kurds

Watching the Persian forces burn their own villages, the Greeks are encouraged a bit: this seems like a confession by their enemies that they cannot control the Greek force. The problem that they face is nevertheless that there are mountains on one side of them, and the Tigris on the other, and they don't really know where they are. 

They are presented with an innovative solution for crossing the Tigris using the skins of some of the animals they have captured to create a pontoon bridge. This is considered but rejected because of the enemy cavalry on the far side, which will surely not allow the engineering project.

Thus they go forth in an unexpected direction to plunder and collect prisoners, whom they interrogate about the surrounding country. In this way they learn which way the various roads go, and also that if they proceed north they will come into the country of the Kurds. They go in that direction, and the Persians apparently cease pursuing them as they pass out of country controlled by the King of Persia, and also because they don't want to tangle with the Kurds themselves.

Now I want to say some kind words about the Kurds while we are on the topic. They are a fierce mountain people, and as you can see an ancient one. They have had a difficult existence all their long history, being subjected to the empires of Persians, Greeks, Turks, and others all the long time. Yet I have found them to be a forthright and honest people. The ones I knew in Iraq were brave men and had no second thoughts about speaking their minds. One time in a tribal conclave where several Arab sheikhs were present voicing their concerns and desires to us, a Kurdish police chief who had authority over the area simply turned to us and said, "You know they are lying about everything, don't you?" It is my opinion that the Kurds should prosper and receive the freedom to form a nation that has so long been denied them by circumstance: because it would require part of Syria and part of Iraq and part of Iran and part of Turkey, they are constantly denied. We would be wise and to help them overcome this difficulty and create a homeland, however much it annoyed our 'allies' in Turkey.

But I digress. The subject is not the Kurds of today, but the Kurds of thousands of years ago.

The Greeks cross a mountain range and plunder a set of Kurdish villages, which are abandoned because of the surprise with which the Greeks came upon them. The Greeks capture quite a bit of food, and choose to abandon the weaker of their baggage animals at this time. In the hope of not making enemies of the Kurds, who might be friendly since the Persians hated them, the Greeks only take food and not brazen kitchenware or other goods. (Slaves taken by the raid are 'confiscated' by the generals, I assume to be set free since they don't wish to march with extra mouths or offend the Kurds: but Xenophon mentions that a few good looking women 'or boys' are taken in spite of this effort. This boy-attraction is one of the features of ancient Greece that is less admirable than others.) 

They march on through storm and attacks. The Kurds roll stones down the mountains onto them and assail them fiercely. The Greeks torture prisoners taken and kill one outright, because he won't tell them how to find the right road. The next guy decides to talk, emphasizing that the guy they killed didn't want to tell them the truth because he had a daughter who lived down that way. An honorable death, then; he was doing what a father might do. The Greeks at this point are waging plain war on the country with limited concession. You would not want them coming upon your daughter either. 

They send a detachment of light infantry to march fast and seize a difficult passage that their new guide warns them they won't be able to get through if they don't control it in advance. This advance unit doesn't know the terrain, though, and takes only part of what is needed. There is a hard fight to get through the heights that ended up still being commanded by the Kurds. The Greeks capture a Kurdish village with great stores of wine among other things; it is to their credit as a disciplined force that they do not become so drunk that they are disabled by hangovers. Also to their credit, they release their guide and let him return freely home. 

The next day is another hard fight, with the Kurds using the high ground effectively against them. They march from village to village, bivouacking in each by night and plundering it. In this way they maintain their logistics through the mountains to the next plain. They reckon up that the Kurds had cost them more in their rough guerilla attacks than the Persians had with their formal armies. For a moment the Greeks think they might be at last free: but then horsemen show up, this time from the Armenian kingdom. 

UPDATE: I rewrote this section for greater clarity about whom the Greeks were fighting in particular episodes. 

Anabasis XII

The lack of cavalry tells on the first day, in which the Persians send cavalry to spy upon and then harass the Greeks. The mounted bowmen and slingers that the Persians employ inflict significant damage on the rear guard during the march to the villages. Xenophon decides to break formation and charge them, but on foot his men cannot reach the enemy before they can withdraw; and the Persian archers (raised to 'shoot straight and speak the truth') are pretty good shots even while retreating. 

The Greeks reach the villages they mean to plunder, and spend some time refitting some of their pack horses as cavalry mounts. They identify about fifty men who are fit to serve as cavalry, and also some slingers, in order to disrupt future such attempts by the Persians who are following them. 

The Persians return with a thousand cavalry instead of a few hundred, but the Greeks have crossed a ravine before they arrive. The new Greek force is able to deploy against the Persians during their own crossing, striking the vanguard and driving it into retreat. They kill a few Persians and mutilate the bodies to make clear that they're not interested in playing nice any more. 

After this the Ten Thousand march through a set of ruins of cities and fortresses where the Medes -- the same ones who provoked the building of the Median Wall -- had been contesting the area with the Persians during their short-lived empire. Tissaphernes arrives with a very large force, but he shows the typical Persian desire not to risk any lives in the fighting, so he tries to bombard them again. Their new force repels him successfully with disciplined and accurate return fire from the slingers.

The Ten Thousand begin to recover enemy bows and arrows, which are different from the ones they knew at home but which they are able to employ successfully. They also discover in their raids of villages additional bowstrings and lead that can be cast into bullets. Their slingers prove to be better than the Persian ones, having a longer range. The Persians continue to follow, but they are having the worst of the skirmishes.

The hollow square formation, which again is novel I think in this era, proves to have some practical difficulties for traversing bridges, valleys, etc. The Greek generals begin making adaptations on the fly to address these difficulties: 

The generals accordingly, having recognsied the defect, set about curing it. To do so, they made six lochi, or divisions of a hundred men apiece, each of which had its own set of captains and under-officers in command of half and quarter companies. It was the duty of these new companies, during a march, whenever the flanks needed to close in, to fall back to the rear, so as to disencumber the wings. This they did by wheeling clear of them. When the sides of the oblong again extended, they filled up the interstices, if the gap were narrow, by columns of companies, if broader, by columns of half-companies, or, if broader still, by columns of quarter-companies, so that the space between was always filled up. If again it were necessary to effect a passage by bridge or otherwise, there was no confusion, the several companies crossing in turns; or, if the occasion arose to form in line of battle, these companies came up to the front and fell in.

As they leave the plains and begin to rise into the hills they discover another problem, which is that their formation is easily attacked if the enemy is able to cover it from an elevated position. The first day this happens they suffer a large number of wounded among their light infantry. After this they make an additional modification and assign a division of the force to hold the heights while the bulk marches on the roads below. This is slow, though, as the heavy infantry so assigned have to struggle in their armor up to the hills and then along the crests. 

They have the advantage that the Persians do not wish to fight at night, being a large collection of strangers rather than a disciplined and unified force. Thus, the Persian cavalry withdraws each night some miles away to camp, catching up to raid the Greeks the next day. The Greeks begin just occupying villages during the fighting hours, so that their superior marksmanship can tell on the Persians; then they begin marching at night after the Persians withdraw, gaining a few days of peace in this way.

On the fourth day of this strategy, however, the Persians force march themselves to a mountain overnight and occupy the heights of one of its arms, which the Greeks have to pass. Xenophon leads a charge up the heights of the arm, which the Persians abandon to retreat to the summit: they do not wish to come to direct blows with the heavy infantry. The climb is very difficult for the hoplites, but they eventually win the summit as well, the Persians withdrawing before them. 

The Persians now switch tactics as well. They have learned that they cannot win against the Greeks in a stand up fight -- they have superior numbers and combined arms, but lack the unity and morale. Thus, they switch to the extraordinary remedy of burning their own Persian villages in advance of the Greeks, in the hope of starving the Greek army. 

Anabasis XI

The new generals post picket guards and call a general meeting of the Ten Thousand.  Xenophon attends in his finest fighting clothes, saying that he intends to look his best whether conquering or dying. This sentiment has been repeated many times since: consider the men of the French Foreign Legion Régiment étranger de parachutistes shaving before they jumped into Điện Biên Phủ, already surrounded by artillery on the high ground. 

Xenophon gives exactly the right speech to win the men; he then counsels exacting discipline, burning the wagons and their tents so they can match faster and lighter, and living off the enemy’s villages through plunder. They adopt a hollow square marching structure to protect their vulnerable enabler units, and start the fires. 

One interesting feature of Xenophon’s talk is his explanation of why they shouldn’t worry about the enemy having cavalry while they don’t. Xenophon was a cavalryman himself, and probably understood that he was greatly exaggerating the advantages and downplaying the weaknesses of infantry versus cavalry. Yet we can look forward more than a generation to Alexander using Macedonian phalanx to conquer the world; or the Roman hollow square formation; or more than a thousand years to the schiltrons at the Bannockburn pushing Edward’s knighthood into the river to drown; or the Spanish tercio of the Thirty Years War. Xenophon hit upon a viable solution to the problem, and I believe he did so at a time when it was novel. 

Americana

My sister is up in Seattle for some reason, and she sent this photo that she took yesterday afternoon. 

Congratulations Tulsi

Tulsi Gabbard, just confirmed as Director of National Intelligence, has the qualifications of having been abused by the system and driven out of the Democratic Party for ideological reasons. In this, she is like the President himself. I trust that her personal experience of being subjected to the system will be a strong driving force in reform.

Good hunting.

Anabasis X: Xenophon Steps Forward

In the end of the eighth part I said that "in some respects this is the real beginning of the story of the Ten Thousand[.]" This next chapter shows some signs of actually being the beginning of the story in the sense of being the first thing Xenophon wrote down, with the earlier parts written later to fill in the story. 

For example, Xenophon introduces himself and explains his role in the adventure and how he has come to be here. 

Now there was in that host a certain man, an Athenian, Xenophon, who had accompanied Cyrus, neither as a general, nor as an officer, nor yet as a private soldier, but simply on the invitation of an old friend, Proxenus. This old friend had sent to fetch him from home, promising, if he would come, to introduce him to Cyrus, "whom," said Proxenus, "I consider to be worth my fatherland and more to me."

We've met Xenophon several times already in the story, so it is weird for him to introduce himself as if he were an unknown character. If this was where he started writing, though, it makes sense. 

Xenophon tells us that he had some concerns about going on this expedition. He doesn't tell us what his qualifications to go were. He seems to have been a cavalryman -- his book on horsemanship is good reading, though we often do things quite differently now -- and to have fought in the Athenian civil war following the reign of the Thirty Tyrants. He was an Athenian, but tended to support the Spartan side and to admire their way of life over that of his home city. So he was no stranger to war, even if he accompanied the army as a friend of Cyrus' rather than as a member of the soldiery. 

We now are introduced to Socrates, whom Xenophon admires and looks upon as a trusted counselor. Socrates tells him to soothe his concern about whether to go by visiting the Oracle of Delphi, which Socrates did himself. Xenophon constructs a question for the Oracle along the lines of 'which gods should I sacrifice to in order to help this be a successful expedition?' Socrates is aghast when he learns the nature of the question, having meant that Xenophon should ask whether to go on the expedition, not how. Still, perhaps he got good advice; Xenophon made the sacrifices, and as we know he came through it in the end.

The army is greatly depressed, morale shattered, by the loss of its generals and many of its captains. Finding that he can barely sleep, except for a telling dream that drives him to action, Xenophon gathers the remaining captains he can find for a midnight council. There he speaks very wisely, according to contemporary military science: just as we teach soldiers to attack into an ambush, so too he counsels that action is the only reasonable choice. Let us not wait, but attack!

"Now, however, that they have abruptly ended the truce, there is an end also to their own insolence and to our suspicion. All these good things of theirs are now set as prizes for the combatants. To whichsoever of us shall prove the better men, will they fall as guerdons; and the gods themselves are the judges of the strife. The gods, who full surely will be on our side, seeing it is our enemies who have taken their names falsely; whilst we, with much to lure us, yet for our oath's sake, and the gods who were our witnesses, sternly held aloof. So that, it seems to me, we have a right to enter upon this contest with much more heart than our foes; and further, we are possessed of bodies more capable than theirs of bearing cold and heat and labour; souls too we have, by the help of heaven, better and braver; nay, the men themselves are more vulnerable, more mortal, than ourselves, if so be the gods vouchsafe to give us victory once again.

"Howbeit, for I doubt not elsewhere similar reflections are being made, whatsoever betide, let us not, in heaven's name, wait for others to come and challenge us to noble deeds; let us rather take the lead in stimulating the rest to valour. Show yourselves to be the bravest of officers, and among generals, the worthiest to command. For myself, if you choose to start forwards on this quest, I will follow; or, if you bid me lead you, my age shall be no excuse to stand between me and your orders. At least I am of full age, I take it, to avert misfortune from my own head."

The captains are stirred by this, very much needing a direction at this moment, and so they gather additional men they trust from their units and advise them to begin preparing. A non-Greek among them tries to argue against it and finds himself expelled from the army. The rest pull together a hundred of the top men left alive to vote on new leadership. 

Xenophon gives another version of the speech counseling action, and telling them that it is up to them to save the morale of the army. If they themselves seem afraid, the army will collapse. If they show themselves bold, the men will fall in on bold action. 

He then makes a point that Chesterton also famously makes, Chesterton defending the verse about 'he who will lose his life shall save it.' Xenophon gives the pragmatic version rather than the mystical one: 

This observation, also, I have laid to heart, that they, who in matters of war seek in all ways to save their lives, are just they who, as a rule, die dishonourably; whereas they who, recognising that death is the common lot and destiny of all men, strive hard to die nobly: these more frequently, as I observe, do after all attain to old age, or, at any rate, while life lasts, they spend their days more happily.

The army's best men then vote five new generals to replace the five lost, Xenophon among them. 

Anabasis Interlude II: Plato's Meno

In the very next chapter Xenophon will introduce us to Socrates, not the general but the philosopher. Socrates was a man that Xenophon liked and trusted. We mostly know Socrates through Plato's presentation of him, and it is interesting that Xenophon presents Socrates as being somewhat different from the Socrates we get in Plato. 

An honest man, Xenophon was no trained philosopher. He could neither fully conceptualize nor articulate Socrates's arguments. He admired Socrates for his intelligence, patriotism, and courage on the battlefield.... Like Plato's Apology, Xenophon's Apologia describes the trial of Socrates, but the works diverge substantially and, according to W. K. C. Guthrie, Xenophon's account portrays a Socrates of "intolerable smugness and complacency"....In Memorabilia, he defends Socrates from the accusations of corrupting the youth and being against the gods; essentially, it is a collection of various stories gathered together to construct a new apology for Socrates.

This is thus a good time to point out that Socrates also knew one of the generals just under discussion. As mentioned in the comments to the post below, the general Menon is the same as the Meno that is the namesake of one of Plato's dialogues, the Meno. It is nothing but an account of a discussion Socrates and Meno had about the nature of virtue. Meno had been a student of Gorgias, one of the more infamous Sophists, and Socrates engages Meno in a discussion about virtue -- whether it is a sort of knowledge, whether it can be taught, and what its basic nature might be. 

This foray into philosophy instead of adventure story won't be of interest to everyone, but it fits the theme here well enough that I would feel remiss not to include it. After the jump, we'll do a very quick run through the Meno.

Anabasis IX: In Praise of the Generals

Xenophon interrupts his story, as he had following the death of Cyrus, to describe the murdered generals. These should really be read in full rather than summarized. Clearchus in particular is praised as a man who was devoted to war the way some men are devoted to love affairs, always ready for adventure, tough and brave both by day and by night. 

The descriptions of the men includes also analysis of their weaknesses. Clearchus' incomplete virtue was justice: he believed (quite rightly) that an undisciplined army was useless, and thus imposed strict punishments for violations of order. Yet he acted sometimes in anger, and this imperfection in his administration of justice caused him to feel regret afterwards. That is itself a sign of an internal commitment to the virtue of justice, that one can feel bad about failing to achieve it properly.

The best proof of the worth of an officer is the confidence of his men, who did not love Clearchus but had faith in his leadership. They took confidence in his courage and in the fact that he held their fellow soldiers to account, so that they could rely on the discipline of the army. Men forced into his service during the wars due to poverty or as punishment came to be disciplined soldiers and good fighting men. 

Some other generals don't come off as well. Proxenus is described as having been motivated by a desire for personal greatness and glory, although also as always pursuing that greatness through fair means and not foul. Menon is described as motivated only by a desire for wealth, pursuing honors and friendships with the great only as means to the end of enriching himself. 

Agias and Socrates, the two remaining generals -- young men of about thirty-five -- receive only a brief joint comment. 

No one could speak slightingly of their courage in war, nor accuse them of lack of consideration for a friend.

That is far from the worst epigram to receive from a fellow soldier. 

Happy Superb Owl Viewing!

I overheard at a local cafe that a lot of people were enjoying viewing superb owls today. I, too, am a fan of owls and thought I would share this superb owl with any other enthusiasts who might be at the hall.

Anabasis VIII: Treachery

By the time they reach the Great Zab river (the notes in my edition claim this is the ‘Zapatas’ mentioned last time), the Greek commander decides to try to address the mutual suspicion that he has been noticing growing between his army and the Persians. Clearchus asks for an interview with Tissaphernes, who readily grants it. Clearchus points out that, in spite of the oaths they have exchanged not to do each other harm, the two sides are watching each other like hawks. He thinks they might avoid trouble if they addressed this mistrust directly, in order to avoid the mutual suspicion sparking a conflict. 

Clearchus points out that the oaths, which were taken before the gods, prevent them from being enemies, and that neglect of such oaths is deeply destructive to one's conscience. Therefore, he suggests, the two sides should trust the gods and each other's oaths and dispose of the suspicion. He gives further pragmatic arguments as to why Tissaphernes can trust the Greeks not to betray him.

Tissaphernes declares himself delighted with the proposal, praises Clearchus' reasoning, and gives several arguments about why the Greeks can also trust him (especially, that he might want to hire mercenaries someday). Tissaphernes then offers to host Clearchus and his captains at a feast at which he will reveal who has been slandering them and causing all this mistrust. Clearchus promises to attend, and to reveal any similar slander that comes to his attention. Tissaphernes then hosts him for dinner as his guest, creating a hospitality bond between them. These are honor bonds not readily broken, especially in the Middle East (Saladin would not harm a Crusader who had received even a cup of water from his hands; one time when a tribal leader in the Mahmudiyah Qada didn't offer us a drink of water or tea or coffee on arrival, I was very much on guard).

The next day Clearchus and his generals and captains went to the feast. The generals were invited inside Tissaphernes' tent, with the captains and other Greeks who had accompanied the group (to ferry back supplies) waiting outside. At a signal, the generals were all seized and a unit of cavalry rode in and slaughtered the captains all all of the other Greeks who had come with the party.

Tissaphernes executed Clearchus (for perjury, indeed on the claim that Clearchus had broken his oath to keep the peace), and then sent the other generals to the King of Persia who beheaded them. The native Persian allies who had marched with Cyrus alongside the Greeks now turned on them completely, and joined Tissaphernes to try to extort a surrender from the Ten Thousand. They were, again, refused. 

In some respects this is the real beginning of the story of the Ten Thousand. From here on they have lost both their political leader, Cyrus, and their military leadership. What they do from this point is different, as they must now govern themselves rather than simply exercise military discipline. 

Panic in the blue rooms

From the NYT, which incautiously allowed conservative-ish Bret Stephens to join in a round-table discussion:

Voters, including conservative ones, don’t want an authoritarian state. But liberals and progressives consistently failed to recognize the way in which their own side violated those norms, or sought to impose their own forms of authoritarianism.

Do any Democrats understand that trying to throw your opponent in jail, or bankrupt him with doubtful suits, or strike his name from the ballot, isn’t democratic? Do they understand that they can’t credibly talk about Trump’s threats to our governing traditions when they also are calling to pack the Supreme Court or end the Senate filibuster? Do they comprehend that trying to strong-arm Facebook into suppressing “misinformation” violated the spirit of the First Amendment?

Do they understand that lying about Joe Biden’s health was reminiscent of Soviet propaganda during the reigns of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko? (Nothing to see here but a “cheapfake”!) Do they recognize the chilling effects of the progressive speech police? One of the reasons Trump won is that Democrats all but erased the difference between them and Republicans when it came to the question of adhering to “democratic norms.”

***

The Democratic Party has, to an astonishing degree, become the party of government workers and union workers. They should try to make inroads with the rest of us.

When someone other than Stephens is speaking, it's mostly an inadvertent confirmation of his thesis. Long may they keep it up.

Meanwhile, all those unaccountable billionaire wrong-thinking geeks are starting to explain why no one can perform a useful audit on federal spending: Treasury just writes a check for whatever the agencies requisition, and the money comes out of thin air--has done since we abandoned the gold standard in 1971. So, as soon as someone successful appeals the New York judge who denied access to the Treasury payment system by the Secretary of the Treasury, the evil billionaires can start figuring out a way to track payments and inform the public what the heck has been going on with the slush funds and the "incurable" national debt.

(This editorial is behind a paywall, and I have no intention of subscribing, but if you hold down "Ctrl" and hit A then C quickly, you can copy the whole thing before the wall slams down, then paste it into a text field somewhere to read it.)

Typoglycemia

 

Desperados Waiting for a Train

This particular train is of the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, currently blocking the end of the one-way road into Dillsboro, North Carolina. I’m sure it will move on in the fullness of God’s good time. 

Pretty afternoon to sit by the river anyway. 

The deadliest sin

Screwtape warned his trainee tempter of the danger when humans remember that despair is a worse sin than any of the sins that provoke it.

An Israeli hostage's father thanks Trump for inspiring the deal that brought his daughter home alive, and describes how hard he fought for her when he really just wanted to curl up and die:

The hardest lesson I learned was that hopelessness consumes energy you can’t afford to waste.

This is the lesson I keep taking from my nephew's untimely death. He didn't get much time on earth, but his last year was a miracle respite, only because he never gave up trying.

A Useful Reminder

Anabasis VII

In spite of their concerns caused by the lengthy delay, the Greeks abide by the truce and wait to be led out by the Persian forces. This march begins in conditions of mutual suspicion, at least between the Greeks and the Persians. The Persian allies of Cyrus begin to camp with their relatives, mending fences as is the normal way after the war. That only makes the Greeks feel more isolated. 

Nevertheless there have been arrangements made for food, and after a while the Greeks come to the Median Wall. 

This wall was built of burnt bricks, laid in bitumen ; it was twenty feet in thickness, and a hundred in height, and the length of it was said to be twenty parasangs; and it was not far distant from Babylon.

"Not the least remarkable of the discoveries," says the Rev. J. F. Macmichael in the Appendix to his Xenophon, "which of late years have marked the progress of geographical inquiry in this most interesting - but, till of late, unexplored region, is the actual existence at the present time of an ancient wall stretching across Mesopotamia at the head of the Babylonian plain. Mr. Ross, who first examined it at its eastern terminus, in 1836, described it under the name of Khalu or Sidd Nimrud, (wall or embankment of Nimrod,) and as a straight wall 25 long paces thick, and from 35 to 40 feet high, running S. W. :} N. as far as the eye could reach, to two mounds called Ramelah, (Sifairah, Ainswr. p. 81-2,) on the Euphrates, some hours above Felujah. The eastern extremity was built of the small pebbles of the country, cemented with lime of great tenacity; and farther inland, his Bedwin guides told him it was built of brick, and in some places worn down level with the desert, and was built by Nimrod to keep off the people of Nineveh, with whom he had an implacable feud. (Journal of R. Geog. S. ix. p. 446.)

So we are north of Fallujah, which is in Anbar province, but somewhere east of it. Xenophon says that the armies "passed over to the other side of it," which is not very adequate detail for a wall a hundred feet wide and maybe seventy miles long. (Remember that a 'parasang' is not strictly a measure of distance, but a rough measure of time spent traveling.) It would be interesting to know more about how one passed this wall, whether by wooden ramps that could be pulled up, or dirt ramps that had to be destroyed if enemies were approaching, or in some other way. By tradition, there were towers constructed and manned at intervals during the era that the wall was a defensive structure.

An 1877 illustration imagines the wall.

We end up learning very little from Xenophon about this wonder of the world, which I might have thought would make a larger impression upon him. I suppose he was focused on the problem of getting out more than the enjoyment of the sights.

There are reports of plotted attacks by native forces, which the Greeks analyze sensibly and don't get too excited about, although they take due precautions. None materialize during this period.

For some reason, however, they are marching east and not north or west. They come to the Tigris, and eventually to the ancient city of Opis. This is very near to modern Baghdad, but east of it. The reason is hinted at when we learn that the country they are marching through belonged to Cyrus' family, including his mother and his bastard brother. They meet the brother in passing, going with an army to report to the King for service -- doubtless to prove his loyalty after his brother's betrayal. The Persian commander, Tissaphernes, allows them to plunder two villages belonging to Cyrus' mother as a way of insulting his family and provisioning the Greeks. 

They now turn north along the Tigris and march another sixty miles, passing a city called Caenae and then coming to a river called Zapatas. It is not clear to me precisely where these would be from my knowledge of the area.

Guilty Flee When None Pursue

Canada's version of USAID has just deleted "its entire public database of foreign aid spending." 

They don't even have a DOGE in Canada.

Honor to the Fallen

A firefighter and former Marine shows honor, and class.

Fear and Congress

J. Michael Waller suggests that there's a reason the Tulsi/Kash nominations are taking a while: Congress is afraid of vengeance from the agencies if they vote yes.

One supposes that the level of corruption in Congress is high enough that each of them knows what he or she has to lose if the FBI seeks revenge. The only way to put a chain on that wolf, ironically, is to be brave enough to take the vote; but then one's crimes might come out as part of the daylight to follow.

Anabasis Interlude: Foraging

The army has the usual problem for armies of feeding itself. Logistics is going to be a key problem for the rest of the tale; we've already seen some hardships. Now that they are cut off from their benefactor and his resources, they depend either upon their enemies (who are helping them out with an eye towards getting rid of them without a fight) or upon the land.

Proceeding on their way they reached some villages, where their guides indicated to them that they would find provisions. They were found to contain plenty of corn, and wine made from palm dates, and an acidulated beverage extracted by boiling from the same fruit. As to the palm nuts or dates themselves, it was noticeable that the sort which we are accustomed to see in Hellas were set aside for the domestic servants; those put aside for the masters are picked specimens, and are simply marvellous for their beauty and size, looking like great golden lumps of amber; some specimens they dried and preserved as sweetmeats. Sweet enough they were as an accompaniment of wine, but apt to give headache. Here, too, for the first time in their lives, the men tasted the brain of the palm. No one could help being struck by the beauty of this object, and the peculiarity of its delicious flavour; but this, like the dried fruits, was exceedingly apt to give headache. When this cabbage or brain has been removed from the palm the whole tree withers from top to bottom.

There are many species of palm tree; this one is of course the date palm, which produces dates. We have the name 'date' from the Greeks, in fact: it comes from the Greek word for 'finger,' (δάκτυλος) which passed through Latin into English. 

It's incredibly destructive to eat the 'brain' (in this translation; mine has 'crown') and thus destroy for one meal a plant that would have borne fruit for many years. This is one reason the Persians are willing to arrange for their enemies to buy food, even to provide them with food rather than have this army feeding itself off the land. 

We had one of these date trees right outside of one of the many buildings we occupied as a temporary headquarters during my time in Iraq. You could just climb up in it and pick the things. I found them exactly as Xenophon describes. The preserved dates were also readily available.

The wine made from palm dates seems to have passed out of existence during the Islamic period. Probably someone still makes it for himself out back, in the manner of moonshine, but I didn't encounter anything like it during my time in Mesopotamia. 

Anabasis VI

The day after the great battle the Greek generals meet before dawn to decide how to proceed in the absence of orders or clear intelligence. Just before dawn they receive messages from the native troops, who had fled back along the route they had come upon, informing them of Cyrus' death and their own retreat. The Greeks offer to make their leader king; he refuses on the grounds that he is not of sufficiently royal blood, and couldn't make it stick. 

Meanwhile the Persians send an embassy including Tissaphernes and a man named Phalinus who is himself a Greek, who suggests to them that they surrender their arms and seek good terms from the King. This is the year 401 B.C.; the battle of Thermopylae is within living memory for the very oldest Greeks, having been fought in 480 B.C. There is no chance that any Greek army is surrendering their arms to a Persian king just for the asking. They know perfectly well that the Persian forces, however much larger, are not capable of defeating them without severe loss of life. 

I'll quote part of the discussion from the post on the battle:

[The large Persian formations] were analogous to a set of pillows, almost: big and voluminous, but not capable of (or willing to) exert much force. Mostly they fled before the Greeks, and avoided combat everywhere except in the intense fight when Cyrus charged the King. There only were the picked loyalist men of the two leaders fully engaged in brutal combat.

I think the reason for this is that the Persian army has the same loyalty problem that Cyrus has with his native forces. They didn't come to fight; nobody wants to die for the Persian king. They came to show up in order to make a showing of loyalty to their best-guess about who was going to win, or the one they obtained sufficient benefits from that they couldn't not show up for them when called.

The King is not in a very happy position. He knows that the Greeks drove all his forces before them all day yesterday. He knows that his people aren't eager to die for him. He further knows that the Greeks will fight to the knife because they know that the alternative is torture if they happen to survive. So he has a morale problem in spite of his vastly superior numbers; and he has the problem that, if he attacks and is driven off or savaged by them, it will destabilize his rule and the appearance of strength on which it rests. It is so clear to him that this is an unhappy position that he withdraws his forces across the Tigris (thus further emphasizing how close we are to modern Baghdad, so close to both the great rivers). 

The discussion of whether or not to surrender their arms involves some straightforward Greek philosophy, all of which points to keeping the arms. That section is enjoyable reasoning and shows practical wisdom in a state of difficulty.  

"Conquerors do not, as a rule, give up their arms" [Meaning that the Greeks had whipped all Persians yesterday -- Grim]... 

Cleanor the Arcadian, by right of seniority, answered: "They would sooner die than give up their arms." Then Proxenus the Theban said: "For my part, I marvel if the king demands our arms as our master, or for the sake of friendship merely, as presents. If as our master, why need he ask for them rather than come and take them? But if he would fain wheedle us out of them by fine speeches, he should tell us what the soldiers will receive in turn for such kindness." ...

Theopompus the Athenian spoke. "Phalinus," he said, "at this instant, as you yourself can see, we have nothing left but our arms and our valour. If we keep the former we imagine we can make use of the latter; but if we deliver up our arms we shall presently be robbed of our lives. Do not suppose then that we are going to give up to you the only good things which we possess. We prefer to keep them; and by their help we will do battle with you for the good things which are yours." Phalinus laughed when he heard those words, and said: "Spoken like a philosopher, my fine young man, and very pretty reasoning too..."

Clearchus said "The sight of you, Phalinus, caused me much pleasure; and not only me, but all of us, I feel sure; for you are a Hellene even as we are--every one of us whom you see before you. In our present plight we would like to take you into our counsel as to what we had better do touching your proposals. I beg you then solemnly, in the sight of heaven--do you tender us such advice as you shall deem best and worthiest, and such as shall bring you honour of after time, when it will be said of you how once on a time Phalinus was sent by the great king to bid certain Hellenes yield up their arms, and when they had taken him into their counsel, he gave them such and such advice. You know that whatever advice you do give us cannot fail to be reported in Hellas."

Clearchus threw out these leading remarks in hopes that this man, who was the ambassador from the king, might himself be led to advise them not to give up their arms, in which case the Hellenes would be still more sanguine and hopeful. But, contrary to his expectation, Phalinus turned round and said: "I say that if you have one chance, one hope in ten thousand to wage a war with the king successfully, do not give up your arms. That is my advice. If, however, you have no chance of escape without the king's consent, then I say save yourselves in the only way you can." And Clearchus answered: "So, then, that is your deliberate view? Well, this is our answer, take it back. We conceive that in either case, whether we are expected to be friends with the king, we shall be worth more as friends if we keep our arms than if we yield them to another; or whether we are to go to war, we shall fight better with them than without."

So, no. You will not be getting our arms. Nor does the King attempt to do so.

The Greeks withdraw to rejoin their native allies, and then decide to strike off north because they already know the way they came has no food upon it. They shortly come upon the outliers of the King's army, who withdraw further before them. The King is so eager to be rid of them that he sends another embassy to discuss further options. After a further discussion Tissaphernes proposes to lead them safely out of Persia, arranging for them to purchase food along the way in return for their promise not to raid the countryside or wage war upon it. He then keeps them there for 20 days while preparing for his own journey, during which time the Greeks suspect treachery is brewing but choose to wait for the promised escort instead of having to fight all the long way out.

The Greatest Scandal of Our Lives

The USAID/State Department funding schemes are far vaster than Watergate, far bigger than Iran/Contra, embrace the gain-of-function scandal, a conspiracy to suppress free inquiry and expression, and even the financing of international terrorism.

The worst of it appears to me so far to be the erection of influence and psychological operations machinery to be used against the American people, at their own expense as taxpayers. The attempt at mind control and political influence by the administrative state is unacceptable and must be punished more harshly than it is easy to imagine. 

The terrorism-funding is nothing to sneeze at either. It’s quite enough for a scandal of its own. 

UPDATE: The USAID funding was being used to promote direct assaults on two sets of our Bill of Rights liberties, both those of the first and the second amendments. Our taxes were being used by our own government to set up organizations designed to destroy our rights, and to get other governments to do the same. 

17 Days of Trump, for Piano

 

Anabasis V: Scythed Chariots

In the great battle just described, there was an ineffective use of a rather innovative weapons system that was specifically designed to contest heavy infantry hoplite units. This was the scythed chariot, which is exactly what you would imagine it to be from the name. There's also a Wikipedia article on the subject.

For the most part these things were not highly effective. One can imagine them having a significant psychological effect on the unit being charged by them. 

Xenophon does tell of a time (395 BC), however, when several hundred Greeks, caught in the open by the Persians, were charged by just two scythed chariots, scattering the men and allowing many to be cut down by the cavalry (Hellenica, IV.1.17-19). Indeed, this was their proper function: to panic and disrupt the enemy, allowing mounted troops and infantry to charge the broken line.

Most famously, scythed chariots were used by Darius III against Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. There were two-hundred such chariots, says Diodorus Siculus, designed to astonish and terrify the enemy.

"From each of these there projected out beyond the trace horses scythes three spans long, attached to the yoke, and presenting their cutting edges to the front. At the axle housings there were two more scythes pointing straight out with their cutting edges turned to the front like the others, but longer and broader. Curved blades were fitted to the ends of these" (Library of History, XVII.53.2; also Arrian, III.8).

Diodorus records that, when the chariots attacked the phalanx, the Macedonians beat their shields with their spears, creating such a din that the horses shied, turning the chariots back on the Persians. Those that continued forward were allowed to pass as the soldiers opened wide gaps in the line. Some horses were killed as they charged ahead but the momentum of others allowed them to ride through, the blades of the chariots severing "the arms of many, shields and all, and in no small number of cases they cut through necks and sent heads tumbling to the ground with the eyes still open and the expression of the countenance unchanged, and in other cases they sliced through ribs with mortal gashes and inflicted a quick death" (XVII.58.2-5).

They're the kind of thing Hollywood would love, but definitely not the tank of the ancient world -- and ultimately no real threat to the dominance of heavy infantry on the battlefield of the era. 

Standing Down

There was a similar closure and folding-into-State of the US Information Agency during the Clinton administration. It resulted in a permanent loss of capacity and expertise in information warfare, which was thought not to be needed any longer due to the end of the Soviet Union. Russian Active Measures did take a while to get back to full speed, or whatever you would describe as their current speed; but after 9/11, we realized that we had lost a lot in terms of our ability to recognize and respond to dangerous messaging in the Islamic world. 

This one is way faster and more hostile. 

A brief message posted late Tuesday night on USAID’s website states, “On Friday, February 7, 2025, at 11:59 pm (EST) all USAID direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally,” except for select employees in “mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs. Essential personnel expected to continue working will be informed by Agency leadership by Thursday, February 6, at 3:00pm (EST).”

The government will arrange return flights for all USAID workers stationed outside the United States within 30 days. The administration “will consider case-by-case exceptions and return travel extensions based on personal or family hardship,” such as children’s school term, “personal or familial medical needs, pregnancy, and other reasons.”

“Thank you for your service,” concludes the message.

We've seen a lot of demonstration that USAID was also performing improper functions -- maybe mostly performing improper functions -- so perhaps it is warranted. It won't be free, though.