From West Point to Pointing at the West

Danny Sjursen [correction]

A History of Military Tech

This year the Russian Federation have given glimpses of three pieces of new military technology: their newest mobile air defense system the S-500, their latest hypersonic (max speed somewhere between Mach 7 and 9) missile system Zircon, and their light weight export market 5th generation fighter aeroplane Checkmate.

I had read about these from some of my regular sources Andrei Martyanov , Pepe Escobar and The Saker, but enjoyed far more Alexander Mercouris' discussion of these. Alex engages these development from a historical perspective, going way back to Soviet era military design and objectives and the structure and key people behind the Soviet military industrial base. I have included each of these three videos from Alex in the sources. They are not the focus of this article, though are interesting.

Alex did however miss a trick, and I was planning on writing an article on that, which has become this introduction.

When the USSR's air force and navy were so out numbered by their USA rival they did not go down the line of producing more ships and planes. Their air strategy was the S-25 air defence system for Moscow which evolved into both mobile and fixed air defense systems, culminating in the S-500. To counter the naval threat they developed submarines and anti-ship missiles. A major concern during the Cold War were ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles). One word just keeps showing up, missiles, which points to the issue that Alex failed to mention; his history starts just a few years too late.

One of the spoils of WWII were the German scientists and engineers. The transfer of many of these people to the USA is known as Operation Paperclip. What is not much spoken about is that the USSR conquered the Wehrmacht in Germany. There was a prize for which Soviet infantry company put the Soviet national flag on top of the Bundestag! This meant that the USSR got first pick of a lot of the German scientists/engineers. One of the Nazi's most innovative advances in technology during the "people mass murdering other people" (aka war) was in rocketry. The most famous of these was the V2 which was used in the "Blitz". The other great military technology advance was in submarine warfare.

I posit that the Soviet choices to counter the USA air and naval power with missiles and submarines is in no small part due to the addition of German technologists to the Soviet industrial base. This also leads to the "space race" as the Soviets launch Sputnik. Why this is not spoken of more, I know not. Given that the Russian Federation has recently opened much of its archives, I hope for some more information on this German to Soviet military technology personnel transfer.

Mil-Tech Porn

Having spent far too much time understanding these recent Russian military technologies and the changes they pose to strategic arms, I felt that I was suffering from "Military Tech Porn" and needed to ground myself in some good ol' anti-war rhetoric.

One of my favourite anti-war writers and speakers is ex-Major Danny Sjursen. He signs up, trains at West Point, "serves" in both Iraq and Afghanistan, reads a hell of a lot both in and out of deployment, transitions from trying to lead an effective combat force to preventing his troops from dying and trying to get these stupid wars ended. Post combat he teaches history at the USA's officer training academy, West Point. There are no better anti-war and pro-peace voices then ex-military combat veterans.

Whereas people like Ben Griffin (ex-SAS UK special forces, and active in the UK branch of Veterans for Peace for a while) highlight the brutality of both military training and war itself and the effect that has on a soldier, Danny consistently does three other things which help him stand out: he is brutally honest in his complicity in the parts of war in which he partook, and he deeply cares about the widespread ripple effect that war has on both the soldiers and societies on both sides of a conflict. I have great respect for Mr Griffin; it takes great personal commitment to stand against something to which one has been so indoctrinated. It takes another level of self awareness and bravery to expand that understanding to wider societes.

(While I'm name dropping ex-combat military pro-peace activists I should mention Mike Prysner who is the video editing and production key behind Abby Martin, especially in her Empire Files series. The most recent piece on CIA covert operations in Afghanistan dovetails very nicely with the “four components” of USA military power in Afghanistan that Danny details in his interview with Facts on the Ground (see sources).)

Danny and some other pro-peace ex-military friends run a podcast called "Fortress On a Hill" which is my style of podcast because I can just download the audio file and play it with my choice of audio player instead of being thrust into some in-browser JavaScript monstrosity. During a recent episode they interviewed Lee Camp, a progressive peace-nik who is a comedian and satirist. Conspicuously, Danny was absent. Thus, I knew something was up, and thankfully it seems it was not ill health, but a tonne of work.

The first was one of his regular contributions to Anti-War.com in which he comments on the recent decision by USA President Biden to withdraw uniformed combat troops from Afghanistan while leaving a battalion of infantry to defend their embassy in Kabul. An extended interview with Anti-war.com's editor and Libertarian Institute founder Scott Horten is included in the sources.

From West Point to Pointing at the West

The far more important work was his new book "A True History of the United States" subtitled "Indigenous Genocide, Racialized Slavery, Hyper-Capitalism, Militarist Imperialism and Other Overlooked Aspects of American Exceptionalism". To paraphrase RJ Eskow, that's one hell of a sub-title. The book clocks in at over 600 pages.

The genesis of the book is a story worth telling. Whilst still teaching at West Point Danny had begun publishing pro-peace articles. Before long he is publishing at Anti-War.com and Truthdig.com back in the day when Bob Sheer was still the editor of Truthdig (he now runs Sheerpost.com at which many an interesting article is published and I get my weekly dose of Chris Hedges). That is a story in itself; the "sugar Daddy" of Truthdig tried to fire Sheer, and Hedges and many other signature authors all did a little collective action and resigned en-masse thus gutting Truthdig.

While speaking with Sheer, Danny proclaims (I am paraphrasing):

If only people knew the history that I've been teaching at West Point.

Oh, Danny, don't say things like that to people like Sheer! It turns out that his undergraduate history course had 38 classes, and true to Sheer form the response was, "Well, write it and I'll publish it!". So, begins a weekly 37 part series at Truthdig which becomes the foundation for the book. Danny notes that various chapters are expanded, transitions are added, with a new preface and epilogue.

So, you now can receive an undergraduate history of the USA as once taught at West Point. If you like audio books, Danny reads it himself.

Below I offer you a collection of video interviews and podcasts with Danny during which he speaks of either the article or book or both, and often other topics learned from the desolation of war.

I hope you enjoy his thoughts and opinions as much as I have.

Sources

Alexander Mercouris' recent videos on Russian Military Technology. Not the focus of this article, but for your reference.

"Russia's Air War Gamechanger: The S-500 Air Defence System"

"US F-35 Checkmated: Russia Unveils New Light 5G Fighter Jet"

"[UPDATED VERSION]Pentagon Alarmed as Russia Tests Gamechanging Zircon Hypersonic Anti Ship Missile"

Danny Sjursen

Spare Us an Afghan Threequel, Joe: Don’t Get Pulled Back In!, Danny Sjursen

The Truthdig Series: "American History for Truthdiggers: A Once, Always and Future Empire", Danny Sjursen

"Ep. 5554 – Danny Sjursen on the Danger of an Afghanistan 'Threequel' from Biden – 7/9/21" Scott Horton Show

“Maj. Danny Sjursen, Ret.: A True History of the United States” The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow

"Withdrawal or redrawing the war? Danny Sjursen on Afghanistan" Facts on the Ground

"Danny Sjursen: Overlooked Aspects of American Exceptionalism" JENerational Change

Culture

“Universal Soldier” Buffy Sainte-Marie

I quite like the Donovan version, though he does not have the distinctive vibrato.

Correction on 2021-08-07

When I introduced Danny Sjursen in the second paragraph of “Mil-Tech Porn” my second sentence was:

Danny got caught up in the post 9/11 hysteria.

This implied that he signed up after and because of the 9/11 attacks. His recent article at Anti-War.com illustrates my error. He quotes being in the gym at West Point when someone comes in to inform of the events in New York. Accordingly, I have removed the above sentence from that paragraph. It may, by itself, be accurate, but in its place it implied that this provided the motivation for his joining the military, which is patently false.