Steven Pressfield's Blog, page 151

Weekend Mashup, July 31 to August 2

This week's Mashup features jumps back and forth, between the past and present.

 

I did an online search for "the last days of the Taliban," after running across this cover for Time magazine's Dec. 17, 2001 edition. Hard to believe the cover ran in 2001. Here are a few other interesting reads from the past:

 

The Taliban and Afghanistan, Tony Karon, Time, 2001

 

 Taliban retreats from Afghan Capital, NewsHour "Extra" with Jim Lehrer, 2001

 

With Taliban as they prepare for the last stand, Jonathan Stee

"Writing Wednesdays" #2: The Most Important Writing Lesson I Ever Learned

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My first real job was in advertising.  I worked as a copywriter for an agency called Benton & Bowles in New York City.  An artist or entrepreneur's first job inevitably bends the twig.  It shapes who you'll become.  If your freshman outing is in journalism, your brain gets tattooed (in a good way) with who-what-where-when-why, fact-check-everything, never-bury-the-lead.  If you start out as a photographer's assistant, you learn other stuff.  If you plunge into business on your own, the education

"Writing Wednesdays" #2: The Most Important Writing Lession I Ever Learned

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My first real job was in advertising.  I worked as a copywriter for an agency called Benton & Bowles in New York City.  An artist or entrepreneur's first job inevitably bends the twig.  It shapes who you'll become.  If your freshman outing is in journalism, your brain gets tattooed (in a good way) with who-what-where-when-why, fact-check-everything, never-bury-the-lead.  If you start out as a photographer's assistant, you learn other stuff.  If you plunge into business on your own, the education

How Tribes Measure Their Own Strength

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Near Camp Joyce, Konar province. Photo by Andrew Lubin.

In the videos (and posts) on this site, we've talked about the characteristics of tribes and the tribal mindset. Among these are respect for elders, hostility to outsiders, the obligation of revenge, a code of honor rather than a system of laws, hospitality, capacity to endure hardship and the suppression of women. These qualities appear to be universal, or nearly so, across all continents during all periods of history. They seem to hold t

Weekend Mashup July 24 to 26

Announced this morning: Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti will be awarded the Medal of Honor.

 

From Gina Cavallaro's Army Times' article titled "White House Confirms Medal of Honor":

 

Sgt. 1st Class Jared Monti, a fire support specialist who was killed June 21, 2006, in Afghanistan, will receive the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat.

 

The announcement was made by the White House in a news release Friday morning. The award will be presented to Monti's parents in a Sept. 17 ceremony at the White Hou

"Writing Wednesdays": An Experiment

I'm going to try something new on Wednesdays from now on, which is to post pieces that are not about tribalism or Afghanistan, but about writing. This is #1.
The subject is professionalism. If you've read my book The War of Art, you know that I view professionalism not only as an asset ...

From a Vietnam Vet: A Guest Blog

My dear friend Printer Bowler is a former army captain who served with psychological operations units in Viet Nam (1966-67). He was attached to the Third Marine Amphibious force, I Corps near the DMZ. He's a perennial history student, now teaching, writing and pumping out radical troop-support propaganda from his home ...

Weekend Mashup July 17-19

Thank you for your Weekend Mashup suggestions.
 
A few of the blogs I've been introduced to this week include Global Guerrillas, Ink Spots, Sosh-P and Building Peace. When I saw T.X. Hammes mentioned in Building Peace's July 13 post, I was sold. All four are great blogs. Suggest you visit if ...

The Learning Curve

 
By Mark Safranski—aka "Zenpundit"
Steven Pressfield invited me to do a guest post here at "Tribes" and give my assessment of the vigorous debate that greeted the entry of "It's the Tribes, Stupid: War & Reality in Afghanistan" into the blogosphere. Or, at least the corner of the blogosphere that is concerned ...

What I Would Say Differently If I Were Saying It Again

 
The "It's the Tribes, Stupid" series launched just over a month ago.
 
The first episode and blog entry laid out my thesis—that what we're up against in Afghanistan is tribalism and the tribal mind-set. The comments started arriving.
 
Tribes, the Tribal Mindset, and the Enemy
           
Fabius Maximus was among the first ...