No feeling person watched the events of this weekend without sadness and horror. The audacious sneak attack by Hamas across what was supposed to be one of the best patrolled borders in the world. The scenes of horror and tragedy that followed, as Hamas exploited its tactical success and proceeded to murder civilians and law enforcement personnel and capture military bases, temporarily occupying (or de-occupying, from their perspective) Israeli settlements near Gaza. Israel’s understandably outraged response, building as of this writing, which everyone seems sure will result in (another tragedy) horrors for the Palestinian people, and could — though this is not certain — mean the end of Hamas (as it should), as well.

Like many readers, I reached out to those friends of mine who live in Israel, to check that they were ok, and if there was anything I could do, in my limited power. I pray that the hostages taken by Hamas are somehow returned to their families with a minimum of harm. I do not know any Palestinians, but I pray that they emerge from the sea of fire that Hamas unleashed as whole and well as possible; surely, they are among the most depressed and oppressed people in the world, with little to hope for, strangers in what was once a nation that bore their name, now on the wrong end of one of the more competent (recent intelligence failure aside) militaries on earth.

THE BIG STORY

Defense Media — A Bulwark

How does a country benefit from a strong defense media?

Last night, with Context VC’s Tim Hsia and sometime Military Media contributor Michael Schnieder, I attended the Defense Media Awards. Many of the attendees were representatives from various defense industry leaders. Some were journalists, up for awards. Many of those journalists are people I read occasionally, a few are among the finest defense media reporters in the business, people whose work I read whenever I see their name on a byline.

There is a tension at such awards, in the sense that it underlines a relationship that exists between America’s defense industry and the media that covers it. The power disparity between a multi-billion dollar private company where many employees require Top Secret clearances such as RTX and a reporter for, say, Military.com (I use this example because I have reported for them in the past, and greatly admire their newsroom) is formidable. Some degree of access journalism or horse trading is necessary; if the only time RTX sees your number come up is for a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism that makes them look foolish or incompetent, the level of access one will get to their decision-making process will necessarily be limited to a sentence or two of boilerplate from their public relations office.

If on the other hand one is fairhanded, and a serious investigative piece that sheds light on systemic wrongdoing is just one in a series of pieces that cover interesting or (dare I say it!) innovative work being done by what are supposed to be the crown jewels not only of U.S. military industry, but global military industry, one can expect over time to develop a truer and fairer sense of what’s happening at those companies. This is how it should be; whatever people or systems allowed subpar components to appear in jet engines needs to be tracked down and understood. Also, if the U.S. develops a way to intercept hypersonic missiles, I want to know that, that’s important information. Coverage of an industry is more than breathless pieces extolling a company’s virtues. It’s also more than a series of pieces that are uniformly and relentlessly critical, as though nothing good emerges from defense companies.

The military and defense beat in journalism is especially difficult to cover for that reason; no other industry is more rule-bound when it comes to sharing information (secret, top secret clearances constrain action), more tight-lipped when it comes to the truly transformative facts that can make a story or sink it. And the less time one has under one’s belt reporting, the easier it is to get spun; to be told information that’s inaccurate or incomplete. Every piece of information isn’t open to FOIA (though many are). Many pieces of information could be open to FOIA, but are so particular that one needs assistance from a person inside a company to understand how to word one’s request. Access, far more than in many other organizations, is tightly constrained, difficult to cultivate, and requires mature journalists with a strong sense of ethics and boundaries to navigate without stumbling into conflicts of interest.

But there is a tangible benefit to having a robust media that covers the defense industry and the military. These are the journalists who are constantly probing companies for flaws or weaknesses; these journalists are always on the hunt for corruption and criminal behavior. In the aggregate, this reporting helps elected representatives (and the people who elect them) decide what to fund with tax dollars and why, and QAQC a process that is largely opaque (and comfortable, too comfortable, with opacity).

There are countries that have withered or nonexistent “defense industry” reporters. When I first visited Ukraine in 2015, to report, many told me that the way journalists typically reported on the military was to take press releases from the military or from Ukroboronprom (the state-owned defense company) and repeat or rewrite them. People were trying to change this culture — and it has changed, as anyone following the Kyiv Independent can tell you. But one doesn’t get a situation like the one that existed in 2014, where the Ukrainian military was somewhere over 60,000 on paper, and 7,000 in reality, with an active and energetic defense media. One doesn’t get surprised in the worst possible way when as is the case in Russia, and many other countries, media cannot report on one’s military or defense industry. Or, at least, the odds of that happening are greatly diminished.

Military Media is a young organization, and attempts to assist in the telling of important stories that other publications and journalists may miss or pass over. It is part of an important fabric, and an industry that helps ensure that the U.S. military and the companies that build the military’s weapons and equipment stay honest and competitive.

TOP READS IN MONEY & FINANCE

The cost of repaying credit card debt is rising. Credit card use, meanwhile, is declining even faster.

Speaking of credit card bills — everyone using autopay getting worse at handling our budgets. At least, those of us who have budgets!

Private credit is the number one source for corporate America’s loans — not, as was once the case, banks. This has raised fears that the process of funding (and sustaining) business is becoming too opaque, and bubbles will risk forming unseen.

Accounting — a longtime bedrock of America’s service sector, and a career known for its reliability (if not, perhaps, its excitement) — is going through real problems, now. A competitive and dependable salary was the one thing that made it worth doing!

TOP READS IN THE MILITARY

The Marine Corps is slowly edging its way toward full integration of women where service begins: boot camp.

Without fanfare, the Army fired the garrison commander of West Point — the latest in a series of colonels being relieved under mysterious conditions.

The KC-10 is being retired, and has flown its last mission in support of U.S. military aircraft. A new refueling plane has been fielded to replace it.

The USMC is developing an autonomous aerial vehicle — drone doesn’t quite do the plane justice — as a complement to air and ground forces that they can afford to lose.

America’s educational system is not preparing people for a career in the military.

TOP READS FOR VETERANS

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom want to kick a dying veteran out of his home, because they hate veterans (there is more to this story).

A corn farmer decided to commemorate the bombing of a USMC garrison in Beirut with a corn maze.

TOP READS AROUND THE WORLD

The latest tragic chapter in the Israel-Palestine saga began this weekend, with fresh new horrors delivered each day. This time, the terrorist organization struck first, with a shockingly large, well-coordinated, and brazen assault on an unprepared Israeli military.

Nickel-rich Indonesia struggles to find a balance between developing mineral resources and protecting its diverse and important natural forests.

X / Twitter continues to bleed users as Musk shuffles his way from bad decision to bad decision — here, embracing the very thing people liked least about the platform, unmediated bullshit.

To top it all off (everything), a massive earthquake in Western Afghanistan left thousands dead and an unknown number injured. With winter approaching, the true cost of the damage may never be known.

A clever ring of thieves weren’t clever enough to evade justice when Home Depot collaborated with law enforcement to track them down. An interesting look at online resale businesses that depend on theft.

HUMOR

As a fan of Biden’s German Shepherd — can only imagine the stress and bad vibes that poor animal lives with in the White House — I found this piece amusing.