Lessons Lost in Time

A generator hums, dragging life into a street that shouldn’t need it. Kids kick a tattered ball, their laughter sharp, brittle against the heat, carried over the scent of diesel and frying arepas. Bolívar stares down from a mural, paint peeling, eyes split like the city itself. Lines curl around the corner for fuel, people shifting on cracked sidewalks, umbrellas doing double duty against the sun and the dust. The air is thick with waiting, impatience barely held in check, and even the dogs move slowly, like they know something’s off. Not war. Not yet. Just a country pretending the ground isn’t sliding out from under it, every heartbeat a quiet act of defiance. This is the Venezuela that rarely makes headlines anymore. The collapse did not happen in an explosion. It happened in exhaustion. Currency that loses value by the hour. Hospitals overwhelmed not by war wounds but by neglect. Politicians who shake hands on television while militias patrol the outskirts after dark. And beneath it all, a quiet resentment that is starting to find direction. The United States feels the pull whether it wants to or not. A flood of migrants crossing borders into Latin America and the Caribbean, putting pressure on nations that don’t need another crisis to worry about. Cartels and foreign powers carving influence in a region once considered firmly within Washington’s orbit. Oil reserves that still tempt, even after decades of mismanagement. And a government in Caracas that believes survival justifies any bargain, any ally, any escalation. This is not a story about good intentions or bad actors. It is about a moment when desperation meets geopolitics. When a collapsing state starts creating consequences far beyond its borders. When the United States realizes that distance is not the same thing as insulation. Today we dive into the questions nobody wants to say out loud: will the United States go to war with Venezuela, and what went wrong inside Venezuela to bring us to this moment? Because if you think war sounds unthinkable now, living with a failed state Venezuela may be a more difficult choice.NEW BOOK - Multidomain OperationsIf you want the honest picture of where war is going, without the gloss, start here: available on Amazonhttps://a.co/d/85mZYohFurther Readinghttps://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/venezuela-crisishttps://www.foreignaffairs.com/venezuela/grand-bargain-venezuelahttps://monthlyreview.org/articles/venezuelas-fragile-revolution/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can still feel that wind off the Liaodong Peninsula if you listen hard enough, it carries the ghosts of Port Arthur, Mukden, and the empires that thought they were too big to fail. One bled out. The other walked away with a victory that cost it its soul.This was trench warfare before Europe even knew the word. Six hundred thousand men fed into a grinder that proved industrial war didn’t care about flags, prayers, or imperial fantasies. Japan thought victory would earn respect. Russia thought size meant destiny. They both walked into a century that would break them.And the West? It applauded, took notes, and learned absolutely nothing.If you want to understand how the 20th century actually started, this is for you. With ghosts, rust, barbed wire, and two empires testing how much suffering they could inflict before something inside them snapped.This week on Lessons Lost in Time, we go deep into the war that rewired global power.If you’re into history that punches you in the chest instead of patting you on the head, click the link and listen now.FURTHER READINGhttps://digital-commons.usnwc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?params=/context/nwc-review/article/2203/&path_info=The_Russo_Japanese_War__Primary_Causes_of_Japanese_Success.pdfhttps://eprints.lse.ac.uk/6906/1/Aspects_of_the_Russo-Japanese_War.pdf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Japan. An island chain born of fire and salt, where mountains plunge into restless seas and the air smells of cedar, smoke, and ambition. A place where beauty comes with an edge and tradition carries the weight of centuries. This is not just a country. It is a code carved into the bones of its people. From the silent discipline of the samurai to the divine winds that smashed Mongol fleets, Japan’s identity was forged in isolation and hardened by the belief that sacrifice is the highest form of honor. For generations, it guarded its shores like a temple gate. When it stepped beyond them, it came as a storm. By the early 20th century, the Rising Sun was not content to rise. It wanted to blaze across the Pacific and claim it as its own. Pearl Harbor was not a mistake. It was a statement. A flash of steel meant to break the spine of an empire before it could even reach for a sword. And yet, precision can breed overconfidence. The same discipline that gave Japan its strength kept it from bending when the weight of war demanded it. From the jungles of New Guinea to the black sands of Iwo Jima, from the firebombed heart of Tokyo to the blinding light over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the nation that had sworn never to bow found itself forced to its knees. Today we are talking about the war that began with a war against China, then an invasion of the South Pacific and Hawaii and ended in an atomic dawn. We will look at the admirals and emperors who gambled everything, the island battles that bled armies dry, and the cultural collision between two powers that could not see the world the same way. This is not about heroes and villains. It is about nations that believed they were chosen by history, locked in a fight where surrender was not just defeat, it was the death of the soul. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It starts like any good story, with a promise. America, the liberator, the shining beacon. But behind that gleaming façade? The ugly truth of an empire trying to carve out a piece of the world’s pie, by any means necessary. The Philippines, caught in the middle, their fate decided by powers thousands of miles away. The Philippine American War, 1899-1902. What started as a fight for freedom quickly spiraled into a bloody nightmare. Casualties? Over 200,000, many of them civilians. What does that sound like to you? The Indian wars, Vietnam? Iraq? Afghanistan? Sure, but it’s not just history repeating itself. It’s the same scheme, one that’s been used, rewritten, and repurposed for centuries. But here’s the kicker: if America didn’t do it, someone else would have. Germany, Japan, or maybe Spain would have continued. The world was an empire-building machine, and we were all just cogs in the gears. So, does that matter? Is it enough to say, ‘Well, someone else would’ve done it’ and shrug it off? That question echoes into today. If you came for a clean, heroic tale, you won’t find it here. But if you want to understand what empire looks like up close, if you’re willing to sit with the blood, the noise, and the voices we’ve tried to forget, then pull up a chair. Because the Philippine-American War has stories it needs to tell you.Links to further readingThe Philippine War, 1899-1902 (Modern War Studies) https://a.co/d/aYiobxxAmerican Soldiers Write Home https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/58/The Philippine American War: America’s First Vietnam https://www.thecollector.com/philippine-american-war-us-first-vietnam/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This war didn’t just redraw a map. It rewired the balance of power in Asia and set the world on a path to Pearl Harbor, the invasion of Manchuria, and today’s tensions in the Taiwan Strait. You think 1894 is ancient history? Every move China and Japan make in the Pacific right now has an echo that starts here.China was an empire bleeding out in slow motion, clinging to tradition while foreign powers carved it up like spoils. Japan was a nation in a sprint, ripping itself into the modern age with steel, steam, and a chip on its shoulder the size of an island chain. Korea lit the match. Manchuria took the blast. The Treaty of Shimonoseki was the moment Asia’s future changed course, and the West barely noticed.And our guest this week, COL Andy Morgado. He has spent his life in the arena where history meets strategy. Thirty years in uniform. Three tours in Iraq. Four operational deployments to Korea. From battalion command to shaping the Army’s intellectual engine at the School of Advanced Military Studies, he’s been at the center of the conversations that decide wars before they start.This isn’t a dry history lesson. It’s the backstory to the fight that could define the 21st century. And you’ll hear it from a man who’s commanded in combat, shaped doctrine, and trained the minds who will fight the next one.If you think you understand the Pacific, listen to this episode. If you don’t, you’ll be blindsided when the past comes roaring back.LinksMultidomain Operations: The Pursuit of Battlefield Dominance in the 21st Centuryhttps://www.howgatepublishing.com/product-page/mdoThe Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895: Perceptions, Power, and Primacyhttps://www.amazon.com/Sino-Japanese-War-1894-1895-Perceptions-Primacy/dp/0521617456 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.