Tom Kratman > Quotes

“Amateurs think about tactics, but professionals think about logistics.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“Picture the poor Arab private. He knows no one in his unit gives a shit about him; after all, he doesn't give a shit about any of them, either. They're not family. What happens when that private is placed in the loneliest position in the world, the modern battlefield? He runs at the first sign things are going badly. (He'll be fine as long as they are going well, though. Note: things rarely go well.)”
― Tom Kratman, Training for War: An Essay

“Okay," agreed Bernie. "Now what I wouldn't give for a holocaust cloak." "A what?" "Never mind. It's an inside joke, an old inside joke.”
― Tom Kratman, Caliphate

“More objective sources had told Hamilton that people with different diets will smell different, no matter their personal hygiene habits.”
― Tom Kratman, Caliphate

“We don't drink to forget. We drink to remember.”
― Tom Kratman, Caliphate

“The Caliphate produces only one thing of genuine excellence, and that product is fanaticism.”
― Tom Kratman, Caliphate

“One of the constants of mass psychology is that, for example, when the Huns show up, the Goths move on looking for greener pastures without any Huns. In the United States we can see this, in proto form, in California, where the population of the culturally Anglo are leaving in greater numbers than are coming in.”
― Tom Kratman, Caliphate

“. I guess the decay of a corpse is progress, too . . . from the point of view of the bacteria.”
― Tom Kratman, Caliphate

“The road of life is paved with flat squirrels who couldn’t make a decision.”
― Tom Kratman, A Pillar of Fire by Night

“The harsh terms imposed on Germany created the economic and political atmosphere that enabled the Nazis to come to power.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“In Fourth Generation war, the state loses its monopoly on war. All over the world,”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“The US military’s greatest shame is that it today remains a Second Generation force, despite the ready availability of books like Fighting Power that clearly show the superiority of the Third Generation.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“America, with a closed political system (regardless of which party wins, the Establishment remains in power and nothing really changes) and a poisonous ideology of multiculturalism, is a prime candidate for the homegrown variety of Fourth Generation war, which is by far the most dangerous kind.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“Grant the opposing armies the ‘honors of war,’ tell them what a fine job they did, make their defeat ‘civilized’ so they can survive the war institutionally intact and then work for your side.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“How U.S forces conduct themselves after the battle might be as important in Fourth Generation war as how they fight the battle. What the USMC calls cultural intelligence is of vital importance in Fourth Generation war, and it must go down to the lowest rank. In Iraq, the Marines seem to be grasping this much better than the U.S. Army.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“Man is not what he thinks he is; he is what he hides. —André Malraux”
― Tom Kratman, The Rods and the Axe

“The very success of the Western way of war has led to its increasing irrelevance with regards to ongoing conflicts; how can the enemy state be defeated when it has already been destroyed, not only as a coherent military force but as a government entity as well?”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“martial transformation from the Western way of war to a neo-Eastern way of war is, like most historical changes in the art of war, the result of technological advancement. The”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“Democracy, it has been said, can only exist until the voting populace discovers it can vote itself largesse from the public coffers. Though it is less often said; it also happens that the voting populace discovers—indeed it is educated to the notion—that it has the power to radically expand”
― Tom Kratman, The Lotus Eaters

“kinetic energy goes up at the square of impact velocity,”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“Osama bin-Laden, though reportedly very wealthy, lives in a cave. Yes, it is for security, but it is also leadership by example. It may make it harder to separate, both physically and psychologically, Fourth Generation war leaders from their troops. It also makes it harder to discredit those leaders with their followers.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“Whenever I begin to wonder if ICOTESCAS, the International Community Of The Ever So Caring And Sensitive, aren’t really just self-centered sociopaths, I find I can bring my mind back to reality by contemplating the issue of modern day African slavery. There are groups—Christian Solidarity International, for example—who raise money to “redeem,” which is to say, free, which is to say, pay ransom for, slaves held in Africa. The people in these groups seem to feel very good about themselves when they ransom a slave. And, as long as it makes them feel good to do so, I suppose they don’t feel the need to think about what they’re doing, or to realize that every time they do it, they make slave raiding more profitable, and increase the numbers of slaves taken.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“While artificially intelligent, they lacked the creativity, boldness, and sneakiness of the devious human mind.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“It was men who stopped slavery. It was men who ran up the stairs in the Twin Towers to rescue people. It was men who gave up their seats on the lifeboats of the Titanic. Men are made to take risks and live passionately on behalf of others. —John Eldredge”
― Tom Kratman, Days of Burning, Days of Wrath

“Clio, the patron goddess of history, has a sense of humor; she teaches us that not all problems have solutions”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“And futurists think about thermodynamics.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“A Third Generation military focuses outward, on the situation, the enemy, and the result the situation requires,”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse

“Dar al Islam and the Dar al Harb, the House of Submission and the House of War.”
― Tom Kratman, Caliphate

“No atheists in foxholes, they say. I think that, given the power of the Holy Spirit as manifested in the Glenlivet distillery, there shall soon be only good Roman Catholics afloat. Well . . . and perhaps the odd Presbyterian. Now if only I can find something suitable to bless for the benefit of Sinbad”
― Tom Kratman, Yellow Eyes

“Third Generation war, also a product of World War I, was developed by the German Army and is commonly known as blitzkrieg, or maneuver warfare.”
― Tom Kratman, Riding the Red Horse