Hello everybody, this is Stan R. Mitchell and you’re listening to The View from the Front podcast, a show about military matters happening around the world, followed by some motivation at the end of each episode! Because who doesn’t need all the motivation they can get?! At least once or twice a week!
Every Tuesday and Friday, I discuss military and defense news, as well as some history, motivation, and wisdom. (And I do all of this from a moderate perspective.)
I am your host, and I’m a prior infantry Marine, who dropped the sword and picked up the pen. After joining the Marine Corps at the age of 17 to serve four years in the infantry, I exited military service, earned a degree, and spent ten years as a journalist, learning about our government and how it works.
I went on to become an author and have written eleven books to date, and now I’m here, a twice-a-week podcaster, who’s still in love with both this country and the news. And I see this podcast as a small way to continue serving our country, doing my best to inform and unite us in a time that we’re as divided as we’ve probably been in a hundred years.
Thanks so much for joining us today! I really enjoy talking about military matters and motivation, and I truly am honored that you’re here.
I will also say our democracy doesn’t work if we don’t have informed voters, and that I think foreign-policy decisions are the most important decisions that we face as a country.
They lead to greater consequences: more deaths, higher spending, etc. Foreign policy decisions can be tragic and heartbreaking, and it’s important that we get them right. And when we get them wrong, such as we did in Vietnam, then the faster we course correct, the faster we can reduce how many lives we lose.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do think much can be gained from discussing this, and creating a community where we all talk about these issues twice a week and do our best to make the correct decisions.
What follows are the source notes for this podcast. I apologize that I don’t have time to type up well-written, full episodes as I used to do. I’m still working a full-time job and squeezing in my research and recording the episodes as best I can. Maybe in the future I’ll be able to do full write-ups, as well.
Source notes follow below, with subject heading in bold. (I again apologize for not being able to do full write-ups at this time.):
Ukraine:
Link to thread by retired General Mick Ryan.
China:
From the story (hat tip to David Mitchell):
Taiwan’s geography leaves it vulnerable to a blockade. Its population, industry and ports are concentrated on its western flank, closest to China.
China could impose a blockade, by sending ships and submarines to prevent vessels from entering or leaving Taiwan’s ports. It could use warplanes and missiles to dominate the skies.
Syria:
Questions are good.
Afghanistan:
And if you missed the previous podcast, where I talk about the Afghanistan withdrawal and you can actually hear the emotion in my voice, see below (or go to this link):
Bonus material:
The US military is still missing 6 nuclear weapons that were lost decades ago
Motivation and wisdom:
And then I always like to end with this one:
And with that, thanks for joining us this week on The View from the Front.
Make sure to visit our website, stanrmitchell.substack.com, again, that’s stanrmitchell.substack.com. From there, you can subscribe to the show by email or in iTunes, Stitcher, or your other favorite channel, so you’ll never miss a show.
While you’re at it, if you found value in this show, we’d appreciate a rating on iTunes – or if you’d simply tell a friend about the show, that would help us out too. And if you really want to really show us some love, throw a few bucks in the hat by subscribing. That will get you the Tuesday edition without the one-day delay, and it’ll also help us grow and improve the show. And if you dig military matters as much as me, make sure you check out my books. You can find all 11 of them on Amazon.
Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. Don’t forget to check out my books. I’ve written a CIA/Marine sniper series, a detective series, a private investigator series, an action-packed Western, a motivational/biography book about President Obama, and two realistic war novels: one about World War II and one about Afghanistan.
Stan R. Mitchell: The view from the front podcast for 8-26-22.