Category: Modern Warfare

Defending Taiwan

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The world in 2025 is a bigger geopolitical mess than it was in 1914. Taiwan, Ukraine, and Israel are developed states at the epicenter of life-or-death struggles.[1] After a recent visit to Taiwan, this article describes a way, and quite probably the only way, for Taiwan to survive as an independent nation if China invades.

By Mark D. Harris

Chiang Kai Shek (1887-1975) fled mainland China and moved his nationalists, the Kuomintang (KMT), to Taiwan after their defeat by the communists under Mao Tse Dung (1893-1976) in 1949. Since that year, the Communists ruling mainland China have declared that Taiwan is a renegade province and they will take it back by any means possible, including war.[2]  Every modern Chinese ruler, including the current autocrat Xi Jin Ping, has reaffirmed this intention.[3]

A pre-invasion scenario

Chinese paramilitary “fishing boats”, coast guard ships, and naval vessels encircle Taiwan under the guise of military exercises, law enforcement, or humanitarian actions. These boats partially disrupt Taiwanese imports and exports. Then they leave, having learned valuable lessons and helped lull Taiwanese defenders and politicians into a sleepy acquiescence, like a frog in warming water. Chinese aircraft from bases such as Longtian (in Fujian) harass Taiwanese responding forces. Cyber attackers, space forces, special forces, and others engage. Much of this is happening today. By not firing the first shot, the Chinese undercut nations that may oppose them. If no one physically challenged the blockade, Taiwan would slowly be strangled to death.

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Avoiding Putin’s Trap

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President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to stop the Russian war on Ukraine. While he possesses a strong personality, Trump’s personality alone is not likely to stop the T-80s from rolling into Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. Stopping the war is a worthy goal, but Trump and his team need to ensure that they do not lose the peace. The following article illuminates how to get a fair deal.

By Mark D. Harris

Background

Ukraine is renowned for its fertile, black soil, and Ukrainian agriculture ranks among the most productive in the world. Fifty-five percent of Ukraine’s land is arable, mostly in the western and central regions, and 14% of Ukrainians work in agriculture.[1] Equally important, Ukraine has historically had several excellent ports on the Black Sea to safely and cheaply get its crops to market. These ports include Odessa, Chernomorsk, Yuzhny, Berdyansk, Mariupol, and Sevastopol.

Situated to the north and east, Russia lacks Ukraine’s vast swathes of rich farmland. For centuries, Russians moving to Ukraine to find a better life had few opportunities to settle in the western and central regions since native Ukrainians were there. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions along the Dnieper River in the east lacked such productive soil but, as the Industrial Revolution began in the 19th century, these regions had something even more valuable. Eastern Ukraine is flush with coal and iron and has a major river to move the coal and iron to market. In the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries, Russian settlers flocked to these regions, together known as the Donbas. Nationwide, Ukrainians account for 77.8% of the people in the Ukraine and Russians account for 17.3%, but the Russian population percentage is much higher in the Donbas and in the Crimean Peninsula.[2]

Prelude to War

Putin had what he considered to be good reasons to attack Ukraine. He argued that the West had invaded Russia six times in the past two centuries, while Russia had not initiated hostilities against the West.[3] He cited NATO encroachment as a threat to Russia. Putin styled himself as a modern Russian savior along the lines of Peter the Great.

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Arab-Israeli Conflict

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On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Arab terror group Hamas suddenly attacked Israel, killing over 1400. In the succeeding two months, more than 10,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed. This article, part of a lecture series called the Bible and the News, answers the questions: What is the situation? How did we get here? What does the Bible say? What do we do about it?

By Mark D. Harris

What is the situation?

Jews and Palestinian Arabs claim the same land as their homeland, the area known as Palestine. 25 April 2023 was the 75th anniversary of the founding of Israel. 7 Oct 2023 was the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, the Arab states’ most successful war against Israel.

The Israeli claim to the land. God gave Abraham and his descendants the Promised Land. The granted land includes Canaan, part of Transjordan and much of modern Syria. The promise is far larger than modern Israel.

  • Bible testimony
    • Genesis 12:1-3, 7 – God promises to make Abram into a great nation.
    • Genesis 15:18-21 – God promises give Abram a son, make him a great people, and give him the land of Canaan.
    • Genesis 26:3 – God repeats His promises to Isaac, Abraham’s son.
    • Genesis 28:13-15 – God repeats His promises to Jacob, Abraham’s grandson.
    • Exodus 23:30-33 – God repeats His promises to the Hebrew nation.
    • Numbers 34:1-12 – God promises specific areas in Canaan to the twelve Hebrew tribes who came out of Egypt.
  • Historically, the Hebrews only comprised a majority in Canaan from roughly 1400 BC to 586 BC, 800 years. Jews did not live in the land in large numbers from AD 135 to about 1940, over 1800 years.
  • The Hebrew Temple Mount and much of Hebrew religious history is in Palestine.

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Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift – 22 Jan 1879

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A METT-TC, Combined Arms, and Battlespace Analysis of one of the least expected defeats and miraculous victories in military history.  

By Mark D, Harris

The military experiences of the British Empire during the reign of Victoria are filled with lessons for modern day soldiers. Isandlwana was one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of British arms, and Rorke’s Drift, occurring on the same day, only a few miles from Isandlwana and against the same enemy, was one of the most amazing victories. Queen Victoria awarded eleven Victoria Crosses (VC), the highest honor in the British Army. It was the most to VCs awarded to members of any regiment in a single action in British history.

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Greco-Turkish War 1919-1922

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The carnage and crucible of WW1 didn’t end in 1918, but the gruesome genocide continued. The Greeks and Turks fought for centuries before then, and have continued since. No wonder. 

By Mark D. Harris

World War I had been a catastrophe for the Ottoman Empire. Siding with the Central Powers, including Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria, Sultan Mehmed V Rashād (The True Path Follower) fought the Serbians, Rumanians, Russians, British, French, Arabs, and others. The Turks enjoyed some early successes, notably at Gallipoli (1915) and Kut (1916). Such victories emboldened radicals in the government to attack their traditional enemies, the Armenians, and in this genocide 1.5 million Armenian Christians perished. The tide of war turned against the Ottomans, as it did against all of the Central Powers, and ultimately the strategically encircled Turks lost their empire and their political system. An estimated 5 million Turks died, the sultanate ceased to exist, and Mustafa Kemal, later known as the Father of the Turks (Ataturk), rose to prominence.

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The War of 1812

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In many ways a forgotten war, the War of 1812 was America’s first test as a nation. Had it ended differently, we might have been colonies again. 

Reenactors and Living Historians in 2013 reveled in the 150th anniversary of Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, some of the most monumental battles of the American Civil War. Thousands of participants, tens of thousands of spectators, and merchants of all kinds have gathered to relive these events that shaped our nation and its people forever.

2013 and 2014 have seen anniversaries of other battles from an earlier war which has also shaped American History, the War of 1812. Though overshadowed by its later, longer and bloodier cousin, the War of 1812 was the first major military test of new United States, the only conflict in our history in which a foreign power invaded our states, and the only one in which our capital, Washington DC, was captured. The War of 1812 is famous for Fort McHenry’s valiant stand against the British fleet, the setting of Francis Scott Key’s Star Spangled Banner, and for Andrew Jackson’s (Old Hickory) decimation of the British forces at the Battle of New Orleans.

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