Tag Archives: Featured

ANALYSIS by Susan Katz Keating Long before the U.S. military strike that captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Venezuela was not simply an authoritarian regime awaiting a reckoning. It was a hijacked democracy; a country that began with elections but saw its institutions hollowed out and repurposed by leaders who …

ANALYSIS by Austin Lee Editor’s note: This analysis originally was published on November 9. As Austin asked then: “Could we actually invade? Of course we could.” As it turns out, we did. Stand on any hill in Caracas at night and you can see the glow of the flares from Lake …

After the Soviets discovered huge reserves of natural gas in Uzbekistan, this part of the USSR became the main gas producing region in the country. But things went wrong, and one of its key gas fields turned into a man-made disaster of unimaginable magnitude. Hellish fire The unprecedented emergency at …

It started as a small-time street gang in 1950’s Los Angeles, and took its name from where it was based: 18th Street, in the city’s Rampart District. It evolved over the years, until the 18th Street Gang – also known as “Barrio 18” – became one of the largest youth gangs …

by Bruce Pannier “Well guys, are we going, or are we going to sit here taking a piss?” It has been many years since the culmination of the so-called Russian constitutional crisis, when the country’s president, Boris Yeltsin, sought to dissolve the parliament and then ordered the military to crush …

COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating I recently did my annual demographic survey on the Soldier of Fortune audience – and the results prompted me to send a message to certain readers. Old hands, listen up. This is for you. Bear with me for a little context. In the survey, the big …

When a guerrilla missile brought down a Rhodesian airliner in 1978, the crash was only the beginning. by Gatimu Juma It should have been a routine flight. The Bush War was well underway in Rhodesia, but on that day in 1978, civilian air travel was safe. Or so it seemed. …

by Greg Chabot The beginning of February 2005 was a busy time in Baqubah. Insurgent activity had picked up considerably, keeping all of us at the Police HQ on our toes. With the end of the deployment coming, I had tried multiple times to extend my tour but was denied. …

Perfume, purloined jewelry and a millionaire’s son form the complex story of Herbert Repsold, a Navy deserter who also was known as the Perfumed Burglar. In the early 1900s, Repsold was a troublesome youth. Growing tired of his son’s antics, the elder Repsold cut off his son’s cash and forced …

by Cliff Wade Iraq, 2007 Every now and again we’d get an outsider attached to our unit on missions. Sometimes they were enablers who proved to be assets, other times they were regarded as interlopers who got in the way. One such instance sticks out in my mind over others: …