From Dictatorship to Democracy and Total Resistance. There is war in Europe and once again it is about oppressive dictatorships attacking free democracies. If there is room for a little hope in this mess, it must be that the incompetence and aggression of the Russian kleptocracy will be exposed and dealt with in a manner that will lead to democratic processes in Russia and Belarus. We are not in a place yet where this is the obvious development. It will take time, action, and a dedication to democratic, liberal values from millions of people who at the moment are pacified and afraid. I have today two books for them:
From Dictatorship to Democracy – A Conceptual Framework for Liberation. The book is basically a guide to prevent dictatorships and the most effective ways in which dictatorships can be successfully disintegrated with the least possible cost in suffering and lives. The author, political scientist Gene Sharp, draws on personal experience and interviews with people who fought dictatorially ruled countries in Russia, Panama, Poland, Chile, Tibet, and Burma. The book was written in 1993 and this version is the latest updated from 2010. The book is in the Public Domain, download it here:
From Dictatorship to Democracy
Total Resistance – Swiss Army Guide to Guerilla Warfare and Underground Operations. Secondly, we have a crash course in guerilla warfare. In a situation where large areas of territory will be temporarily lost to an enemy and the Army may be largely neutralized, how do units and civilians continue to fight? This book by Major H. Von Dach Bern, explores tactics and techniques of guerrilla warfare as far as these can be reconstructed from the experiences of past wars from the Spanish guerrillas fighting against Napoleon to the French Maquis of World War II as well as anti-communist riots in East Berlin and Poland, and the Anti-Communist revolution in Hungary. Download the book here:
Total Resistance
Shalom to you for this, good soul.
I served in the US Army, ending with Sgt. stripes, and leading a radar crew on a Nike nuke site in Germany, from 1975 to 1982.
The targets on my crew’s scopes were comrades of a certain middle-management Col. in the KGB.
That Col.’s name was Vladimir Putin, which authoritarian monster didn’t take the hammer-and-sickle on his lapels any more seriously than he does the Russian Orthodox crucifix he’s taken to sporting.
Yet, in my nation, we are inundated with authoritarian followers who, since a certain hero of theirs of recent vintage showed such adulation to a fellow authoritarian, here we are.
From an old US Army soldier and Sergeant, a proud citizen of the USA, and a proud fellow Jewish man, I only offer:
Slava do Zelinskeyy
And
Slava do Ukraine.
And thank you, friend Lichtenberg, for your heart being obviously in the right place, both for this share, and for your entire vibe, as I’ve followed this site for about as long as you’ve been running it.
With Shalom, Love, and Respect,
Paul Julian Gould
Sgt./E5,
US Army Air Defense Artillery
16C20 – Nike Hercules Fire Control Operator/Crew Chief
1974-1982
And bless you for your open mind and open heart.
(Note: my service was from ’74, 2 months to the day from when they stopped sending service people to Vietnam… my European service was from 75-81, and 1982 as I was preparing to go back to wearing civilian clothing… )
Thank you Paul, you are welcome here and thanks for your service.