On Resistance to Evil by Force is one of my favorites.  Ivan Ilyin was a Russian who was imprisoned and then exiled during the Russian Revolution.  He wrote this book in 1925, during the Revolution, as a response to the writings of fellow Russian Leo Tolstoy, who was exorting Russian Christian men to be pacifists in the face of the Communist revolt.  Tolstoy was more of an anarchist than a Communist, but he felt that Christ led everyone to always be pacifist because the use of force always led to one party subjugating the other.  I find that this argument is exactly what's wrong with the modern church as we struggle with our own Communist revolution.  Ilyin wrote this book to present the case that Christians must resist evil, even by force.

Every few days, I'll post my thoughts on a couple of chapters.  You all can put your thoughts in the comments and hopefully we'll all learn a few things from each other's ideas.  I'll leave the first chapter open to non-members to try and encourage others to become supporters.

It's just as important to train and instruct our minds and moral framework as it is to train our physical bodies on new skills and gear.

Chapter 1 - Introduction

In this chapter, he is basically explaining why he's writing the book.  I get the general impression early on that he really doesn't like Tolstoy, but by the end of Chapter 2, I realized that he had immense respect for Tolstoy's faith, but he despised Tolstoy's ridiculous interpretation of Scripture.  I concur.

Right off the bat, Ilyin lays out this great line: "Ignorance leads him to trials and torments, and through agony the soul is purified and sees, through a clear-sighted gaze, the source of wisdom is given in the form of clarity."  This rings true for all of us.  We make a mistake, we deal with the fallout of the mistake, and then we see what the clear path was.  Hey, wisdom isn't cheap.

As we face a Communist Revolution here, his commentary on the Russian Revolution seems especially relevant: "It is the first time a genuine evil has been given to the human spirit with such frankness."  Yep - Communism is the enablement of greed, theft, and abuse on our fellow man.  Pure evil.

One of the best gems in the introduction is the idea that we shouldn't allow anyone else's condemnation of our faith penetrate to our hearts.  He pointed out that the Bolsheiveks used Christianity as a club to beat people into submission, much like we are seeing now.  His point was to not let them change your mind under any circumstances.  They call it backwards?  Ignore them - they're ones who are wrong.

Another point he illustrated that has parallels in the modern day is that heroes were treated as villains and the weak or timid are treated as virtuous.  The idea is to break down rugged individualism in favor of collectivism (I'm looking at you, Mamdani).  At the time, they vilified anyone who stood up against the Communists and treated as heroes those who gave up and stepped out of the way.  That leads nowhere good, and it's what we're seeing in our society.

The final great point in the introduction: "....imparting a counterfeit facade to the spirit of Christ's teaching poisoned Russian religious and political culture."  False teachers are out there today doing this same thing.  Lesbian pastors, "All are welcome here", and "Jesus is my boyfriend" churches are all preaching pacifist and liberation theology that have absolutely no basis in the Bible.  No, Jesus was not a Socialist ("even when we were with you, we had this one rule, he who does not work does not eat").  Helping the poor and welcoming the traveler does NOT mean give handouts or let people trample your homeland demanding things.

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Over the weekend, I was asked to test a set of Level 3+ armor plates by the guys at Hoplite Industries.  They set no conditions or restrictions, so our team here put these to the test.

They are covered in fabric and the design is very nice.  They are standard sized and very nicely finished.  They are a bit heavy, but they're steel plates, so that's to be expected.  There is a rubberized anti-spall layer between the steel and fabric.  I'm not sure exactly where he sources them, but they are shipped from Texas.  My poor FedEx guy wanted to know what was so heavy in that little box.

The test was set up with the plates at 25 meters.  Shots were taken from a seated position.

The first plate was tested with two rounds of 7.62x39 steel case FMJ.  After the first round struck in one of the eyes of the Hoplite helmet logo, one of the wintesses suggested we shoot the other eye, so we granted that wish, giving the plates a laser eyes look.  The plate stopped both rounds with no deformity at all on the back side of the plates.  Chunks of the anti-spall coating flew off, but they landed in single chunks per shot.

The second plate was tested with two rounds of 5.56 with Nosler tips from an M4-profile barrel.  The rounds did less damage than the 7.62x39, with the only damage done to the anti-spall coating.  Again there was no deformity to the rear of the plate.

In these tests, the plates performed to standard and the hits would have been survivable.

You can find them at: Level 3+ Armor Plates.

I think they are a solid product at a good price.  Thanks, Hoplite Industries, for asking us to test these for you.

Amazon Link: Terrorist Trail

As promised, I just finished Terrorist Trail by H John Poole.  For those not already familiar, H John Poole is America's foremost thinker on small unit tactics.  His training group has trained a lot of US military units, in particular Marine units.  Poole was a platoon leader in Vietnam, then resigned his commission in order to enlist as a sergeant and teach at USMC School of Infantry East.  He eventually was commissioned a second time (unheard of) and retired. 

Terrorist Trail was written in 2006 during the height of the insurgency in Iraq.  The purpose of the book was to brief small unit leaders enroute to Iraq on the source of the foreign fighters that were pouring into Iraq.  

He traced a route from the Beqqa Valley in Lebanon, a Hezbollah/IRGC (Iranian Republican Guard Corps) stronghold, through Jordan and then along the Euphrates into Sadr City.  Based upon experience I'd say he was 100% spot on in his assessment.

The book places the blame not just on Hezbollah and the Iranians, but on the TRUE funder of all this: CHINA.  Poole points out that the fighters are being trained at camps in Sudan.  Sudan is heavily controlled by the Chinese.  Chinese oil companies (the CCP) run Sudan's oil fields.  The largest contingent of peacekeeping troops from the UN in Darfur: You guessed it, CHINESE.  I've been making the point that China uses it's role on the Security Council to deploy troops all over the world, which begins mass migration of Chinese into these nations.

Poole dives deeper and exposes the Chinese and Maoist influences throughout Africa from the 60s until the present day.  He gives fantastic historical recaps of every bush conflict there.  He dives very deeply into the fall of Rhodesia, orchestrated by the Chinese and the fall of Mozambique, also orchestrated by the Chinese.  If you are interested in the history and operations of the RLI and the Selous Scouts (PAMWE CHETE!! - which is Shona for "All Together" or "Gung Ho" in Chinese - where have he heard this before?) this book is for you.

As far as small unit tactics, there is only chapter that deals with that.  It goes into detail on tracking in an urban environment.  That material is pulled directly from Combat Tracking Guide by John Hurth.  It used to only be handed out during his class (where I got my copy), but it is available here: Combat Tracking Guide.

If you are solely interested in learning Small Unit Tactics, I wouldn't say you need this book.  If you are a history student, interested in Rhodesia, or interested in intelligence information on Chinese methods, I would buy this.

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