In the Usenet past there had been a poster who linked military with Libra (don't remember his name at this moment). Makes quite a bit of sense to me, in a military you need structures (Saturn exalted in Libra) and some cohesion (maybe Venus ruler of Libra helps), as a counterpoint to Aries/Fire aggression in the opposite sign with Mars as ruler and Sun exalted, which is maybe too wild and self-centered to be successful at war in the longer run.
One of the most highly-read military authors is one Sun Tzu, who lived about 2,500 years ago. Much of his writings were carved on bamboo strips, linked with whatever passed for string in ~500 BC. Archaeologists found a few copies of his works buried in warriors' tombs, and the fun part was trying to figure out the order, because the string had long-since rotted away, leaving the order of the bamboo strips somewhat random. (My translated copy mentioned this amusing story in the introduction. But suffice it to say, Sun Tzu's writings were highly prized in ancient China.)
Sun Tzu was not just a strategist, but also a philosopher. He meditated on the subject of war, and concluded that it was the most wasteful, barbaric and inefficient way to implement state policy (and war
is a function of state policy). He came up with the alternative system of
idealogical subversion as a tactic to subdue the enemy without even firing a shot. The KGB took a huge interest in this, and all KGB operatives were required to read Sun Tzu's
Art of War and fully understand its mechanics.
Yuri Bezmenov (AKA Tomas Schuman) defected from the KGB and
presented a 1983 lecture in Los Angeles and showed exactly how it worked. It's probably the best hour anyone could ever spend educating oneself on the
real nature of statecraft, and I
don't say that lightly.
Anyway, going back to Libra, Sun Tzu also said that generals have to think of the country first. Even idiotic orders from a regent must also be countermanded: If a victory cannot be attained without unacceptable losses, the general is supposed to preserve his forces, even if the ruler has ordered him to attack. Sun Tzu outlined
five metrics * to be measured in assessment of any enemy, and judicious use of them in assessment of that enemy's ability to repel an attack. This balancing act is quite Libran - it's not at all an Aries-style
Charge of the Light Brigade, which only shows how easily lack of planning (or finesse) can end in disaster, no matter how
aggressive (and/or bloodthirsty) you're prepared to be.
With north node now in Aries, starting wars does often not go far (at a large scale, if it affects you locally, then it is different). Hence both the invasion of Israel into Gaza and the recent attack of Iran did not carry that far overall. Israel is related to Aries because their religion clearly has an Age of Aries symbolism and started at least in mythology around the beginning of the Age of Aries. And Iran is also already by name related to it and (unlike in Arab countries) they have a solar calendar in which the year starts with the beginning of spring, early Aries. The ship named "Aries" is then maybe just icing on that cake.
Put another way, sound strategy will undoubtably win against ill-advised, hot-headed actions.
I think it is also therefore that currently the USA (which is exceedingly good at "military") is reluctant with military actions, probably not from astrological considerations, but who knows... Anyways, does not seem like any major war would start in the coming months, and hopefully the US will still manage to turn things around in Ukraine with relatively little $$$s...
The US has lost practically every major recent engagement it's gotten into. All their wars have ended up being protracted, inefficient and expensive affairs - and for what? They had to flee Afghanistan in a hurry - literally lifting American embassy workers out by helicopter as the Taliban closed in. It's been a while since the world saw the US so humiliated in military retreat.
Ukraine is obviously
already lost - much of it has been without power for some time (and thus, without water and internet access, too), and spiralling rapidly out of control. There will be riots before long, and when
that happens, Zelensky will be extremely lucky to avoid Ceaușescu's fate. Russia, recognising this new reality, has now
demanded that unconditional surrender from the Ukrainian government will now be a required part of any future peace with Ukraine - and the steady war of attrition Russia has fought with the West has drained NATO to the point of exhaustion (hence all the buzz about mandatory military conscription in NATO countries.)
The situation in Gaza has isolated not only Israel - but much of the West, too - as supporters of crimes against humanity. (It's also pulled Western focus further away from Ukraine, much to the chagrin of Zelensky, who seems to be rather unaware - or perhaps just childishly naïve - about the amount of influence Israel has over most Western governments, thanks to the actions of Mossad, Jeffrey Epstein et al.) It's also opened up a massive strategic opportunity for China to pursue an invasion against Taiwan, while the West is already crucially distracted on
two war fronts.
Let's just remember that bombing hospitals, deliberately blocking food aid to (and attacking) civilians, who run to pick up food packages dropped by plane has never
been acceptable before the 7th of October. It
still isn't acceptable, but Israel and the West appear to be rather tone-deaf to this reality. The rest of the world
has been watching, appalled, and their respect for the West has vanished. If it came to a choice between siding with Russia and China, or the West, most Westerners would probably be extremely surprised to see how quickly Putin and Xi end up being accepted.
In the final act, when SWIFT is replaced by a Sino-Russian independent exchange system, that will
truly set the cat among the pigeons.
The West is going to lose against Russia, China and Iran. Prepare for this inevitability: Over the last few decades, the West has gotten rather arrogant, because it's always picked fights against smaller, primitive countries that were unable to defend themselves against the West's own developed military. Russia, China and Iran have seen this day coming, and they've been preparing for it for
at least two decades. The West's own hubris in thinking they can simply open up a new war front with Russia, China or Iran wherever they wish is indicative of their fatal disconnect with reality.
Russia is not some primitive third-world nation. They, like my native Rhodesia, have been subject to Western sanctions for many years. When Rhodesia was sanctioned by the West, we managed to fight them off for 15 years, much to the surprise of the British, who expected capitulation within months, if not weeks ... and
we were just an insignificant landlocked country at the arse end of Africa, with a
few determined and resourceful people who fought for our independence. Russia is a
wholly different animal: They have a landmass spanning multiple timezones, with resources and technology that Rhodesia could
never have dreamed of - and they have achieved a level of military innovation that the West has absolutely no defence against (especially in hypersonic missile, ICBM and super-torpedo technology, like the
Status 6 nuclear-powered intercontinental torpedo.)
Russia's point of view is astonishingly easy to understand: They just don't want nuclear missiles stationed anywhere near their border. NATO tried stationing "defensive" missiles in Ukraine (which could contain any kind of warhead, let's face it - it's not like they were going to invite Putin over for a cup of tea to inspect them, was it? So the Russians could
never know if those missiles had nuclear warheads until
after they were fired and detonated over their cities, which is obviously
completely unacceptable from a military security point of view.)
This
isn't the first time this has been tried, either: The US tried stationing nuclear missiles in Turkey, and the USSR responded in kind by installing nuclear missiles in Cuba in the 1960s. The US didn't like that idea very much, and they dismantled the US missile launch facilities in Turkey in a tensely-negotiated response to the USSR decommissioning their facility in Cuba. That was known as the
Cuban Missile Crisis.
At the end of the day, it was decided that stationing missiles within close range of an enemy's capital cities was
not an acceptable practice - and the precedent for this was set in 1962. Russia is
entirely within its rights to tell the West to fuck off and never darken its door again: Ukraine and Russia were on the cusp of a peace treaty, when
Boris Johnson flew in and deliberately sabotaged the negotiations. NATO wanted war, and war it
got. It cannot complain about Russians actions
now.
The blowback from this will be massive, and remember, the
Chinese haven't even started yet. They're patient, are biding their time - and are mindful of that old Sun Tzu wisdom:
"If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by." They will not waste their resources fighting NATO until it is almost subdued - and
then, they will act decisively.
* The
way, the weather, the terrain, the leadership, and discipline.
