BLUF: This is just another defence-oriented blog.  Like Think Defence, Thin Pinstriped Line and many others, it will be my personal outlet on a number of defence matters – as if we didn’t have enough comment online already!  It will not be prolific, nor will it react to every breaking news story.  I haven’t that much time in life!

For professional reasons I follow defence matters closely, particularly those affecting the Royal Navy and maritime warfare in general.  I generally comment under the name of Tas.  I have had the benefit of professional military staff training, which was a tremendous insight into all matters defence and foreign policy.  And the sheer number of high quality defence bloggers and opinion-formers out there have added much more to my views and opinions. Commenting on websites and Twitter was a start for me, but 144 characters is not enough and I want to collect my own opinions that others can read should they chose.

Maintaining balance in opinion is hugely important.  Against the many good sources there are many orders of magnitude more commentators who counter-argue, bluff, threaten and offend.  Opinions should never be hard and fast.  As new information is made available, or a new perspective shown, you must be prepared to re-evaluate and reconsider your position.  That does not mean you should change your opinion, but equally sticking ardently to a fixed view is limiting.  And I remain wholly mindful that any comment is made in the limited confines of the English-speaking, Western-oriented blogosphere, Twittersphere and other definitions that span only a small slice of society.

I won’t expose my current employment, though you can get a pretty good idea through the flavour of my posts.  My views are my own – they are not in any way linked to official Defence positions, nor do they offer (or pretend to offer) any inside knowledge into such matters.  Quote them at your own peril – nothing I say here is anything more than an opinion.