Watchtower Intel

Whoever controls the narrative controls the battlefield. Apparently, a 30-year-old YouTuber from Los Angeles gets this concept more than a 300-franchise Lego-adjacent corporation. This is the Reckless Ben story. And if you haven’t seen the videos , it be crazy; here’s the compressed version. The Setup Ed Mansell is 83 years old. Since the ‘90s, he’s been building a Star Wars Lego collection. 780+...

President Trump’s heated call with Prime Minister Netanyahu over Israeli strikes on Hezbollah exposes the fault lines between U.S., Israeli, and Iranian interests during a “ceasefire in name only.” In this episode, Riley breaks down the strategic fallout from Operation Epic Fury, the stakes in the Strait of Hormuz, an Air Force recruiting experiment in authentic storytelling, and why Star Wars is...

I’m back on the Watchtower Intel pod with a two-part episode. First, I joined Scott Ryfun on WGIG’s Straight Talk to answer a deceptively simple question about the Iran war: Did we win Operation Epic Fury? Drawing on my Air Force intelligence background, I’ll break down what “success” really means, why airpower and diplomacy both have limits, and how Iranian propaganda (and other foreign disinfo)...

It’s a video this week! The Department of Defense is now the Department of War. Open the 2026 National Defense Strategy, and that’s what you’ll see. A Memo signed by the Secretary of War . I read the whole thing , so you don’t have to. Some called the focus on the Western Hemisphere “isolationism.” Foreign policy wonks warned about abandoning allies and ceding global leadership. Here’s what actual...

Click the button below to subscribe via Apple Podcasts: The most dangerous leader you’ll ever work for isn’t incompetent; they’re actually competent enough to advance their career while caring about all the wrong things. Mission and people become tools for personal gain. In this episode, I break down: * What a careerist bureaucrat actually is (and why they’re so hard to spot) * The trap: how good...

This week I appeared on Scott Ryfun Straight Talk — coastal Georgia’s most-listened-to talk radio show — to cut through the noise on the Iran ceasefire extension. We covered: * Why the “indefinite ceasefire” shows how the IRGC has consolidated power * The strategic difference between operational success (obliterating Iran’s conventional military) and impossible problems (securing nuclear material...

On March 27, Iran struck Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia — damaging KC-135 tankers and an E-3 Sentry AWACS. That last one is a big deal. The E-3 is one of the highest-value assets in the theater. It doesn't get hit by accident. So how did Iran know where to look? In this video, I break down what actually happened at PSAB, why the precision of these strikes point to something bigger than Ira...