Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Radio War Nerd EP #61 — Jack Murphy on Syria, Jihadis & Chickenhawks (Patreon)

Published:
2016-12-05 15:37:11
Imported:
2026-06

Downloads

  • radio_war_nerd_episode_61_v5.mp3

Some files exceed the archive size limit and weren't saved: 1 file. Please note these limits are in place to keep this site running long term, without costing a fortune. You can favorite the creator though, certain milestones increase the limit.

Content

Guest: Jack Murphy, journalist, author & Special Forces veteran

The War Nerd talks to writer/vet Jack Murphy about parachuting, Lindsay Lohan, transition from military to academia . . . Think-tank chickenhawks Charles Lister, Michael Weiss, Eli Lake . . . Farcical CIA "vetting" Syrian rebels, tensions between CIA and Special Forces, MENA stragegic clusterfuck . . . Propaganda as war weapon . . . Trump's defense picks & Iran policy . . .

World of Wars: Aleppo . . . Italy's referendum vote . . . another color revolution coming in Ukraine? . . . Mosul battle . . . South Sudan . . . 

Total Time: 1:39:06

Direct link  to this episode's mp3 here 

Files

Comments

Factory Troll

The global rise of far right nationalism, paradoxically has a lot to do with the decreasing power of governments and national institutions. Its a corporate world now, and the Charles Kochs of the earth are better served with paranoid governments that invest heavily in defense and internal security, and wants nothing to do with other nations, rather than national governments cooperating with other governments on regulating banking, regulating environment, regulating labor or basically; regulating global corporations. Its classic divide and conquer.

Ronald Dahlgren

The "vetting process" for foreign national fighters and other collaborators has been obviously broken BS since day one in Afghanistan. I always wonder if it's really due to ineptitude or if it's willful maliciousness from somewhere. It makes no sense. The best we could do back in 2002 was asking the village elder to vouch for a person's name and story. Just as useless as the biometric data Jack mentions.

radiowarnerd

Damn, that is plausible but depressing as hell.

Jan Meyer

Part of that might be that there is nobody better. The USA does not have the best image in the world so who they get are a) the collaborateurs who would have (and have) worked with anybody and b) people out to fleece them and already looking to get out from under them from the moment they receive the first shipment of M16s. It is quite logical if you think about it. Even if you are some kind of democratic, liberal idealist becoming an outpost of the American Empire is probably not high on your list of outcomes.

Rich

There's essentially a soft coup inside the USA govt. The most paranoid claims of the Trump voters and Sy Hersh is true, and everyone knows it.

Tim Owen

Hey M & J/B, A show idea introduced by a bit of a digression... I find listening to your show kind of unnerving as your take seems to skirt around some issues in a way that seems weird given the punk sensibility of Exiled. An example: JM is super critical of US actions in the ME while also being contemptuous of Russian actions. It creates a weird effect where he seems to be unable to take the final step of saying, for instance, that American policy has been so flawed that it might have handed the region to Russia and China as more "realist" players... but can't seem to say it. As a kind of hint at what I'm suggesting... John Mearshimer recently commented that he felt more at home in Beijing in Moscow than Washington. As JM described himself as a realist I really wonder what he thought of that protest. Anyway, here's a story idea: there are apparently a lot of DOD people that are disgusted with the neo-con agenda. They are also very sympathetic to the eastern Ukrainians and the Syrian state / SAA. Pat Lang being the prime example. Ever thought of having them on?

Tom Serengai

This would seem odd to me given the vocal opposition by those parties to these movements. Not entirely sure why Kochs, in particular, attract so much attention but these guys did not provide money to DJT's bid for WH, instead focusing on down ballot elections. Dont' believe the US chamber of commerce supported him either. Internationally i believe you see a similar reaction by big biz against populist movements (WSJ, reuters, or the economist reporting on brexit and greek referendum). They all tend to in favor of centralization. I think this is because biz's tend to prefer lower volatility (be more sure of what's going to happen) and thus prefer relatively centralized regulatory/tax regimes that ensure consistency. Might also make regulatory capture a bit easier since there's more of a one-stop shop element to it.

Factory Troll

Kochs (and I use them as representatives for their class of billionaires) are very much responsible of Trumps victory through their support of all kinds of think-tanks, initiatives and media outlets, actively or passively supporting and approving of Trump and his way, and now they the reap reward for their efforts. Yet they may not want to be associated with this man directly because of the publicity it might bring them, or maybe they just don't like him, remember, I dont believe in some global bilderberg conspiracy theory, some billionaires have deluded visions, some are cynical bastards and some are just dumbshits, they all have different methods of reaching their objectives and they pull in many different directions. However, the net result is that guys like Trump is a little more acceptable now than his was 4 years ago, because it is logic, and logic always wins, thats how evolution works. I agree on volatility, and believe that is why we haven't seen more separatism yet, but those who control the world also control the perception of volatility, not to say volatility itself. Don't count on it to save us.

Tom Serengai

Sorry brother, I don't really understand the response here. My point was that the commercial class (which you suggested held the reins of power - "corporate world") explicitly disavowed DJT. You responded by saying that they implicitly supported him. I don't understand how that could be the case in a way that is unique to that "class of billionaires" vs any other group of people. It is a fact that DJT won the presidency. This does not mean that everyone is somehow implicated as a supporter regardless of whether they actually supported him or not. I submit that only DJT's supporters are to blame/thank for his election. Everyone else may have "created the conditions" for this election but that implicates...everyone else and that's a platitude. On your second response i was saying that the people who control the world ("corporate world") prefer low volatility so that they can plan with some certainty. Your response that "those who control the world also control the perception of volatility" is basically saying that businessmen control their own perception of volatility. This seems like another platitude but maybe i'm missing something. To put a finer point on it - i'm basically saying that the populist wave isn't driven by the upper classes. It's a reaction against them. As evidence, i think Pew had Trump with a narrower margin among college educated whites than Romney had had. Meanwhile he took non-college educated whites with a greater margin than anyone since they started tracking in 1980.

Factory Troll

I think you confuse cultural, social and political elites with financial elites, although they are all related, real power lies with the latter. This is why DJTs support among "college educated whites" is practically irrelevant to this discussion, merely a pretext to blame the village idiot for everything thats wrong. Look no further than the stock market, which has been rallying ever since November 8, for evidence of the corporate world's satisfaction with the election outcome. This is also my point about volatility - which I agree was poorly constructed - you presumably thought financial elites feared people like Trump because of volatility, and whoa, turns out the index which basically measures financial volatility (VIX) is waaaaaay down over the past two months. None of this could ever happen if - as you claim - the commercial class explicitly disavowed DJT.