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Radio War Nerd EP #77—Britain's Collusion With Reactionary Islamism (Patreon)

Published:
2017-03-28 20:10:20
Imported:
2026-06

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Content

The War Nerd looks back at the British Empire's historical collusion with and empowerment of radical reactionary Islamism as a divide-and-conquer strategy up through the present (with their US big brother) . . . But first, around the world of wars: Russia's big protests...the Democrats' Putin-ghazi plan continues snowballing...Congo rebellion by the Kamuina Nsapu militia...South Sudan civil war & "deliberate starvation tactics"...Top US general in Africa wants more US forces in Somalia, Libya — Libya to counter growing Russian influence...Russia  accused of arming Taliban...Syria war not over yet — fighting near Hama, Reuters gloating over Russian losses near Palmyra...Egypt's Sinai insurgency...Blackwater in China...

At 1:41:39 — we talk about history of British collusion with radical reactionary Islamist movements, from late 19th c. British policy to divide India Muslims from Hindus, British central role creating Saudi Arabia and Pakistan — two states most responsible for funding violent Islamist movements around the world . . . 

Total time: 2:33:44

Direct link  to this episode's mp3 here 

Files

Comments

tong

Why isn't this popping up on the RSS feed?

chowder_julius

Would be great if you guys had Andrew Cockburn on again for a Yemen update.

Jason McDonald

Mind sharing the RSS feed link? I'd love to tie it into my podcast app if possible.

eh

In the same genre I'd recommend David Motadel's Islam and Nazi Germany's War - his argument is that what they tried to was a much clumsier and less successful version of the British policy you describe (I don't remember how explicit he gets on this though). While there was a certain admiration for the PURE WARRIOR ETHOS they imagined muslims to hold in Hitler's inner circle (especially with everyone's favorite freak Himmler, who has some really funny quote about how Germans would have conquered the world 500 years ago if those damn Frenchmen hadn't held back the superior religion) it was largely viewed instrumentally, but the idea here was not indirect imperial control but active recruitment of muslims into the army through cheap cultural and religious concessions, a policy that didn't really work and that was held back by the open racism that the regime inculcated in the soldiers and local commanders doing the actual recruiting - the areas where they actually had some success (Bosnia and Crimea) were the ones where they were actually willing to relinquish economic control to local elite groups and congregations but the fantasy of recruiting hundreds of thousands of middle easterners never panned out.

Nick Mould

Another book to read regarding the secrecy of the British state on their colonial and post-colonial ventures is Ian Cobain's The History Thieves.

David Maginnis

Hell, they could get him to talk American politics as well.

Lukas Pfannenstiel

I can't wait for you guys to have Eileen on as a guest.

Fabian Destouches

Okay, this is a a really petty nitpick but John/Gary referring to his podcast listeners as viewers about once every episode is really annoying for me.

Andrew Richardson

Can’t we differentiate between one’s (sad, desperate) public posture on ‘L’Affaire Russe’, and what, if anything, is actually there? Ame’s sentiment that Russia is his beat, and we’re all amateurs has me duly terrified of a gaffe, and absolutely Hillz should have sent a delegation to Wisconsin, among other mistakes but not convinced those are the sole lessons that will be learned. Seems to me at the least T____ exhausted and burned credit lines in the U.S., came to rely on funding from luxury high rise ‘purchasers’- became a bit of a capital laundromat for a specific needy crew, but hey, I just read a plausible narrative with citations, not a settled matter…but… are you guys saying: ‘There’s nothing to the Russian Matter- it’s all just phonies braying’…? Sounds like what you’re saying. Either that or you’re just saying we all have an economy of attention and it’s just not worth it. Other things to work out. You definitely may be right with the latter rationale.

jimbo

Have you ever noticed how Eileen Jones and Gary Brecher are never in the same place at the same time?

Avery

Where did you find this plausible narrative with citations? I check the news every so often and I never see anything like that, it's always just totally baseless accusations

Andrew Richardson

The thesis traced here and in a few other articles is not that there will be a smoking gun of 'j'acuse' treason found, (or maybe, who knows, not the point here) but that the smoke IS the story, the smoke of being surrounded by gangsters and their money...

RK Upadhya

Great episode, as always! I was pleased to hear discussion about the way the profits from the 1973 oil shock went to London. This really needs to be a greater point of discussion, especially among the left, and especially when talking about the way the global economy changed structurally in the '70s. The flood of petro-dollars from the Gulf into Western banks seems to have been a huge part of the transition to a "neoliberal" capitalism. A great book that covers this (and much more) is Adam Hanieh's "Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States"; he also mentions how much of this new liquidity available to Western banks were then recycled into loans to the Third World--which of course precipitated the structural adjustment policies of the '80s and '90s! With all this economic/financial context, it makes a lot more sense why so much of modern Western military adventures have been focused in the Middle East, as opposed to the pre-neoliberal era. It'd be great to get an episode that covers more of the nationalist/secular/progressive movements in the Middle East in the '50s and '60s, like the oil workers in Saudi Arabia and Abdullah Tariki (the "Red Sheikh", as he was known to US oil company executives), or the anti-imperialist guerrillas of South Yemen who fought Britain, or the socialist and communist movements in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

Jonathan Sprague

I can't dl the mp3 for my iphone. Is there a problem?

Avery

I guess this is just a fundamental difference of opinion -- I see American and Russian plutocrats as basically sharing the same interests which are opposed to the general welfare of both countries, so I can't help but roll my eyes at this stuff.

Avery

FWIW the British did not have a conspiracy of silence about the massacre of Assyrians. An officer named Ronald Sempill Stafford even wrote an entire book about it. It is mostly the historians who ignored it and considered it to be all par for the course.

xnfec

Isn't Abu Hamza in jail in America?

xnfec

The name Strachey keeps being mentioned. From Eminent Victorians to Mike Davis's book Late Victorian Holocausts. Now here (Jonathan?). Assuming they are the same family, who were/are they?

Hugo Turner

A Great book on Syria is Asad: The Struggle for the MIddle East by Patrick Seale

Andrew Richardson

Fair enough I suppose. No argument on that point.

S.L.

Like Avery got at in an earlier comment, the Simele Massacre of Assyrians wasn't concealed by an hermetic veil of secrecy, though perhaps the UK government of the time might have wished for that. Governments exhibiting even a minimum level of competence know that they need to keep their military, foreign affairs, and intelligence services briefed and trained, so it might be acceptable for a dry and sober tome on such an incident to come out a couple years afterward by a military or foreign policy historian. Thus in 1935 came <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Tragedy_of_the_Assyrians.html?id=OFptAAAAMAAJ" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">The Tragedy of the Assyrians</a></i> by the British Administrative Inspector for Mosul, Lieutenant Colonel Ronald Sempill Stafford* (as noted by commenter <i>Avery</i>). As far as the British soldiers who witnessed the post-massacre scene, it makes sense that their superiors would insist that they surrender all the photos they had of the scene. If any of those photographs had made their way back to London newspapers and (if they existed then) tabloids, it could have created an unwelcome public relations challenge for the government. A lot of folks certainly retained horrible memories from the Great War - even in the mid-1930s - and seeing photos of mutilated corpses of the Empire's now-discarded Assyrian allies might well have riled up a lot of people. *That information on Stafford comes from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simele_massacre" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">Wikipedia entry for the Simele Massacre</a>, which appears to be pretty substantial. If that entry's <i>Talk</i> page is any indication, there remains a lot of interest and passion about the subject to this day.

radiowarnerd

You'll be able to hear us, if not see us, simultaneously on the next RWN. And all three of us were burbling at the same time so it's pretty conclusive.

radiowarnerd

Duly notes. Believe me, you're better off. I have to view myself every time I shave and that's bad enough.

jimbo

Well sure enough, there we have it. I guess I found her writing style and humor in those reviews from the Exiled similar enough to your style that I thought you were using another psuedonym a la Brecher. My great apologies to Ms Jones, and thanks for all the reviews!

radiowarnerd

Amazing comment! Thanks. Yeah I read that page, but I guess what I'm aiming at is the category 'Things Informed Civilians Know' and I don't think it ever came close to making that category.

radiowarnerd

Great! Not sure what happened with Patreon, but thank you very much. It's very hard to get good sources on Rwanda.

radiowarnerd

Good question! Just from a quick Google, it looks like the family made it in the Raj. Lytton's dad was an Anglo-Indian general (bet he wasn't too thrilled with his son there) and there were so many Stracheys running India that people talked about the 'Government of the Stracheys'.

radiowarnerd

Thanks! I didn't know about that book. The situation you describe reminds me very much of what's going on in the US now, where high-ranking military are often much more wary of aggressive war than what the Brits of that day would call the chattering classes. Though for that matter our chattering classes can't even chatter decently, which is what I really hate about them.

radiowarnerd

Thanks. Excellent point! I'll check out that book and I know Mark would be interested in it as well. He tends to understand financial transactions larger than a pack of gum better than I do.

radiowarnerd

Yeah, we do have to talk about that book soon. Mark and I have talked about it off-air but I haven't read it yet.

radiowarnerd

That's an excellent summary! Thanks. I had to laugh at Himmler's comment. One of the reasons I can't stand the friggin' Nazis is that they remind me of all the stupid people I knew who took a couple of lines of speed and started frothing at the mouth solving all the world's problems, usually in a very bloody manner.

Ghu Ribun

Wow great insight! Thanks.