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Radio War Nerd EP #391 — Niger Coup, or "Disdain For Democracy" (Patreon)

Published:
2023-08-16 19:04:44
Edited:
2023-08-16 19:08:11
Imported:
2023-08
Tags:

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Content

Recorded: August 14, 2023

Niger is one of the poorest countries on earth, one of the most NATO-militarized in Africa & conveniently for some, among the hardest to obtain reliable info on. We look at everything from US military bases to the media-State Dept cant about saving Niger's soi-disant democracy despite polls showing, in the words of the Economist, Nigeriens' "disdain for democracy"...

Maps & Images

*Niger

*Niger climate map

*Ethnic map

*Sahel

*Economist poll:

Books, articles & song referenced:-"Rich Men North of Richmond"-"After Niger's coup, the drums of war are growing louder", The Economist-"Rule By Junta", New Left Review-"Niger Coup Leader Joins Long Line of US-Trained Mutineers", Nick Turse, The Intercept-"THE U.S. IS BUILDING A DRONE BASE IN NIGER THAT WILL COST MORE THAN $280 MILLION BY 2024", Nick Turse, The Intercept-"Over The Horizon", Caitlin Chandler, Harpers-Niger: Personal Rule and Survival in the Sahel, Robert Charlick

Total time: 1:30:39

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here

Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd

Sound production by Telescope Audio Studios

Check out the Radio War Nerd Merch store here!

*Buy John Dolan's comic memoir "Pleasant Hell" now available in both audio and ebookformat.

Files

Comments

Gengeros

Liberals like Vaush are pushing for war with Niger because of "muh Russia".

Steele Partridge

Been waiting for this one. Can’t wait to dive in.

Karl Childers

shut the fuck up about vaush keep that shit on twitter

Thomas

Democracy fetishization is so that the NGOs can go in and only support pro-west resource extraction political parties. USAID democracy projects never dump money on political parties that aren't pro west.

J.L. Vaughn

Scots Irish means Ulster Scots

Karl Childers

can anyone recommend a good biography of Muammar Gaddafi? preferably focusing on his regional political influence rather than his quirky personal life

PostmasterFenian

re the Chinese debt trap diplomacy myth would that be worthy of an episode? I feel like you all have done similar types of episodes on the NED. Yannis varofaukis might be a good guest on that given that he goes on podcasts and is an economist who seems to have a lot of experience with debt trap diplomacy. Maybe Michael Hudson who also writes a lot about IMF loans and contrasts those with the belt and road initiative https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=59720

Gabe Weisert

oh my god listen to this then listen to the nyt podcast on niger that came out on the same day. amazing double feature.

Sam Zeng

There are a number of podcast on the matter, I think it would be cool.

Sam Zeng

Complex geography, diverse groups, almost non-existent infrastructure, endemic poverty and US-EU interests. The prefect location for a successful COIN operation.

Logan Ausherman

How are you a radio war nerd subscriber with a shit take like that?

Logan Ausherman

How are you a radio war nerd subscriber with a shit take like that?

Jessie Cherbak

Thanks guys! Gonna have to listen to this one a couple times

xnfec

I thought Rwanda and Burundi were former Belgian colonies - transferred from Germany after WW1? Also, Randolph Churchill once sued a newspaper over being called a hack. He won but Private Eye finally settled the issue by referring to all journalists hacks.

Doug Cartel

yeah it's so funny how important that 'democracy' label is, like that Vietnam doc on Netflix where they talk about all the shitty things South Vietnam's government was doing like imprisoning and torturing people, and then the narrator goes "But, they were FREE" and that makes it all better. You can stand outside impotently shouting into a loudspeaker and the cops won't kill you on sight, because your efforts are already useless wasted energy, so that's freedom.

a clash of purple

I would really like to see a poll of Americans asking whether they would prefer the current civilian government to remain in power, or instead have our beautiful handsome generals (as Trump calls them) take power in a junta and shoot the entirety of the Congress, every state governor, and the president and vice president.

Of course

I lived in Richmond for decades, visited friends there just a few weeks ago, (as if that mattered: Alejandro wokely alludes to an intended authentic audience of Virginians, presumably righteously stars-and-bars souls who wouldn't associate themselves with anyone named Alejandro),... and here's what the song does. It starts off with morally sensible despair over selling one's life for a paycheck. That's a standard old-school country and folk hook. But who's to blame for that wage-slave alienation? Capitalists? Maybe sanctimonious celebrity apologists for their system? Will he punch up? ... Of course not. The opportunist comes out with the usual reichwing list, including ubiquitous island-dwelling sex traffickers and fat poor people with no self-control. All in the Confederate framework of those rich men up north. In case you missed that these are dog whistles, there's an actual dog at the end of the video paying attention. I was waiting for the rich men north of Richmond to be "wearing little hats," but alas, he knows the current Fox News limits, and you'll have to read the Twitter/YouTube replies for that edgy riff. For now. But it's all a provocation, a joke. The song and its title are so effortfully cloying and hackneyed, I was half hoping that it WAS the Chapo Boys who wrote it.

Jennifer Wiren

Britain hears a country hates the French and thinks what wonderful friends it will find when it gets there, alas they are denied. Maybe one day Britain will find a friend but for now they'll just have to wait for maybe a pat on the head by America. It's hard to find friends when you've invaded etc. so many people.

Anthony Schiappa

Dennis Miller once made a Boutros Boutros-Ghali reference on MNF that was so terrible that my friends and I do an imitation of it to this day.

A

Rude, but I agree with the sentiment. Vaush, and other online pundits, are completely unserious people. I'd hope RWN never stoops low enough to ever seriously discuss them or whatever dumb things they think or say.

Jess

you better be writing this from Lynchburg and not Tyson's Corner Galleria 🙄

Jaime Christley

Dennis Miller probably tries to pick up a grad student at an NYU bar with a jokey callback to an early Kenji Mizoguchi film and, failing that, will see if she's amenable to "questions" about what really went on at Auschwitz.

Jaime Christley

The bartender here is so slow, what is he, the 1989 South Korean arthouse film Why Has Bhodi-Dharma Left for the East? [crickets] Listen sweetie, what do you think about measuring skulls as a way to predict intelligence, is it coming back?

J.L. Vaughn

"Just want to make it clear, this distinction that was blurred generations ago [Scots-Irish], but you know, whatever"--actually it's not a blurred distinction, was my point. But sure blahh yuck to the 17th century Scottish 'colonisers' (mostly Reivers) who didn't stick around in Ireland and whose descendants include noted schmuck Oliver Anthony.

Jess

another degenerate...

Jess

Strenuously disliking this post! How awful! Etc.! BUT it is interesting to see open calls for Constitutional change from the most monied sources... I suppose they dislike having to deal with the whims of some ex car dealership or restaurant owner that switches out every two years, I wouldn't want to fuck with that either if I was a trillionaire...

George P

best part about him on MNF was Joe Theismann's open disdain for him during the game. Didn't even pretend to respect the guy sitting next to him haha

Patrick

not a bio, but been meaning to read this about Libya, I've heard a couple good interviews with the author on Dispatches/Breakthrough News. might lead you to what you're looking for

Eric Snow

About that garbage plate... since you can't really copyright the garbage plate, maybe you could start your own Radio War Nerd official food... The technical plate?

a clash of purple

To be clear, I'm not in favor of a military junta in the U.S. (though I'm also not in favor of the current regime either). My point is just that "democracy," whatever that means, might have some cachet to some people in some places, but I think most people are intelligent enough to understand that just because your leaders spew a lot of bullshit about being "civilian" and how they were "elected" it doesn't mean they aren't bloody-handed tyrants. All the Americans I know understand pretty clearly that democracy is a farce, elections are rigged, politicians are just corrupt jackasses who screw over their constituents on behalf of their crooked friends on Wall Street, etc.. At the same time, the more upper-middle-class they are, the more they buy into pro-American propaganda (with increasing levels of doublethink and cognitive dissonance). People from poorer backgrounds, on the other hand, tend to be aggressively anti-political. I definitely don't know anyone who would especially care if the military took over the country. A lot of them would go out of their way to not notice whatever's going on, and the rest would either be pro-military or, at most, complain about it. Therefore, it's pretty rich for Western pundits to bemoan Nigeriens for their "disdain for democracy."

Exotic Instinct

What did ECOWAS stand for? (Joke version?)