Radio War Nerd EP #476 — Counterpoint, feat. Aamer

As a more recent RWN listener, I would so appreciate some kind of guides or collections that are, like, focused on geographies or something. I’m sure yall have tons of one off episodes that don’t count as series that would, if gathered, really help with understanding the context of what’s happening in ME or Ukraine or whatever. Might be a tall order? Maybe this exists somewhere online I’m unaware of? Figured I’d put it out there.

Just wanted to say that I thought both this and the Landis episode offered interesting and useful perspectives. Thanks you to RWN and both your guests for their thoughts, it's always great to hear the things you don't get anywhere else.

Great episode. Amer is really great. I'm a little surprised, when talking about Landis point 3, he didn't mention how the GCC countries have incredibly nationalistic citizens, and the nationalism, to me, has always been proportional to the oil checks the citizens get. You can see it, too, in the fact that Egyptians are a huge makeup of GCC service workers and service workers get treated like garbage. I've heard GCC Arabs, in fact, derisively refer to Egyptians as Africans. I've heard similar about Jordanians and Lebanese. Maybe its an I can talk bad about my family, but you cant, type of thing, though. Even so, I think this might be important, because we do all our negotiating, about the Palestinian situation, with these same GCC powers. And we seem to rank the seriousness of our negotiating partners proportionally to their oil/natural gas revenue. I guess thats probably to be expected, though. I should probably not be surprised about everyone's cynical motivations in this mess. And it's great hearing people crap on Taiibi. What a disappointment.

i lived in western canada for 30 years and was involved in the counter protests against the freedom march guys in 2021/2022 and it was a significantly more dangerous and hostile environment than my current involvement with palestinian solidarity activism in the UK where i live now... canada is a country so desperate for american cultural approval that it has regions that actively select leaders for being right wing dunces that would make a southern MAGA senator blush. quite a spectacle to see the liberals and NDPs trip over themselves to support ultranationalists, zionists and facsists while also shaking hands with the PCs that deny indigenous genocide within canada's own borders

It has been said before... but let the guests speak more! For someone as interesting as Aamer to only get like 20% of the time is a real shame.

Love the taibbi bashing, it's what brought me here in the first place as a former taibbi fan. But now I'm sold on the actual war content and cancelled my racket subscription. That podcast opening is insufferable by the way, just this high pitched pretentious typewriter clacking. Maybe I'm too young to get it...

…did Aamer just quietly sit on the sidelines while you had your Taibbi tangent?!

Matt Killer also said they never wanted a diplomatic solution with Hamas. I want to know what you guys think of Adam Tooze’s article, which has been a point made by a swath of folks like Arnaud Bertrand on one side and the Croat fascist Niccolo Soldo on the other. As Niccolo calls it, “Turbo America.” The difference between Tooze and these others being that Turbo America was published as an essay two years ago.

The most maddening thing about Taibbi is that he isn't ignorant. He hosted that show with Halper for years. She brought on the most informed guests and Matt was engaged and empathetic. He knows what is right and wrong in this situation and he's just pissed all of his credibility away.

Fwiw I thought Landis was a reasonable guest. He's just a bit more of a Star Wars War Nerd as opposed to a Star Trek War Nerd. Still in the same realm, although I disagreed with much of it.

My biggest issue with Landis is that he seems like an academia snob who feels empowered to talk down on Arabs because of his background. He seems like a really bright guy but his tone is that of an overseas imperial administrator

Okay, this is driving me crazy, but one of the principle players in this conflict - Iran - isn't "Arab." Am I nuts for it to bother me that everyone on the show seems to throw everyone in the Middle East into the same ethnic group?

Taibbi's got his own biographically-dependent derangements, of course, but he's also a depressing exemplar of what the self-aware and self-interested "journalist" is incentivized to do now, i.e., become a talk show host, but keep calling yourself a journalist. He's just sleeping soundly in the palm of the good ol' Invisible Hand

Butthole Surfers mentioned 🤩

The guy that got Taibbi metoo-d is complaining about his incorrect political views. You're such a cunt

Great episode. Want to focus on the politics of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada… The comments about how Fascist were imported to Canada to break the left wing Eastern European groups and be strike breakers is true. If you want good accounting of this I suggest Irving Abella’s book None Is Too Many. One of the more famous examples is the INCO strike in Sudbury. Chrystia Freeland is mentioned and I think it’s important to point out her uncle John Paul-Himka is a respected scholar who has dedicated most of he’s work to exposing the fascist element in the Canadian Ukrainian community. He recently published a book on the subject and there are some good videos on youtube of him discussing he’s work. In 1940 the Canadian government expropriate several of the Labour temples owned by the left wing Ukrainians and actually handed them over to the nationalists/fascist UCC. The Ukrainian Farm Labour Temple Association (now AUUC) went to the Supreme court of Canada and won back their property. A few of the Labour temples are still around, the biggest one being in Winnipeg’s north end (I am the rental coordinator for the temple) In the 1950s the Labour temple in Toronto was bombed. Several were injured. The AUUC blamed the UCC for the attack but the UCC denied any involvement.

Loved the summary of Hezbollah shitting on the CIA. Absolutely heartwarming

Dude, i can't get enough news about the victims of communism

The development of the “axis of resistance” IS the Arab world getting its “shit” together. Part of the Arab world, at any rate

Love that yall had a response guest on. Keep it up!

Every RWN must begin with a catalog of its hosts’ ailments (said with love)

For a long time I wanted to think the best of Taibbi and subscribed to his Patreon. I had some respect for him and especially for his critique of Russiagate. But several months ago on his Podcast he said Israel/Palestine was "too complicated" and there were bad vibes on both sides. I immediately canceled my subscription.

Keeping this in my back pocket for the next time my dad brings up Matt Taibbi

I think it's valuable when the show features debate.

Guys it's just so complicated. Hamas killed over a thousand israelis, so it's right and good to kill 186,000 palestinians, hamas or not. Simple! Wait, no its complicated. Uhhh

I recently read Russia is going to be providing the Houthis with 10 million dollars worth of weapons. Does anyone have an idea about the state of Russo-Israeli relations? I know Russia and Israel have generally been amiable in the past despite hating each others’ allies but I can’t find much information about how that has changed over the last year.

At the top of the episode, John is pretty spot on about Canada. That's particularly true in the west where he lived and Aamer correct that things are getting worse politically. There are a lot more right-wing yahoos now over the past 5 years as a result of the complete dominance of US culture due to the internet and streaming obliterating whatever tepid Canadian content used to exist. I do have to really push back on Aamer's comments about immigration in Canada though. The current Liberal government, pushed by business interests and libertarian open-borders ideologues, have massively opened up immigration during their tenure and especially since 2020. Aamer presents this issue as if Canada has been having normal levels of immigration and suddenly people are becoming anti-immigrant. Nothing could be further from the truth, due to really loosening immigration laws Canada has had it's highest levels of immigration since the 1950s into a country that today doesn't have nearly enough housing or infrastructure for these newcomers. Added to this is that the majority of these migrants aren't normal immigrants but temporary immigrants brought in under programs such as the Temporary Foreign Worker program or as international students, many of whom simply come to work, the student visa being just a pretext. These programs are basically a form of class warfare as it allows employers to import workers from countries such as India or the Phillipines whenever they claim they can't find a Canadian worker (ie when they can't find a Canadian worker willing to work for what the employer wants to pay). The migrant worker has essentially no rights and can be fully exploited by the employer and cannot switch jobs. There is no path to citizenship or permanent residency and thus these immigrants server as nothing more than a tool of economic warfare of the employer class. Right now something like 5% of the entire population of Canada are simply these temporary foreign workers. The government has essentially lose control of the situtation. No other country in the world would put up with this, not in Europe, certainly not the US. This is a nuanced point but Aamer just chooses to present Canadians are being anti-immigrant Trumpies when there is much more to the story.

I can agree that the Israel-Palestine conflict is "complicated," but it's no more complicated than any other genocide. They are all like this. It isn't special in its "complexity." It's only special in that it can currently ruin your career to oppose it. If opposing it is too hard for you to do, then you are experiencing the "how" in how every other genocide happens/happened.

Alright, everyone: how long before China gets involved in this conflict? If Iran can't deter US/Israel itself (or with Russia's help), then this is a massive opening for China

Taibbi can't even do Greenwaldism. Glenn has been very consistent on this, being pretty opposed to Israel's actions and is a long-time foe of Bari Weiss, even though his audience probably hates Palestinians, too. (It's also probably the same audience.) Greenwald hasn't lost his audience.

“I don’t wanna call them northern hemisphere supremacists…. (But they are!” - John hahaha

I thought the MRI machine sounded like EMA's second album

Israeli has killed loads of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders before. They have long since shown that they can do it. What was different here was the Israeli-US willingness to escalate for a final confrontation with the Axis of resistance. Insofar as Nasrallah absorbed the Chomsky view of Israeli-US relations, he likely thought that the U.S. would ultimately play a restraining role in this regional war given the objectively much greater logistical needs of the Ukraine war and the prep for the war with China. Instead, we have a U.S. in the state of high Zionism. No matter how battered that ideology is in the younger population, it is more entrenched than ever in the US elite and will likely remain so until at least that generation dies off.

Taibbi and Kirn really went out on a limb and took Adam’s side before the indictment was unveiled. Lol fucking dumbasses.

To be honest, my issue with Landis's commentary was that so much of it felt like it was saying "see, look, the statue's head is gold" which doesn't mean the feet aren't still made of clay. Like, yeah, we know Israel is good at assassinating people, and will flatten whole city blocks to do it. But while we shouldn't be cavalier about that, it doesn't seem to have affected Hezbollah's operations all that much, or improved Israel's strategic purview. All their problems are still there.

The us's purposeful breaking and dismantling of states in iraq, syria, lebanon, and libya over the last 50 years really reminds me of the period where the British east india company was in charge of the subcontinent. It feels like it's intentional imposed anarchy and instability. I don't know how I was unaware of this but iraqi oil funds are still deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Glad that we all listen to America this week. The short story section has been really fun. The episodes The death of Ivan Ilich and Onegin were great.

I think the moment Iran gets a nuke, which I think is a matter of when not if, the whole power balance will shift. Whether Iran uses that new power in a good way is another matter.

Combining with my previous comment - this is something neither Landis nor Aamer talk about - "The oppression of the Palestinian people has been maintained not simply by Israeli violence and military might, but by the treachery of the Arab bourgeoisie. Former US ambassador Ryan Crocker: Nearly every Arab state has long viewed the Palestinians with “fear and loathing”. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/03/17/lqki-m17.html

India took in 10 million refugees and went to war to stop a genocide... Both these events in turn caused inflation, economic upheavals and exacerbated internal communal tensions in India. Now let us see what Arabs are doing - they have been increasing trade with Israel -"Israel’s trade with Middle Eastern countries including Egypt, Morocco and Bahrain grew in the year to the end of May despite regional tensions and the Gaza war, a think tank report has revealed. " A Palestinian child had this to say - "And you ... you Arabs. I don't know what to say about you. Children are dying under the rubble, their hands are severed, their legs are torn, their heads are crushed. To every Arab and foreigner who sees us, what blood runs in your veins? From what clay are you made? If your own child faced this, would you stay silent?” https://x.com/tastefullysaucy/status/1822240537786667084?

Yeah Mark you talked over Aamar way too much. This is especially egregious after you let Landis go on and on like an idiot.

let the man speak for fucks sake

This response may seem to jump around but it follows the subjects discussed through the podcast. The guest right away expresses the opinion that Canada hasn't considered anything economic to deal with the massive number of immigrants coming in there, and is resorting to limiting the crazy levels of immigration. Ok, what's an example of a country coming up with an economic solution where that amount of immigration was supported by the population? Wouldn't the more fundamental point be that the political class in Canada shouldn't be importing so many immigrants (without much regard to high-skilled) to the point where it's causing massive social friction? So right away I know that he's going to have crap leftist opinions. Also you guys sound like jealous haters of Taibbi, lol. The way you dissected every word he said sounds gossipy and lame. On genocide, I've listened to several of your recent casts where you casually throw it around as what's going on. How are you defining it? Was the October 7th genocidal? Was the Iraq War a genocide? Have you compared civilian casualty rates with it? My definition would be genocide is when you're targeting civilians intentionally in sufficient numbers. Most of the civilian deaths from Israel are collateral damage from attacks targeting terrorists. How many Hamas fighters among them? The situation in west bank settlements like Hebron I agree is apartheid, and apartheid is wrong. I'm against the general approach of the rightists/Netanyahu/messianists who want to keep that going. I support a two or three state solution after the Palestinians mostly give up on thinking they can beat Israel via a combination of terrorism and enabling left wing sympathy after their fighters hide under civilians. Those settlements being wrong doesn't turn the entire conflict into a simple moral equation, any more than "murdering people at music festivals and kidnapping babies is wrong" solves the complexity of the conflict with moralizing. You're correct that people are driven more by liking or hating certain types of people. We're all guilty of it. We still have to get by on arguing principles despite the id underlying all of it. So it goes. Ok now we get to the guest's predictably wrong opinions. "Blowing up all the Hezbollah pagers at once shows that Israel isn't a rational actor". Right, decapitating your enemy who's been shooting missiles at your population continuously isn't rational.. I'd love to hear this guys rational response to Hamas and Hezbollah on Oct 7th and Oct 8th respectively. Let me guess, he just hates his side losing so it must be irrational. The guest doesn't think a two-state solution can exist. So presumably they think a one-state solution can exist? Please explain how. This isn't South Africa where it's 15% whites in the area. The guest claims a two-state solution is antithetical to Zionism. This is incorrect. Multiple views exist within Zionism, even if right wing zionism has been ascendent in the decades since failure of peace talks. The fundamental idea of zionism is that there's a jewish state. Not that Palestinians can't have a neighboring state in the region. That is one POV within Zionism. Why functional nation-state democracies haven't occurred in arab states? The guest: the problem is they're client states! Never mind that our biggest arab client state Saudi Arabia has actually been liberalizing/modernizing. Arab countries will seemingly try every ideology (islamism, communism, pan-arabism, anti-Westism) except liberal democracy. Cousin marriage and clannishness has to play a role. I suspect that having modernizing dictators is the best option for a lot of these countries when you actually see what the arab street is like. For example, look up what happens when a western female reporter tried to report on the arab spring in Egypt. Some of those mofos need a dictator. I'm not saying this is the whole story, just bringing up points I know the guest never would. Thanks for doing the podcasts. I used to read Exile back in the day. Even if I disagree with the political points I still benefit from the realistic look at military tech. Cheers, nerds.

Anyone have a spelling (or example album name) for the band Ames was talking about early on (3:30-4:30 ish) — sounded like “Dome”? Unfortunately there are apparently a real surfeit of bands named roughly that…

I always like to joke that the US had operation paperclip and Canada had operation paperweight

So glad to heard from Aamer again!

Hell yes! I was low key afraid Aamer passed away from cancer- I’m glad he’s still around (and contributing great content!)

Sir I requested a missile defense expert but I'll settle for Aamer

What, are we trying to have a balanced and nuanced discussion of the Middle East? In this economy? Get the fuck outta here with this responsible journalistic inquiry