Radio War Nerd EP #486 — Syria War 2: Return of the Jihadis, feat. Joshua Landis

At least now every time Landis is on the show I’ll know what the think tank is coming up with to describe Arabs as disjointed, disorganized, lawless “thugs”.

Man, NATO hair and make up should be nominated for an Oscar.

I hitchhiked through Chilliwack in 1971 on a recon mission. Luckily (for me) my birthday pulled a draft number in the 300's, otherwise I would still be hiding out up there, somewhere ...

As long as people are calling for different perspectives to contrast with Joshua Landis's, why not have Elijah Magnier back on, if possible? In a recent article, he wrote, "Israel failed in neutralising Hezbollah’s military capabilities or its command structure. Despite intensive bombing campaigns, Hezbollah remains operational and has proven its resilience. Hezbollah is required to redeploy its forces and infrastructure north of the river. However, the implementation of this clause poses several challenges. Hezbollah may interpret any violation of the deal, such as Israel retaining control of Lebanese territories or resuming military actions, as grounds to re-establish its presence south of the Litani River. "Also, Hezbollah’s redeployment north of the Litani does not eliminate its ability to strike Israel with long-range missiles, maintaining the threat of future hostilities. The agreement does not directly enforce the disarmament of Hezbollah, allowing it to retain its strategic weapons north of the Litani. Its resilience has bolstered its credibility among its supporters despite the heavy cost of the conflict." which gives a significantly different impression compared to Dolan, Ames, and Landis's conclusion that the cease-fire represented a clear defeat for Hezbollah. It's definitely worth noting that the Israeli public is not happy with this cease-fire, and they certainly don't consider it an unambiguous victory, which is further eroding Netanyahu's hold on his office.

Landis plays this game of: we aren’t sure what Israel & the US want in Syria - they left Assad in power because they wanted a weak state. The US and Israel were both supporters in material, medical aid and funds, intel, training (etc) for the Syrian dirty war. The first dirty war against Syria was a regime change effort, it failed because of Russian intervention. It should be presumed that this is regime change effort 2.0 unless confronted with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The only part of Landis’ arguments that make any sense is when he points out obvious axis of resistance failures that even Mr Magoo can see. Everything else is based on a false premise that HTS is a wild card while also being simultaneously a US asset (wtf?). William Van Wagenan has done stellar reporting on the Syrian dirty war, and doesn’t muddle it with pretend confusion as to the US goals in the region. Landis makes everything seem so confusing. It’s unclear what Russia will do. Its crystal clear what Turkye, the US and Israel are doing.

Sure, Israel would have to “contend” with an Islamist government.

can anyone point me to an article/video/whatever directly debunking the idea that Israel was defeated in Lebanon in relation to their own stated goals? western analysts have consistently underestimated resistance movements, what reason is there to think Hezbollah is ~ground into dust~? I appreciate you having Landis on, please also get some Syrian analysts on lol

the people who honked at John must have been really rude bc he isn't even trying to take some of the blame like in his usual anecdotes that start an episode

Unfortunately I think Professor Landis's statements on the axis of resistance being a paper tiger are aging like a fine wine at this point.

So if you fly airliners into American landmarks, the Americans will give you massive amounts of free military hardware and help you take over a country to run as your own Islamic state. But if you fight and die for the Americans, they'll sell you out to the Turks and crack jokes about what smart cynical operators they are while you're massacred. What a fucking great country.

Did this guy compare Al Qaeda to Hamas or maybe I misheard lol

I actually find this much more useful than his previous interviews. And I truly agree with the point made late in the episode about Lebanon ceasefire. It was clearly a defeat for Hezb unless u are denying reality. Good episode.

Is there a good overview article of the whole Syria mess? I realized the other day that this whole Syria business is a goddamn mess, and the article on Wikipedia is like reading Slughorn's memories—"Nothing to see here. DO NOT LOOK!"

How does he manage to gloss over that HTS’s disassociation with AQ was agreed to by the latter with the express rationale of better preserving HTS’s forces?

Great ep, make it free! I wanna send it to every dipshit i know who still believes in the existence of the 'moderate rebels'

Good ep

Love this pod but this Landis guy stinks. He used to be good but seems to have taken a couple steps towards neocon shilling. Is he trying to get tenure or something? I’m ok with hearing about things that don’t agree with my own personal beliefs, but he’s misrepresented facts with a clear pro-west bias and been just plain wrong in some cases.

It almost seems quaint that Russia explicitly invaded Ukraine when western powers (i.e. Turkey, US) just invade without ever declaring that's what they're doing and often without ever using their own national forces

I used to go through chilliwack sometimes when I lived in Bellingham WA. There was a kayak run on the river through there I did a few times. Seemed like an alright place

Landis stinks

Fuck I hate Chilliwack. I've never met anyone from Chilliwack I didn't loathe.

Take a shot every time he says loggerheads

My god this guy thinks the US isn’t somehow on the ground with the latest “Al queda is on our side in Syria” go around?

You guys couldn’t find a better expert than this guy in Oklahoma again? No one from the region? A lot of what this guy posts on Twitter are standard social media rumors. I don’t get any sense he has local sources or knows anything except what he reads on social media. His analysis is fairly shallow as well. There is so much confusion going around about Syria right now so someone who can help separate rumors from fact would be valuable please find someone better

Heads up John-- There will be Taylor Swift concerts in Vancouver from the 6th through the 8th. Good luck and avoid major roads!

I saw a video of a group of surrendering saa soldiers being executed

Damn near neighbors John. Hi from Bellingham!

Based on that picture, can we be sure this Jolani guy isn't actually named something like Лев Горовиц fresh off the boat from Odessa in NYC circa 1923?