Radio War Nerd EP #105 — Duterte, Marawi & ISIS
Guest: Aaron James, SE Asia scholar
An armed group affiliated with ISIS is still in control of Marawi, a city on the southern Philippines island of Mindao. It's a story that's received remarkably little coverage in the English-language press The War Nerd talks to fellow war nerd and Southeast Asia studies scholar Aaron James in Canberra to try to understand why IS fighters took Marawi and why they've managed to hold out — and to find out why Philippines president Duterte is so popular at home, and so hated in the West . . .
Afterwards, the Nerd and Ames take a subscriber question, and review a few of the week's war stories . . .
Maps:
*Marawi City, Philippines
* Rebel group map, Mindanao Island
Total time: 2:06:46
Comments (8)
Obama's pivot to Asia. ISIS in the Philippines & Rohinga Islamists in Burma.
Didn't they make a film of the cossack uprising against the Poles/Lithuanians? I think it had Yul Brynner as the main character/eponymous hero. The film was Taras Bulba I think.
This was a really good episode. It got into the really high baseline violence level in the Philippines generally and Mindanao in particular, which nobody ever addresses when gasping aloud about Duterte.
Philippines moro insurgency was already fighting in times of Spanish rule. In the XIXth century there was a Battle in a fortress called Pagalungan where a Spanish frigate smashed against that fortress and the marines jumped from there to its walls. There were other operations like that, those were the times of the White Rajah Brooke too. Before that there was the Clash of Cagayan around 1582, were Spaniards (those were the golden years of the Tercios) stopped Japanese pirates attacking Luzon. There's lots of military history in Philippines before 1898. ;)
Was really surprised to learn that Duterte is considered center left in the Philippines, the American media always portrays him as some sort of crazed fascist. The best RWN episodes IMO are the ones that poke holes in the prevailing narrative and expose the truth as experienced by people on the ground, and this episode definitely upholds that standard, keep up the great work. Also, Indonesia was mentioned several times, and I think would make a great topic for an episode. Between the anti communist purges of the 60’s and the slaughter in East Timor, Indonesia had one of the bloodiest 20th centuries of any country, so there’d be plenty to discuss. Again, keep up the good work.
The documentary "The Act of Killing" follows former gangsters turned death squad killers during the Indonesian mass murders of the 60s. Well worth a watch.
You can currently buy the kindle version of The War Nerd Illiad on amazon in case anybody's wondering. I bought mine and have had no problems with it.
I think the Scots-Irish/Borderers are a much closer equivalent to Cossacks than Highlanders.