Radio War Nerd EP #118 — Turkey, Syrian Kurds & Afrin Invasion, with Joshua Landis

Still one of the best RWN episodes of all time

Great episode!

Really really enjoyed this one.

Landis is such a great guest! One of the best. Congrats fpr having him on! Btw, I have an explanation for the oil-field grab i DeZ... in that part of Syria, SDF is in fact dominated by deeply local Arab militias (some of which have worked with ISIS before- believe it or not). Those guys are pure opportunists.

Excellent interview. How about getting a joint chat with people like Amal Saad, Elijah Magnier and Landis? Perhaps ever month or quarter?

It is interesting because of Landis’ obviously deep knowledge of Syrian society. But also annoying because his analysis is pretty much just on the level of culture and identity, nothing about the important class basis of the regime and of at least the early phase of the uprising, and he’s deeply ignorant of the Rojava movement. They’re not at all nationalist in the same sense as the right-wing KRG leadership, if at all, with an aim of radically democratizing Syria rather than a separate state, they’re not helpless dupes of the US, and they’re clearly not done in the current fighting. Serious analysts who unlike it seems Landis have spent time there like the authors of the book Revolution in Rojava, Australia-Kurdish academic and activist Hawzhin Azeez now back in Kobane from where she reports on Facebook, and Dutch journalist Frederike Geerdink who I saw speak recently, are a lot clearer on all that.

Don't listen to the nitpickers. This is a top class RWN interview/interviewee.

I guess the Louvre is being monetized or something. They have permanently engraved the names of their biggest donors on a wall inside the museum. One of the big donors is the secretive Korean cult leader who was responsible for managing the unsafe tour boat that sank and killed hundreds of Korean school kids a few years ago. His name is still engraved there.

This has been one of my favorite guests you've had so far. I understand why people disagreed with some of what he said, but I thought he was an amazingly informative guest and provided an fascinating perspective of the start of the syrian conflict from the point of Assad's government which I hadn't heard before. I would love to see him on again, because I could tell there was a lot more he could have spoken about if he had the time.

Wow, what a guest! Like others mentioned, even if Landis doesn't come to the same conclusions as the War Nerd hive mind, he's an incredibly intelligent person and I'm glad we got to hear from him.

Hey John, I was just wondering how/why you ever choose the pseudonym you did. If it's a literary reference it must be pretty obscure, was it just a random choice?

I really enjoyed this one.

Haha, this exactly how I felt about Joshua Landis. I highly respect his deep knowledge about Syrian society but sometimes what he says is really infuriating. At this point I am confident that I can do a better narrating the Syrian War. I will continue what I started on CLASH! podcast <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-24-origin-of-16590209">https://www.patreon.com/posts/ep-24-origin-of-16590209</a>

Great guest. Although he sometimes pisses me off. But I disagree that the US has Syria at its throat economically. I think the fact that the US won't play gives Russia and China full access to this project. Syria can be rebuilt and fully integrated into Chinese and Russian institutions. Iran is joining the EAEU. Syria can join next. And it can also join China's projects. SCO/OBOR. The US has no freaking money. All the US controls is some financial nodes in the system that can be worked around. China is already at work in Syria. Germany will also weasel it's way into the Syrian rebuild through Iran or something. That will be fun to watch.

This hasn’t shown up in the RSS feed for me yet, anyone else?

Couldn't listen past Joshua's justification of the Khan Shaikhun attack as a demonstration. It struck a highly strategic target (KS is on the road junction leading to almost every recently active frontline in Hama) during a rapid SAA counterattack amidst a chaotic rebel retreat, which, at the time, began to threaten Lataminah, and - as even some rebel media was gossiping - had high hopes of getting to Morek and Khan Shaikhun proper. And due to the gas attack the army just dropped everything and went "nope, nope, wasn't us, look!" Plus, what good is a demonstration that you have to deny. US didn't have to make Japan and/or USSR believe it *may or may not have* nuked Hiroshima. Demonstrating America's willingness to annihilate Japan wasn't overshadowed by concern that throwing too many nukes too obviously might result in the complete destruction of US itself by a much greater power. A situation like that would've changed Japan's strategic calculus.

This is Awesome! Joshua Landis is one of the most knowledgeable observers of Syria, Looking forward to this!

Hey John, I am not getting the show notes despite subscribing for it. Why is it so