Radio War Nerd EP #638 — Biden, Democrats & the Gaza Genocide, feat. Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Guest: Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Recorded: September 26, 2026
We talk to DC-based investigative journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed about his new book, Crossing the Red Line, a merciless autopsy on the Biden Administration's warped complicity in the Gaza genocide.
Buy Akbar's book Crossing the Red Line: Biden, his Advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza, out now from Norton.
Follow Akbar's reporting at the Washington Sun and through his Twitter account.
Total time: 1:25:32
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
*
John's new essay collection, To The Crows, is available to subscribers. You can also order a hard copy on Amazon - read it, know it, review it!
Subscribe to Radio War Nerd at patreon.com/radiowarnerd
Sound production by Telescope Audio
Comments (15)
This guy is way to generous to the Biden admin.
Think about all those poor empty nooses...
You were shocked about the UN shutdown after Biden’s buddy Obama and the Democrats shut down ACORN because of James O’Keefe’s pimp prank? They just need a pretext. They don’t care if it’s even real. This is the same party of the Tonkin Resolution. Most importantly, Israel’s importance and influence isn’t going anywhere. They want to win. They see everything as existential. Name one fucking person who matters who not just wants to win but NEEDS to win against them. That’s why this will only end in the empire’s suicide. Because no one else can or wants to take on Samson. Israel isn’t the global Samson. The U.S. is. It has been since 1945.
God this was an incredible and maddeningly clarifying interview
Hopefully these monsters will get at least the public humiliation they deserve if/when they crawl out of their holes in 2028
Good interview. I find myself frustrated that people still report something close to the December 2023 death total as if it’s not at minimum double and likely far higher than that.
Enjoyed the interview, Akbar is an excellent reporter. When is John coming back regularly I really miss him
Daydreaming a lot of parodies rn
I’m daydreaming about that Biden ice cream
I have zero sympathy for people who are pro Israel at this point since I myself used to be extremely pro Israel and somehow managed to change my views over a period of about 15 years. So on the one hand, shamefully, I get the worldview they are coming from. OTOH if I can change, what the fuck is their problem.
On a brighter note, Ahmed is an excellent guest and (frankly) very even handed
The way pro Israel accounts turned from justifying everything with “release the hostages” to moving the goalposts & not giving a shit at all afterward is one of the most disgusting hateful scummy things I have ever seen in my life. Clearly the takeaway is that Hamas shouldn’t have released them at all since they get zero credit for it & it didn’t slow the genocidal hate avalanche one bit. Vilest stuff I have ever seen.
It's more complicated than that. Hamas offered to release several hostages almost immediately because they'd taken more than they expected to, and weren't prepared to properly handle so many people. The Israelis refused. I mean, Hamas didn't want to be responsible for the hostages being harmed. That would be extremely counterproductive. Israel, on the other hand, had every incentive to "accidentally" kill their own people so they can wave the bloody shirt. They (correctly) calculated that the hostages' families' feelings on the matter were irrelevant. The fact that Israeli society was so happy to ditch the excuse of the hostages really goes to show how far gone they are. At one time, they would have made a deal - not that they didn't hate Palestinians in the past, but they made a point of valuing the lives of Israelis highly. Israel's opponents were banking on them being extremely casualty-averse when planning their own moves. I think everyone was surprised when Israel started losing people (including quite a lot of friendly fire) and just didn't care. They've decided that they like killing more than they like being alive.
New episode on Ukraine is needed soon in lieu of the recent EU push for escalation
100.000 is a VERY conservative estimate of deaths in Gaza. Indirect deaths is usually a multiple of direct deaths. The Lancet estimates are in the hundreds of thousands.