Radio War Nerd EP #172 — Sahel Insurgencies

Sorry, I definitely cannot appear on the show. Thanks for the invite though!! If you ever do a show on central Africa, I will probably relieve myself in the comments section.

Regarding the Venezuelan power outage. The actual specific plan to attack the Dam leading to power outage and widespread unrest was suggested in a 2010 CANVAS think tank memo published by wikileaks. <a href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/11/us-regime-change-blueprint-proposed-venezuelan-electricity-blackouts-as-watershed-event-for-galvanizing-public-unrest/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://thegrayzone.com/2019/03/11/us-regime-change-blueprint-proposed-venezuelan-electricity-blackouts-as-watershed-event-for-galvanizing-public-unrest/</a>

Big fan for a while now, love the show. Couldn’t resist commenting. Your assessment of the press supporting military goals fits very nicely with the Niger incident (although not at first glance). The new drone/fighter base in Agadez will establish permanent air superiority in northwest Africa, and I remember talk about the need for such air support following the ambush. Also, the last minute deviation in plan ordered by higher is certainly interesting given how much control embassies have on operations. Every time an “incident” with US forces (or anything really) happens in Africa there is a circlejerk happening in the basement of the pentagon. Such as #bringbackourgirls, which unlocked the funding, drone, and intelligence support in the region that Michelle Obama so desperately needed..... All this propaganda talk brings me to the Kony mission, a fools errand probably worth around a billion or so dollars (including logistics), to chase down a bunch of ghosts that would love to eat a hot meal in prison if they had the opportunity. Life really sucks out in that bush, it’s hard. When any LRA are caught, they are repatriated by the UPDF for about a year, trained, and immediately put back out in the field on “special teams” (plain clothes sometimes) to go and find more LRA. Super hard ass dudes that do months with no resupply. I’m sure they just resupply from the villages that are often plagued by LRA atrocities.......... ;) Dominic Ongwen was at least smart enough to cross into CAR and turn himself into the US, and the Ugandans were PISSED (see above, enjoying hot meal in prison). Basically we pay Uganda like 100 or so million a year to run this mission, with the express purpose of “catching Kony” and ending the mission (I feel dumber every time I think about this). Kony is a golden goose. And then there is the Bridgeway Foundation, which provides the RF transmitters for the UPDF that US SOF are NOT under any circumstances allowed to look at. Hell, the article below even says that Bridgeway isn’t trying to find Kony, but the trackers provide early warning for attacks. The entire thing is a clusterfuck. Save the Children is just access and placement. Basically, we maintain our footprint and monetary influence in Uganda, and Uganda has about 100 million excuses to carry out military influence operations north of their border. It’s like we are training our kid brother how to get shit done the “right way” Your much maligned Reagan era influence lives. I feel better now. Creative writing for your enjoyment. <a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/04/23/us-builds-drone-base-niger-crossroads-extremism-fight.html" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/04/23/us-builds-drone-base-niger-crossroads-extremism-fight.html</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/can-a-handful-of-troops-bringbackourgirls-106488" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/can-a-handful-of-troops-bringbackourgirls-106488</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/inside-green-berets-hunt-warlord-joseph-kony-n726076" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/inside-green-berets-hunt-warlord-joseph-kony-n726076</a>

Even though I always enjoy the guests you guys have on, my favourite episodes are the ones where it's just you two chatting.

<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/comments/6q6ipp/virgin_islands_vs_chad_republic/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/justneckbeardthings/comments/6q6ipp/virgin_islands_vs_chad_republic/</a> (With the stupid hopefully behind us ...) Carnival isn't under attack in Brazil; Brazilian Evangelicals aren't vaguely sexually repressed; Bolsonaro posted what he did after protests against him in Carnival celebration, so yes, it was weaponized - by Left-Liberals. (Try to avoid getting Brazil news from Rachel Maddow counterparts.) On cartoons by Commies: Mark, maybe your son would appreciate Krtek? Regarding a nice example of Anglophone-Francophone conflict *not* happening in Africa, read The Catholic Orangemen of Togo - other good reasons to do so, too. It's my impression that European and steppe-nomadic [reminder that Europeans are descended from steppe nomads] kings were originally kings of peoples, but lots of other kings (e.g. of countries with no foundational nomads) long were kings of geographical expressions (e.g. Mesopotamian inscriptions). Paris abducted Helen of *Sparta*. The cattle-raiding-on-horse zone went from Ireland to *Tibet* (which may help explain why allegedly Tibetans love motorcycles now); there's also the cattle-raiding-on-foot in East Central Africa (they seem to me to have tended *not* to Arabize - and to be a favored source of physical slave labor for Arab or Arabized slavers). Regarding the "cults", check how the ashvamedha, to anoint a chakravarti, worked. (Wonder whether the Maratha emperors did that - they did resurrect the title.) I imagine the CAR looked even less worth investing in to the French after the Fashoda Incident. [reminder that the French Air Force protected Chad against Libya] Also, Chad was part of French *Equatorial* Africa. "Maxim 29: The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, no more, no less." Do you have any specific good source on North African population shrinking? And did "North Africa" mean "Muslim Africa", the most common definition, or "Maghreb"? On AIPAC-related subjects: Mark's been consistent in hating AIPAC, but IIRC he said some other episode something like "I should get over my antipathy to Chabad", when the latter's actual business is the same as the former's, including spending lots of money on denying the peoplehood of the Palestinians. Depictions of Jews in premodern Europe never include their high participation in the most hated profession in the world - tax collectors, where "You have no money, right? Well, do you have a daughter? Lose the daughter, keep the rest of the family!" was always an option. Lastly, some current "anti-Semitism!" cries by Jews are like if you deplored the Mafias and the nearest Italian said "Hey, that's racist against Italians!". And, well, it may have been missed other times I said it: *check Radio Okapi and Radio Dandalkura's work*.

Always glad to have more Africa episodes. As you guys have mentioned many times before, conflicts in Africa don't get nearly the attention that they should in mainstream media. I came across this article the other day <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47538851" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47538851</a> and it served as a good reminder of how issues in Africa get treated. It would also be awesome to have some episodes about the Malian and Songhai Empires one day

How did the Tuareg - Salafist alliance work out? I've read that the Tuareg view on Islamic custom is somewhat different in that the men cover up and the women don't. Though that might be only a superficial thing. Also, I remember years ago reading something by Borges where he asked what had happened to the black population of Buenos Aires that he remembered from his childhood. He provided no answer.

Very good to hear Mark's kid is doing ok. I had a lot of health problems as a kid, so I sympathize. The "Russians did MH370" part gave me a mental image of William Shatner looking out the plane window in horror while a tracksuit gopnik on the wing tears off panels and parts

Here's a good documentary about Mali, which describes the "globalized" (aka France- and IMF-controlled) economy there which led to the Islamist uprising. <a href="https://www.kanopy.com/video/return-bamako" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.kanopy.com/video/return-bamako</a>

Really under-the-radar tease for an upcoming Nigeria episode. Can't wait.

I'm probably your only Mauritanian listener, I too frequently think of Kirchik's hilarious article.

John i heard youre like into poetry: Me and Tim a-huntin went, Met three whores in a pop up tent, They was three, and we was two So I bucked one and Timbuktu.