Radio War Nerd EP #196 — Bowe Bergdahl & Afghanistan War, with Matt Farwell
Guest: Matt Farwell, author, journalist, US Army vet
Recorded: August 28, 2019
It's Radio War Nerd's 4th year anniversary! We celebrate with a great episode talking to Afghanistan War vet & author Matt Farwell about his new book "American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the US Tragedy in Afghanistan" with co-author Michael Ames. Farwell tells us about his own experiences in the war, his journalistic collaborations with the late great Michael Hastings, the shitshow that is the US political & media class, and of course the story of the enigmatic US soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who walked off his base one day and wound up being held by the Taliban for nearly 5 years. The Bergdahl story serves as a perfect & nauseating narrative thread to see just how depraved America has become in its late-imperial phase.
At 2:17:00 Ames & War Nerd discuss how the podcast Serial teamed up with the CIA's favorite Hollywood propaganda duo — Kathryn Bigelow & Mark Boal — to smear Bowe Bergdahl . . . Plus: Israeli attacks against Iran allies scare the Pentagon, while Trump talking Iran peace scares the Israelis . . .
Buy Matt Farwell's book "American Cipher: Bowe Bergdahl and the US Tragedy in Afghanistan" co-authored with Michael Ames (no relation to a certain other "Ames").
Total time: 2:37:45
Comments (12)
Congratulations and good luck Mark.
thanks!
It seems iTunes stopped downloading the War Nerd podcasts after the Simon Bolivar show on August 2, and has vanished from the store. I am not too tech savvy, but how can I continue to download these great podcasts?
Great guest.
Matt was a great guest. Thanks!
Off topic: maybe bring Issa Blumi back to talk about Yemen?
I thought Serial cynical and manipulative. Just awful. Gave up on NPR at that point.
IDK where Mark got that impression of the Serial season. It was a while ago but I mostly remember the narrative confirming to what was brought up here; he was a fucked up but basically decent kid who was not cut out for the dysfunction of the US military.
They devoted an entire episode to examining the claim that he caused the death of US troops, without drawing any conclusions, despite the fact that the answer was obviously no. Farwell discussed this. They also fawned over Obama's abysmal handling of the hostage negotiation -- this media malfeasance was also one of Farwell's main points in the book, at least from what Mark said
Edit : F'ing rights. This book is on Audible I've been so propagandized about this story I guess, that I don't know how to follow this conversation. Sounds like fun though and I'll listen back when I know what the fuck is actually going on.
This dude sounds like he’s on Adderall.
Shit, that sounds like an insult, didn’t mean it that way 😇