Radio War Nerd EP #2: Military Training & Recruiting
The latest episode, featuring Gary Brecher and Mark Ames. We thank everyone, learn about Battle of Talas, and report for the first time the War Nerd Iliad manuscript . . .
Comments (22)
The Abbasids were an Arab lineage that got critical Persian support - the royal family was Arab, the bureaucracy disproportionately but not only Persian (also over-represented: Aramaic-speaking Christians), and the soldiers mainly Arab and Persian (a big question being that the previous Umayyads didn't allow Persians to rise in either the civil or military hierarchy). And Talas didn't check Chinese expansion - the An Lushan Rebellion shortly thereafter did, and (in that direction) it wasn't for a while: China never got that far again - the closest thing to happen later was Sinicized Kara Khitans conquering much of Central Asia.
Regarding the "Army run by jocks".....mostly true, Soldiers even joke that your APFT (Army Physical Fitness Test) score has more bearing on your NCOER/OER (NCO/Officer Evaluation Report) than if you actually know how to do your f**king job, lol. BUT......consider the fact that neither GEN Dempsey nor GEN Odierno are Ranger School grads. While, yes, there is definitely a strong "Ranger School mafia" in the officer corps...it's just because combat arms guys dominate the higher ranks (obviously) and they overwhelmingly tend to be jock-y types.
Forgot to add: in the Army, the Infantry rules the roost. Really has even as far back as the 80's, when everyone was wet-dreaming about Fulda Gap tank battles. You do get the occasional guy from another branch made the Chief of Staff (CoS), like GEN Odierno who is an artillery officer, but it's still a super-Infantry-heavy world throughout the Army. That's another reason why you have a strong Ranger School "mafia," because if you're a freshly-minted 11A Infantry Officer coming out of the Fort Benning schoolhouse, you are almost guaranteed a Ranger School slot. The other super-strong bias in the Army is towards Airborne School grads...there again, reflecting a strong Infantry influence, even though airborne ops are exceedingly rare nowadays. If you have the "mustard stain" on your jump wings (yellow star, signifying you've made a combat jump), you are a Bad Motherfucker in the Army. And they are rare...I've only met two (one old Grenada vet and one who did a combat jump in OIF1). They're so few comabt jumps that there's even a comprehensive list here: <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/airborne-jumps.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/airborne-jumps.htm</a> GEN Odierno really is a weird outlier, because he's neither Ranger nor Airborne; maybe owing to his field artillery background. Even Dempsey has jump wings. What is sorely lacking in the upper echelons is, as you touched on, guys with SOCOM background. GEN Schoomaker was the first, and so far only, Special Forces officer to make Army CoS. He was even in 1st SFOD-D, AKA "Delta Force." I don't know if we've ever had a CoS come from the 75th Ranger Regiment, the Army's other big special ops force. And don't confuse regimental Rangers with "school-house Rangers;" 75th vets will VERY quickly correct you, lol! 75th has its own assessment and selection process and a strong emphasis on far-behind-the-lines infiltration, reconnaissance, and raids, not just jocky PT (Physical Training, i.e. exercising). The only 75th vet I can find in command was GEN (R) John Abizaid, who was CENTCOM commander from 2003 to 2007, and he was only in the Regiment as a junior officer. More guys with direct experience in irregular warfare and special ops would be a definite improvement. But don't worry; large sections of the Armed Forces have already given up on counterinsurgency and gone back to their core competency: war-gaming big conventional fights against North Korea and China, lol.
Listening to your podcast makes me think of two priests debating the true nature of God. Each of the padres starts by tallying long and intricate lists of strangeness and irony. They then proceed to examine each individual anomaly, each one in great detail and from multiple points of view. Why would God choose such and arbitrary and capricious way to make his point? Clearly if it was up to church things would have done much differently. Anyway, the time is up so they agree to meet again next Wednesday.
Dr. Dolan, would it be possible to give you money in exchange for your out of print books in some sort of electronic format. Some are quite expensive on the used book market.
Hi Carter, Unfortunately, I don't have electronic copies of most of my books. I have several copies of Pleasant Hell in Canada and would happily mail you one if I were there. Which books were you hoping to read? Maybe I can arrange something.
Dear War Nerd, Mr. Ames: I don't know why, but Gary Kasparov has written a book (titled - I shit you not - "Winter is Coming") in which he tries to advance the argument that Obama has irreparably damaged the credibility of the United States internationally and has been a failed president in general. The legs of his argument are that Obama didn't get into a war with everyone in Syria, that he "got nothing and totally capitulated" in the JCPOA, and that Putin's adventures in Russia's backyard need to be kinetically contained. He appears to be wholly oblivious to the existence of domestic political constraints (those pesky voters!) and the historical context of Obama's first term. I must admit I don't know much about Mr. Kasparov other than he was the target of some brave martyr's attack on his person via RC Penis Helicopter. And he plays chess or something. Would either the War Nerd or Mr. Ames be able to provide some light on why this silly man is on the book circuit?
I am not The War Nerd or Mark Ames. Kasparov was the world Champion of Chess for many years, he is a talented person, and he was the last World Champion to beat a Computer specifically designed for Chess, Deep Blue was the computer he played Several matches against it, lost some won some. If I remember correctly the ones he won were at a lowering setting, also if I remember he Won against the highest setting then a few years after that he lost against the highest setting, something like that, you can look it up, I am too lazy :P
Also, since you're doing a graphic novel at the moment, have you ever seen Savage by Pat Mills from 2000 AD (a British comic that was and remains far more interesting than anything ever published by mainstream US publishers). It's an adult updating of a 1970s children's strip about Russia invading Britain and was a brilliant dark and sometimes viciously funny commentary on what life in occupied countries in general and Iraq in particular was like. I think you might appreciate it <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Complete-Savage-Taking-Liberties/dp/1905437285" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Complete-Savage-Taking-Liberties/dp/1905437285</a>
I've tried to sign up as a sponsor, but I live in the uk and the payment details ask for a zip code which we don't have here. Not sure if this is just me being a muppet but if you or anyone else can explain how I can get around this then I'll be happy to sign up after all the interesting stuff you've given us for free over the years...
Have you tried using a credit card, or bank pay card, if that fails, create a paypal account. And you DO have zip codes int he UK but they have both letters and numbers, also not all details are needed in SOME card forms, dont know about this specifically, anyway there are internet web sites that will allow you to find out your zip code / postal code int he uk if you type in your address and city
Is there a link the episode 1 that doesn't go to the Pando paywall? Thanks!
Hi Thomas Try this: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/3180247">https://www.patreon.com/posts/3180247</a> You can find all posts under the "Creator Posts" tab
Re Army run by jocks, I can't find too many clips from HBOs EXCELLENT "Generation Kill" with the captain referred to as "Encino Man" by the enlisted under his command, so afraid can only supply this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpjieIRRAp8" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpjieIRRAp8</a> and this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9uXLzZyucI" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9uXLzZyucI</a>
Hi War Nerd. Thrilled to hear you acknowledge my comments of support this morning and your amusement in my reference to left wing media. You suggested I meant pacifist media. I would have argued that this is the same thing but no need because you spent the next hour agreeing with me. Keep it up. Glad but not surprised you got the support. Lance from NZ. PS you may like to look at the NZ wars some time.
Thanks Lance. I guess it's because I spent my 12 years in NZ down in Dunedin, but the NZ wars have always been confusing to me, fought piecemeal and with wildly varying levels of savagery. Worse yet, they had to compete chronologically with the US Civil War and -- well, I'm sorry, but it's a wipeout.
For the WN collectors (i.e. crazies like me who are gonna download every single episode) I'd like to request two improvements: a) Give every episode a descriptive name like "War Nerd Radio Ep 2 (2015-09-02).mp3" instead of "6356960097229553942.mp3" b) Use VBR (variable bitrate) on your mp3 encoder. This way you can deliver the same nice audio quality while cutting down on download times. Last week I tried to download the first episode and I had to retry 4 times because it was awfully slow (something like 5KB/sec). Download speed seems to be fixed now, though.
Good suggestions. I'll pass them along.
I got a LOT of looks on the bus today for the way I laughed when hearing some of the description's from the Iliad translation... totally worth it. Fantastic episode! In answer to your question re what the equivalent of Ranger school would be for prospective counterinsurgents... well, this may sound like idiot tough talk, but the first thing that leaps to mind is "prison." An overcrowded parcel of territory dominated by armed groups that hate each other but are still forced to create a sort of society (for economic reasons if nothing else) because they are stuck together. Send your prospective Chinese Gordon in there and see how they fare. There's a precedent: British boarding school. The stereotype, at least, is that the officers who went out to create and run the empire came from little child mini-prisons which it amused the British to call "schools." Now, the risk-averse, insurance-laden, media-ensnared American defense establishment probably couldn't afford to just drop Second Lieutenants in Chino as a training exercise (and prisoners aren't dummies- they'd probably figure it out and game the system somehow). So if they were going to really overhaul training for COIN, it'd probably wind up being some like a LARP, god help us all. I know people in the subculture, and they're basically all about internecine conflict -- everyone gets together in factions and then goes out in the woods to boffer and nerf each other to see who's better, though there's usually a skein of amateur theatrics ("role playing") involved. Of course most LARPers -- and especially the boss LARPers, the ones who run the games -- are squeamish about the darndest things... but give them a budget and a mandate, and who knows.
Hi Peter
Nicely trenchant discussion of how demographics make so much war reporting and efforts meaningless over the long run. The point about Bagdad now being a Shi'a city is lost on so many of our own pundits.
Thanks Allen