Radio War Nerd, EP #8 — Turkey Downs Russian Sukhoi-24

Listening to this at OSUT training for cav scout

I'd love to hear you talk more about consequential poetry. Curious to know your thoughts on Cavafy.

I don't know if you will find this to be revealing about Putin, but here is a story about the weird outcome of a visit he had in Israel 10 years ago, which might relate to what you and Ames refer to when talking about his reluctance to abndon old allies: <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/when-putin-met-his-jewish-german-teacher-in-israel/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.timesofisrael.com/when-putin-met-his-jewish-german-teacher-in-israel/</a> In a nutshell, after meeting his old German teacher from schhel in Israel, he sends someone from the Russian embassy/governemnt, to buy her a new apartment in Tel Aviv

Regarding puzzlement over the US strategy: William McCants suggests that the strategy is "slow strangulation" of ISIS. <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/11/17-how-isis-declared-war-on-the-world-mccants" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2015/11/17-how-isis-declared-war-on-the-world-mccants</a> "... the Islamic State’s far enemies must decide what their goal is in this battle. Like other rogue states, it can be contained or even destroyed. Either policy has downsides. Containment leaves the state intact but weakens its ability to act beyond its borders. However, terrorism actually becomes a more attractive tool for a contained state, because it has fewer conventional options. Destroying a rogue state altogether gets rid of the problem—but as we saw over the past decade in Iraq, what comes next might be worse, especially if the state collapses all at once. "So far, the United States and its allies have opted for something between containment and swift destruction: strangulation. Working with a mix of local militias in Syria and Iraq, the allies are slowly tightening the noose around the Islamic State’s neck, taking territory on the periphery and moving toward its stronghold in western Iraq and eastern Syria. It has been a slow, agonizing process, but it has produced results: The Islamic State has lost a quarter of its territory over the past year. The glacial pace has been harshly criticized, but it has the virtue of giving enemies of the Islamic State time to absorb newly liberated cities without having to take charge of the entire territory all at once."

Are you sure about the "pilots are jock jerks"-thing? I haven't met many pilots, but the few I did meet were rather dorky nerds and most fighter pilots you see in TV reports and documentaries and the such, look like Napoleon Dynamite's smaller brother, you know, the scrawny guy with the black mustache who turns into a wigger and hooks up with the tall, black chick in the movie.

It's interesting that this happened in an area where Turkmen militias being adviced by Grey Wolves are operating... For a long time there have been reports of Turkish intelligence/military working very closely wih those groups. They are sort of Turkey's pet project in Syria - hugely important as a potentially very loyal ally in the context an otherwise very chaotic and unpredictable insurgency. At the same time - these groups are weak, compared with their Arab allies/rivals. Not many Turkmen in Syria overall - not much potential in terms of popular support in important areas. With Russia flying sorties above these groups, my guess is that part of Turkey's "overreaction" could be that they felt they had to protect their pet. We'll see what happens, but it's likely their hoping Russia will try and stay away from those areas in the future? Also, when you find yourself in a standoff like the kind Russian and Turkey is in right now, it's often a good thing for you if your opponent assumes that you are "crazy" and willing to risk full-scale war. Makes him cautious - forcing him to take your eventual reactions into account when he's planning things. It's really the only (somewhat sensible) thing Turkey can do at this point. And looking at things from their perspective, it's obvious that SOMETHING has to be done. Syria is turning into a huge disaster for them, in so many ways.

Hey hey Speaking from a business point of view, having per episode payment is better than per month Currently you are going to have 4 episodes per month, and collecting about 2500 dollars per episode = 10,000 dollars / month Moving per month payment will diminish this amount because the up front payment hit for the consumer is less per transaction by having it per episode than per month So if you move to per month you might ”only” get 3000 per month So keeping per episode is financially wiser Also John Dolan is now making 10,000 dollars per month, why doesn’t he move back to New Zealand, with 10,000 dollars per month he can live a good life there, also his wife is from there and knows the system.

Great episode Mark and Gary! And nice intro guitar riffs (at first I thought it was something picked from the Juno OST).