Radio War Nerd EP #237 — War in the Age of Trump, with Patrick Cockburn
Guest: Patrick Cockburn, author & Middle East correspondent for The Independent (UK)
Recorded: July 8, 2020
BELFAST—After a harrowing escape from the looneyland of pandemic America, the War Nerd awakens in Northern Ireland to talk to roving war correspondent & previous RWN guest Patrick Cockburn about his new book, "War in the Age of Trump".
Check out Patrick's previous RWN episodes: EP #18: ISIS & War Reporting; EP #49: Syrian War; EP #106: Kurdistan Disaster.
Buy Patrick Cockburn's new book War In The Age of Trump: The Fall of ISIS, The Betrayal of the Kurds, The Conflict With Iran.
Total time: 1:59:45
Direct link to this episode's mp3 here
Comments (4)
Btw. heatwaves can be quite deadly too: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave
Really interesting episode. I noticed that when talking about the rocket attacks on the Saudi oil fields, Patrick seemed to believe it was the work of the Iranians, whereas I remember at the time that Mark/John thought it was done by the Yemeni Houthis. Maybe I'm mixing up the rocket attack with the "mine on a drone" attacks done by the Houthis at another time, has more info come out on this?
I think it was the Houthies, though of course I don't know. In any case, the mainstream media put the blame squarely on the Iranians, and it's not surprising that defense decisions would reflect that. And while the Houthis aren't Iranian proxies, they're certainly allies
The detail about ISIS punching holes in walls to move unpredictably during a battle (Mosul?) reminded me of Eyal Weizman's article "Walking Through Walls," on the use of postmodern theory by the IDF: https://transversal.at/transversal/0507/weizman/en Well worth a read. Lots in there to strengthen a jaundiced opinion of academics and academia…