Radio War Nerd EP #37—Defeat in War & Islamic State

There is a certain sense in the idea that Daesh has been weakened enough to warrant “a judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process,” but a) can the US even do that without a massive Russian-led blowback; and b) even if that's mitigated, how would the US even know who they're hitting at this point?

Hi guys: I am very curious as to what you make of this report regarding diplomatic dissent regarding Syria policy in the US State Dept<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/16/diplomats-call-military-strikes-assad-syria-intern/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/16/diplomats-call-military-strikes-assad-syria-intern/</a>

Excellent show but I would rather hear dead air than you two talking over each other.

lol it was pretty funny how you both kept talking over eachother. still a gteat show though.

Gary/John, thanks for bringing up the idea that some concerted effort behind the scenes must be behind all this bad PR for Eritrea. I was wondering why I’ve heard so much about it recently. - - - The UN thing was the first time I had heard the word enslavement in relation to Eritrea and their conscription, too, and I can see why you’d be skeptical of that terminology. However, when you learn some of the details it starts to sound apt. - - - Not only do very few soldiers ever get to legally leave conscription (they are stuck for life), but they are made to do physical labor unrelated to military effort in slave-like conditions for no pay. At least that’s what they are accused of. For example, there is apparently a plantation owned by a commander who staffs it unpaid conscripts. - - - Just wanted to point that out, since it is a differentiating feature from its lobby-happy neighbor. You make a case that they’re in the same ballpark of badness when it comes to how they treat their citizens, but one just has better PR (that’s good at, for example, getting Eritrea’s conscription program called slavery). That could be broadly true, but I still think the slavery accusation is deserving of some recognition. A lifetime of “military” service is the near-certain, bleak prospect awaiting young Eritreans. - - - (I put these dashes in as substitutes for paragraph breaks, do they kind of work?)

Ahm..., nope, Check your math... Light will get around the globe roughly 7 times a second... 130ms around the world.. Anyway, it's a new problem, wasn't there 3 episodes ago, even with the new mic...

Pretty cool episode, loved the subject matter. And regarding the cross talk, I'm sure you guys will figre it ou. But the end felt really strange. Almost as if Mark was like "Yeah yeah. Keep talking to yourself, old man. I'm ending this." Especially when you can hear John mumble something and Mark just goes "yeeeah..." and continues his thank you's and goodbyes.

Hey, the talking over each other is related to the new platform as far as I can tell... Are you actually hearing each other? It feels like there is a huge delay there...

What a great German ? version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down " where does it come from

It is really irritating listening to you talk over each other. I understand that there's probably a lag in the internet connection, but can't that be edited in post production? If you have two audio tracks, can't you play the tracks separately when you overlap, or tune out one, where that makes sense?