Radio War Nerd #313 — Quiet Trolls The Dniepr + Syria War Update with Joshua Landis
Guest: Joshua Landis, Director of Center for Middle East Studies & blogger
Recorded: January 25, 2022
Our monthly World Of Wars looks at two wars: the phony Russia-Ukraine war that NATO & western media is screaming about...and the grim, real ongoing war in Syria, which NATO and the western media don't want you to think about.
First: Broken bones + the latest "Russian invasion" follies
At 51:38 - We talk to Joshua Landis about the Syria War today
Joshua Landis is director at the Center for Middle East Studies and professor at U Oklahoma. Read his excellent blog Syria Comment and follow him on twitter: @joshua_landis.
*Image: Alleged Russian coup plot puppet leader Yevhen Murayev
Total time: 1:56:37
Comments (17)
Who here believes Joshua and Mark that the US wanted to bring democracy to the Middle East?
Cain abel in our days. Depleated uranium, ect
Counterpunch, St. Claire - 'At the time, the late Ed Herman had convinced me to start writing for LOOT (Lies of Our Times) and I said to Alex, what the hell am I supposed to do? The whole purpose of LOOT was to closely read each NYT story and expose their biases, lies and omissions. Cockburn said, “You’ll never get them all, Jeffrey. Pointing a few lies out, makes the rest of the falsities the ‘paper of record’ prints seem legit.”'
Great episode again. Informative and clear analysis. On all of us being the targets of the psy-op: I would be curious to hear your opinion on why the Anglo/western world is being targeted. The theory on Germany and the Nordstream 2 pipeline makes a lot of sense. (Although, how likely is it really that Russian gas would be replaced by LNG from the US?) But is that enough to explain why all other NATO countries have to be convinced that war is imminent? Why do we need to be reminded of that we have an 'enemy'? That this is good vs evil and whatnot...
I've seen estimates that it would take years for Germany to fully replace their dependance on Russian LNG with dependance on American LNG because the infrastructure doesn't exist and part of the existing and new transfer capacity would have to go through Netherlands. Why convince Europe? Because a lot of these people genuinely believe we are in a war with China (and Russia) over control over Europe. There seem to be a lot more people on both sides of the Atlantic now who are saying the quiet part loud now: that Europe isn't the Europeans' to control, and we'll be damned if we're going to let the French or Germans or Balkans or V4 countries insist on autonomy and self-interest prevailing over the interests of the U.S. Baerbock's announcement about NordStream 2 made LNG prices on the spot market skyrocket because Germany doesn't have any capacity for replacing Russian gas before 2030, if that, given the decision to scuttle nukes and rely on inconsistent green tech that can't store power - and that's the crux: nothing stores energy better than petroleum. There is no rational self-interest in Germany shooting itself in the head like it did. The only beneficiaries of that policy are U.S. gas producers, French nuclear to the extent that they have excess capacity to spare, and psychos who can force German-style austerity ... on Germans. https://twitter.com/volvoks99/status/1488258871714058247
I always listen to this podcast when I’m doing laundry. This is my go-to doing laundry podcast so it’s great when an ep comes out to coincide with a load
Great show & thanks for bringing Joshua Landis back on for an update on the situation in Syria & environs. Hoping you take up his suggestion to look at Lebanon post collapse - if so please consider interviewing Amal Saad again to find out what is going on with the Axis of Resistance.
100% that'd be a great episode and i really don't see anyone else giving lebanon the attention it deserves, whole country is being held hostage. would love to hear how amal's next book is going too, on something like 'post-resistance' iirc
I've gotta say, a lot of what I'd consider "the significant figures on the American left," insofar as there is one or there are any, called bullshit on Russiagate from the beginning. The true helpless (or purely opportunist) gulls were, well, pretty much everyone who would self-describe with the word "liberal" and feel no shame, either of the Maddow varietal or in that grim "classical liberal" orbit where 29-year-old jerkoffs with neckbeards use statues of Romulus Agustulus for their Twitter profile pics.
As far as I can remember, people like Noam Chomsky didn't necessarily say it wasn't true, they just shrugged and pointed out that America meddles in a lot of other countries' elections (and a lot of countries besides Russia meddle in American elections, for that matter). To even care about the idea of Russiagate on its face you have to have a very particular combination of appalling ignorance and blind loyalty to the Democratic Party. You've got to believe that Russia's subtle psychological warfare and hacking both could and did make a difference, but also that no other force in the world, domestic or foreign, had some insidious effect on the outcome of the election. Obviously there are people whose brains are defective in that way, and it can pay off for them in a big way, but forget the American left, I don't think any significant fraction of the American public in general ever believed in or cared about Russiagate. They're far more likely to believe that Hillary Clinton is a lizard wearing a human suit or that Obama was a pure-hearted saint who did his best and was foiled by that dastardly Mitch McConnell.
I'll admit to wondering, as an exurban PA resident, about whether the massively expensive new pipeline we've been fighting for the last several years, whose entire purpose is to ship concentrated Marcellus Shale LNG to Europe, might have had a larger market in mind than Scottish nurdles.
Basically a perfect episode. Nice job guys!
Every g-d time. Recorded just before this monumental act of disinformation and warmongering horseshit. https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1487098467793133570
I just have to share this article. It is a perfect example of the War Nerd article about jihadist middle managers from the ebook. http://oneworld.press/?module=articles&action=view&id=2434
With his injury, John is setting himself up as a plot line for a remake of Бриллиантовая Рука
Excited for this one
I love u all