Radio War Nerd, EP #53—Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Colombia referendum on peace deal with FARC voted down, with help from Human Rights Watch...Syria "White Helmets" group ties to neocons and USAID & the morphing of pro-war propaganda...Afghanistan: graveyard of imperial memories: War Nerd takes the longest war history back a few years...
Total Time: 2:05:28
Comments (14)
@casualty numbers to be ineffective: There have been numbers. The usual seems to be 30% in one engagement, meaning a squad of ten that loses 3 becomes so careful and demoralized as being no longer combat effective.
The taliban also got a nice mention in a Bond film, 'The Living Daylights' with Timothy Dalton playing into the whole 'noble savage'-trope.
Yup, their leader was educated in Oxford so that's alright then...
Really sorry to hear about your father Mark
Hilarious Red Dawn memories...as a West Point cadet from 85-89 I must have seen that and Top Gun 10x each...for free. Keep it up, dweebs.
geez gary. no one can say they looked more forward to this episode more than me. im 52:34 into episode and if i wasnt an afghan and was learning from you, id think we're nothing but a bunch of murdering pedophiles. i get this type of a joke of commentary from racist right wing blogs but didnt expect this here. now if i was in a crowd of war nerd listeners, I'd have to explain that we're not just a bunch of barbarians pedophiles. i wish i could take my recommendation of an afghanistan episode back.
Hm, thats harsh. They are comparing pashtun culture to ancient greece, not usually associated with barbarians. And not only mentioning, but emphasizing, the distinctions between pashtun, hazara, tajik ect, the distinctions between rich and poor and the distinctions between urban and rulal, rather than talking about "Afghans" as if Afghanistan was some kind homogenized scandinavian country. Stuff that right-wing nationalist nobheads would never get. Listening to the episode, I'm not left with the impressions you describe, but then again I have no actuall relation to the place, so maybe this is a "white brat lecturing afro americans on why Trump isn't being racist" kind of argument.
Also, just anecdotally, everyone I've known that lost their life in military action lost their lives in Afghanistan, not Iraq. My reference group is spread out around the 82nd, 75th, and a couple SF groups.
I was in Afghanistan in '02.. the "blast on rumor" was definitely a real thing. "That compound had a black flag up! Probably Taliban!"
Condolences, Mark.
Condolences to Mark and his family
Nice lone. The McCain bit was fucking terrifying. That's a Marine Corps General sounding like a scared teenager for telling the truth
I don't understand McCain's ..er...logic in the clip. The other senator clearly asks if a no-fly zone can be set up to stop "barrel bombs" from being dropped. If the no-fly zone only covers certain portions of Syria, like McCain says, who then does it prevent from flying and dropping said bombs? Certainly not Russia or Syria. I'm stupidly hoping this no-fly zone topic shows up in a debate. Thanks for another great episode.
Condolences Mark