Radio War Nerd EP #79—Sarin, Syria & Trump's Neocon Debut
The War Nerd looks at newly-minted Washington DC hero Donald Trump's bombing of Syria and the alleged sarin attack in Idlib . . . We try to construct a more plausible scenario that would make the conventional version of the sarin attack — blaming Syrian government forces — at least plausible, since it makes no rational military sense . . . Then: more massacres in Congo that you won't hear about, and the age-old European bias against sub-Saharan Africans, going back to that overrated hack Joseph Conrad . . . versus the truly gr Also: why an ethnic Uzbek from the Ferghana Valley might wind up a jihadi suicide bomber . . . Finally: Pacino Founding Father impressions . . .
Total time: 1:53:56
Comments (36)
Any update on this and how Syria did not use sarin gas as claimed?
I can't stay a subscriber if you're not going to bother correcting a major blunder like this.
Some theme music for your paraphrase of Greenwald's good and sadly true point (at about 51:20): Russell Brand's absurdly over-the-top performance of We've Got To Do Something (3m41s): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI4XLhY10VA" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI4XLhY10VA</a>
Great episode, got some awesome book recommendations and the end had me cracking up.
Holy shit you have to warn us before you go on a rant like you did at 46:00-48:00. I was laughing so hard I nearly choked on my food
Gary&Mark, please do a special about Chechnya. The narrative is either evil soviet oppressor vs. peaceful goat herders, or righteous white knights vs. cruel islamiac psychokillers. Mark once described kadyrosky dudes as fearsome. I can well believe that, but I'd like to get the backstory. How did it even start?
There are two Congos. Congo Brazzaville, aka Republic of the Congo, home of the sapeurs, and Congo Kinshasa, aka Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaire, home of Rumble in the Jungle. The two Congos' capital cities are facing each other right across the river... Congo. But the Congo Gary is on about is Congo Kinshasa, which is huge, minerals-rich (including rare earths), and surrounded by dodgy neighbours with whom they all happen to share ethnic and tribal ties, and is mostly governed by local tribal chiefs. So, just like Libya, governing Congo centrally consists in balancing tribal tensions. In Kansai, the local chiefdom felt cheated of highly-placed jobs and bribes, so they protested by way of a bloody insurgency, killing 400, displacing 200,000, but above all killing 2 UN workers, which probably put them on the radar.
Oh I know all about Brazzaville--French Kinshasa--Belgian and in these terms French>Belgians as colonists. Besides, Brazzaville was the name of a horrible post-everything band whose frontman I had to interview in Moscow. He was one of the most boring, pampered, indecently conservative dweebs I ever heard. One of the Russian reporters asked if he would ever do a concert in Brazzaville and he replied, 'Well, if the security was adequate I might consider it.'
This was amazing. The study of how power is decentralized in armies like the Syrian, the literature criticism, the thoughts on Russia (more of those please!), Mark's impressions (I cried of laughter-and really helped wash over the palate of the grim US conversation-God that was depressing)... It was like 3 shows condensed into one!
Thanks! We've had a lot of requests for Mark's Pacino. Could be a spinoff here: Pacino talks war.
I don't see a way to respond to your newsletters so I'm posting here. I was just reading #41 and thought you'd like to see this: <a href="https://newleftreview.org/I/208/carlo-ginzburg-killing-a-chinese-mandarin-the-moral-implications-of-distance" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://newleftreview.org/I/208/carlo-ginzburg-killing-a-chinese-mandarin-the-moral-implications-of-distance</a>
So you have one reliable but undisclosed source who assures us that Syrian Governments forces definitely delivered sarin by air burst last week?
Well that has a cross-examination sound to it, and you're right one source doesn't sound so good. But it is someone we know and trust. Of course they weren't on the scene, so they could have been fed lies from a third party. But it's the silence over the much higher death toll among Shi'ia refugees one week after the Khan Shayatun attack that matters more. No one wanted to know about the 80 children killed in that attack.
Heart of Darkness not only gave us Apocalypse Now, but also one of the few non-horrible reflections on war in video games (Spec Ops: The Line, with the Burj Khalifa starring as the Congo river).
I'm gonna take your word for that, not being a gamer.
Heart of Darkness' closing line is Exterminate the Brutes! Not beasts.
You're right Patrick. I knew it was a 'b' word. Interesting difference in tone actually. 'Beast' can be neutral, 'brutes' really can't.
I don't doubt that there's a Western bias against Slavic causalities, but in the case of Stockholm vs St. Petersburg, I think it's also influenced by the fact that US right-wing media has been completely obsessed with immigrant crime in Sweden over the last few years. They've really been pushing the narrative that the soft, compliant, multi-culti (i.e. Liberal) Swedes have been taken advantage of by thuggish Muslims, who love rape and violence and totally won't assimilate. The whole thing becomes a parable for their Clash-of-Civilizations worldview.
You're absolutely right about that.
1:35 - what book is John reading from?
Ryszard_Kapuściński - The Soccer War
Great episode! Do you guys have a take on what's apparently happening in Chechnya vis a vis reports about gay men being abducted and tortured?
I wouldn't necessarily rule out an emotional response by Trump. It wouldn't be the first time someone with an authoritarian tendency had a mawkishly sentimental streak.
Great episode.
Mate do you by any chance by your sushi at a 7-11?
Good stuff! However, the Uzbek behind the attack on Stockholm didn't work as a truck driver. He had been under surveillance by SÄPO for a while because he had ties to other Uzbeks who had been charged with economic crimes/money laundry/sending money to ISIS. He also had his asylum request denied and was supposed to be deported, but had gone underground.
Thanks! But I am wondering, how does an Uzbek go underground in Sweden. How many Uzbeks ARE there in Sweden?
That excerpt at 1:38 was really cool.
Can't wait to dive into this while I finish some homework! If Jihadis were getting access to sarine, who would be supplying them with it, and how could journalists find out?
An hour in now. Wow, thanks for doing these
Omfg I was just howling at Mark's tremendous Pacino-from-Scarface as an American revolutionary on the bus. Someone asked me what I was listening to and I didn't know where to start...
Also: I vote for John giving his Illiad treatment to Heart of Darkness (including graphic illustrations, of course)! I very much enjoyed hearing you two rip Conrad apart along with his hack english major fanbase. Top shelf as always, guys!
You guy's synopsis of the episodes never mention the 45 minutes of reminiscing about Russia
I felt like the number of deaths resulting from this recent chemical attack was consistent with the story of it being an accident after a government airstrike. ~70 seems like a small number of deaths for a gas attack, especially when you look at figures from prior, purposeful chemical attacks, which have numbers of deaths that reach into the hundreds and thousands. I wish Mark had gone into more details about what he had heard about the delivery methods and the other intelligence he alluded to.
Yup, this looks like a great one.
I've been looking forward to this...