Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

I discuss the slaughter of over 500 unarmed men, women and children in My Lai in March 1968 by American soldiers.In concert with the Tet Offensive in 1968, this was the end of American arms in Vietnam.The collision of barbarism, toxic leadership and moral injury make everyone of these pages bleed. One of the most searing indictments of American arms you will read. This book is an acquired taste because it may crush your soul.I caution you before you listen to this that the telling of this tale is will haunt any decent human being forever.References:Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into DarknessKarl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to WarBill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of WarClark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial PurposeDick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent BattlespaceAndrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided WarsShauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect UsJonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of CharacterJonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of HomecomingAnother podcast:Martyrmade: Anything That Moves - The My Lai Massacre (w/History on Fire)My SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

I continue a rather technical treatment of developing and using Concepts of Operations (CONOPS).This episode examines the finer points of getting baselines and expectations right for small and large projects alike.If you take these simple concepts for building a CONOPS to include how to do decomposition in Product Breakdown Structures (PBS) and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) as described in MILSTD 881F and apply it wherever you happen to work at a small or large company, everybody will be in awe of the black magic you perform and it a. guaranteed Return on Investment (ROI) in how much money you will save downstream.References:Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide GTA 31-01-003 January 2020DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STANDARD PRACTICE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES FOR DEFENSE MATERIEL ITEMS MILSTD 881F 13 May 2022NASA Systems Engineering Handbook Rev 2Cost of 13 NASA projects skyrocket due to improper reviewsThe US Submarine Force is SunkJames Hornfischer "The Fleet at Flood Tide" My SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me

I discuss a rather technical treatment of developing and using Concepts of Operations (CONOPS).This episode examines the timeless and tedious process of getting baselines and expectations right for small and large projects alike.References:Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide GTA 31-01-003 January 2020DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE STANDARD PRACTICE WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURES FOR DEFENSE MATERIEL ITEMS MILSTD 881F 13 May 2022NASA Systems Engineering Handbook Rev 2Cost of 13 NASA projects skyrocket due to improper reviewsMy SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41-42 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.I discuss the outcome of the probable jihadist invasion of America. America is in a unique position in history in which it has facilitated the unfettered invasion of its borders and a large swath of military age males have been granted asylum or gone undetected to link up with legacy underground Islamist and terrorist groups across the country.This episodes examines the smoking ruins and speculate what the next stage of American civilization will look like.References:Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into DarknessWilliam Forstchen Day of WrathKurt Schlichter The AttackKarl DahlFactionFaction: With the CrusadersMatt Bracken:Enemies Foreign and Domestic.Foreign Enemies And Traitors.Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.Castigo Cay.Eric Frank Russell The WaspMichael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of FranceRobert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh MistressRobert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In HistoryMy SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.I cover it further in Episodes 37, 41, 43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.In this episode I discuss what the attack looks like in America.This is not if, this is when.The country is poised to experience this through a combination of neglect and the sheer hubris of meddling in the world without realize the unintended consequences.I wish I had better news but you have been warned, it's on the horizon.I talk about William Forstchen's "Day of Wrath" and Kurt Schlichter's "The Attack".References:William Forstchen Day of WrathKurt Schlichter The AttackMatt Bracken:Enemies Foreign and Domestic.Foreign Enemies And Traitors.Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.Castigo Cay.Eric Frank Russell The WaspMichael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of FranceRobert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh MistressRobert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In HistoryMy SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.I cover it further in Episodes 37, 42-43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.This is a continuation of my "Storming America Series" where I will tease out and describe why the inevitable internal attack on America by external forces will be made real.In this episode, I will examine what intelligence looks like from a professional perspective and why America and the West consistently engage in existential chaos avalanches that make the world a worse place.The bureaucratic impulse in the West has been a significant factor in making the intelligence community (IC), like the military community, a paper tiger that is a far greater danger to the inhabitants of the west than an ally. Until the IC is restructured and made more effective, it will consume roughly 100 billion a year to produce shoddy analysis, inform bad policy and a Keystone Kops foreign covert operations history that is a national shame.Like 9/11 and its existential failures, the next attack on America will have them simply asking for more money and more power.If you leveled the FBI, NSA and CIA tomorrow morning, made each of their budgets one dollar and fired all their employees, you would still be safe as a country.References:Richard J. Heuer The Psychology of Intelligence AnalysisDavid Talbot The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret GovernmentMortimer Adler How to Read a BookTim Weiner Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIAJohn Prado The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA's Heart of DarknessMy Substack.Contact me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

This episode will be an addendum to my initial coverage in October 2023 of the Gaza-Israel conflict in Episode 027 and riffing off the domestic implications in Episode 037 of a similar attack on CONUS. If you wish to listen to those before you do this one, you may but I have crafted this so that isn’t necessary.The clock is closer to midnight than it was in October 2023.References:William Forstchen Day of WrathKurt Schlichter The AttackMatt Bracken:Enemies Foreign and Domestic.Foreign Enemies And Traitors.Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.Castigo Cay.Eric Frank Russell The WaspMichael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of FranceRobert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh MistressRobert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In HistoryMy SubstackEmail me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

I am reusing a previous episode I used in the now moribund Stoicism podcast I started, The Dash, which I ran out of steam on.Applying Stoic values and discipline to the vocation and avocations we practice in life may be the hardest part outside of making a Stoic life a lived lifestyle. I find the management industry is a giant cargo cult that publishes books whose pages number in the hundreds but could simply be a page or two.References:James Clear Atomic HabitsMarcus Aurelius MeditationsWhitney J. Oakes (editor) The Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers: The Complete Extant Writings of Epicurus, Epictetus, Lucretius and Marcus AureliusMy SubstackEmail me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

The concept of moral injuries for soldiers and non-soldiers alike, the gift of fear and being a dead man walking and how to handle regret and shame.“As beasts are beneath human restraints, gods are above them... It would be foolish and untruthful to deny the appeal of exalted, godlike intoxication....We have seen the paradox that these godlike exalted moments often correspond to times when the men who have survived them say that they have acted like beasts....Above all, a sense of merely human virtue, a sense of being valued and of valuing anything seems to have fled their lives....However, all of our virtues come from not being gods. Generosity is meaningless to a god, who never suffers shortage or want. Courage is meaningless to a god, who is immortal and can never suffer permanent injury. The godlike berserk state can destroy the capacity for virtue. Whether the berserker is beneath humanity as an animal, above it as a god, or both, he is cut off from all human community when he is in this state.”― Jonathan Shay, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of CharacterThose millions of men who have been in combat over the millennia have always brought home invisible scar tissue and regret that manifests in many ways but most of us take it to our graves.“…or the pilots doing nine-to-five jobs at computer consoles in Nevada killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan with drones and commuting to and from their homes like any other commuters. Imagine the psychic split that must ensue from bringing in death and destruction from the sky on a group of terrorists—young men who have mothers and a misplaced idealism that has led them into horrible criminal acts, but nevertheless young and brave men—and then driving home from the base to dinner with the spouse and kids. “Have a nice day at the office, hon?”― Karl Marlantes, What It is Like to Go to WarReferences:Karl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to WarBill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of WarClark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial PurposeDick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent BattlespaceAndrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided WarsShauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect UsJonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of CharacterJonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of HomecomingMy SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.I cover it further in Episodes 41-43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.The hybrid and gray zone fight will come to America in the next war. Once the declining American colossus shuffles into the next near-peer and peer conflict, the 21st century will see the continental US come under a unified attack by external forces for the first time since the War of 1812 and the Mexican border issues in 1916. How the 9/11/2001 events have not been replicated is a cipher to me. We need to war-game all the possibilities once a war is initiated with a near-peer or peer adversary. The kinetic forces on the ground will be sleepers, NOCs or recently arrived illegals in addition to cadres recruited over time and left in place.The police have no duty to protect citizens.Supreme Court cases per police protection:Castle Rock v. GonzalezWarren v. District of ColumbiaDeShaney v. Winnebago CountyPer the attack on Israel out of Gaza on 7 October 2023, only 140,000 Israelis out of a population of 9 million, or under two percent, were allowed to own a firearm prior to October and that is restricted to a handgun only and ammunition was limited to 50 rounds.I talk about William Forstchen's "Day of Wrath" and Kurt Schlichter's "The Attack".References:William Forstchen Day of WrathKurt Schlichter The AttackMatt Bracken:Enemies Foreign and Domestic.Foreign Enemies And Traitors.Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista.The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun.Castigo Cay.Eric Frank Russell The WaspMichael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of FranceRobert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh MistressRobert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In HistoryMy SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.