Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

The brilliant John Milius helmed this production in the thick of the cold war waning with the USSR. This will be the first episode where we examine the collision between irregular warfare and popular culture.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Government, for a variety of reasons, is manifestly incompetent in everything it does and this lends parts of the explanatory framework in why systemic failure is the feature not a bug in Western martial efforts.The critiques of the government supremacist mindset are legion and one can find many rational and elegant theses if you start at the Mises Institute and listen to the podcasts of Scott Horton at Antiwar.com. Scott and I recently did a deep dive together in Episode 5850 "Bill Buppert: A Deep Dive into Irregular Warfare" on 17 February 2023.References:Ludwig von Mises BureaucracyColin Gray Modern StrategyThomas Sowell Knowledge and DecisionDaniel P. Bolger How We Lost: A General’s Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan WarsMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

As a former Appleseed instructor and Shoot Boss in AZ, I had the opportunity to teach a marksmanship/history project that had me master the origins and details of the first month of the First American Revolution. I cover the "Three Strikes of the Match" that we used as an organization to educate folks about the marriage between marksmanship and liberty that initiated the divorce from London in 1775.References:David Hackett Fischer Paul Revere's RideJ. L. Bell The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary WarRobert A. Gross The Minutemen and Their WorldJohn R. Galvin The Minute Men: The First Fight: Myths and Realities of the American RevolutionKevin Phillips The Cousins War: Religion, Politics, Civil Warfare, And The Triumph Of Anglo-AmericaJohn F. Ross War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First FrontierStephen Brumwell White Devil: A True Story of War, Savagery And Vengeance in Colonial AmericaMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

I review and discuss Sean McMeekin's brilliant tome on Stalin being the ascendant and most successful antagonist in WWII.References:Sean McMeekin Stalin's War: A New History of World War IIJohn Koster Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl HarborHerbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's TraitorsM. Stanton Evans, Herbert Romerstein Stalin's Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt's GovernmentMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

I discuss the French experience in north Africa and the devastating consequences of the double blow of losing Indochina in the same time-frame in Algeria in north Africa.References:Martin Windrow Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935Douglas Porch The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting ForceDouglas Porch CounterinsurgencyMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

In this first episode, I discuss the fundamentals of French irregular warfare doctrine with a concentration on COIN, French martial history in a thumbnail and the tragedy of French arms in post-WWII Indochina.References:Martin Windrow The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in VietnamBernard Fall Hell in a Very Small PlaceBernard Fall Street Without JoyTed Morgan Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam WarMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

A short but effective tome that is a sound introduction to why the western COIN complex is so wrong-headed and intellectually bankrupt.References:Colonel Gian Gentile Wrong Turn: America’s Deadly Embrace of CounterinsurgencyMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

I discuss the combat framework from the tactical to the operational to the strategic level and mission command for both regular and irregular warfare (IW). A deep knowledge of conventional warfare is very useful to fully grokking how IW works hence the inclusion of that perspective.References:ADP 6-0 Mission CommandGrant Tedrick Hammond The Mind of War: John Boyd and American SecurityStephen Robinson Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of WarColin Gray Modern StrategyCarl von Clausewitz On WarMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

In this episode, I sketch the lives and exploits of three guerrilla luminaries: TE Lawrence, GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck and Michael Collins. I want to use them to illustrate what I consider the next step in guerrilla evolution employing age-old techniques and strategies harnessed to modern technology and employment within the new age of mechanized warfare.References:Tim Pat Coogan Michael CollinsJames Gleeson Bloody SundayTom Barry Guerrilla Days in IrelandPeter Hart Michael CollinsEdwin P. Hoyt Guerrilla: COL Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany’s East African EmpireScott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle EastJames J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab RevoltMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

Despite trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of deaths, the West has nothing to show for the counterinsurgency campaigns it has waged. Despite the enormous industry and vast intellectual and historical apologetics combine, the wasteland is evident to all who take the time to examine the details. The emperor of COIN is naked.References:Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan, Antifragile: Things That Gain from DisorderDouglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of WarRobert Asprey War in the ShadowsMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.