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PODCAST

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

An unauthorized podcast series peeking behind the curtain at the vast machinery and briar patch politics of fighting terrorism and insurgency and everything in between. I"m a "COINtra" and not a "COINdinista", the latter are the vast army of apparatchiks and apologists who fire the engines of Irregular Warfare (IW) planet-wide. We"re the skeptics and doubters of all things IW and special operations. And we are a tiny sliver of the IW community. I have noticed a jarring gap in this part of the

history documentary

All Episodes

48:00

Ep 020 "COIN Malpractice: Lessons Never Learned (Part...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/07/10

It appears the West just can't get counterinsurgency right. I talk about some of the framework ideas that would be good lessons learned for those who I think wisely and would try to avoid COIN. The major takeaway is that insurgencies are rather antifragile and bureaucracies are the enemy of effectiveness and innovation.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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32:34

Ep 019 "Murphy Rex: Complexity and War"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/06/26

I discuss the complex adaptive system that is war that Clausewitz categorically identified as "friction" in the nineteenth century. We'll examine what chaos and complexity has to do with conflict, why it is inevitable and why wars are won by the least incompetent armies and navies.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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63:55

Ep 018 "French COIN: Paras in Paris (Part Three)"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/06/12

The April 1961 Generals’ Putsch of Algiers (Putsch des généraux), was a failed military action to press French President Charles de Gaulle to not abandon French Algeria, along with French people and pro-French Arabs living there. The putsch in French Algeria was conducted by four retired generals, led by Maurice Challe, the commander of the French Armed Forces in Algeria in 1958-60 and the author of the successful Challe Plan. The plan which in effect helped to defeat militant rebels across

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51:05

Ep 017 Memorial Day Mailbag

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/05/29

In this episode, I go through some of the more interesting emails and comments I have gotten since the podcast began in September 2022.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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33:41

Ep 016 "TE Lawrence and the Guerrilla Mind (Part Three)"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/05/16

his episodes examines the unconventional and eccentric mind sets of Lawrence and other famous and obscure military figures. We examine the way some armies embrace this while others discourage it.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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37:07

Ep 015 "TE Lawrence and the Guerrilla Mind (Part Two)"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/05/01

In this episode we will discuss how Lawrence's medievalism gave him a tremendous advantage serendipitously advising and leading the local Arab revolt during WWI against the Turks and more deeply, Allied efforts to map a post-war world. His predilections in study, preparation and application of his 27 points led to a success the British army and the larger Allied effort could not have achieved without him.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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44:45

Ep 014 "TE Lawrence and the Guerrilla Mind (Part One)"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/04/17

One of the peak guerrilla fountainheads in the early twentieth century, TE Lawrence has been in both the popular imagination and a large part of the engine in the Middle East that signed the death knell for foreign colonial powers to leave the region, Eccentric and brilliant, one of the few successful insurgency leaders during WWI.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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24:26

Ep 013 "CG Goes to the Movies: Red Dawn (1984)"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/04/02

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.

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44:00

Ep 012 "Sisyphus is God: Government Incompetence and...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/03/20

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

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49:44

Ep 011 "Three Strikes of the March: American Divorce...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/03/06

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.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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33:11

Ep 010 "Review and Discussion: Stalin's War by Sean...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/02/21

I review and discuss Sean McMeekin's brilliant tome on Stalin being the ascendant and most successful antagonist in WWII.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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43:28

Ep 009 "French COIN: Algeria: Losing Afrique (Part Two)"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/02/06

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.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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40:55

Ep 008 "French COIN: Introduction and the Indochina...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/01/23

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.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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46:35

Ep 007 "Review and Discussion: Wrong Turn by Gian...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2023/01/09

A short but effective tome that is a sound introduction to why the western COIN complex is so wrong-headed and intellectually bankrupt.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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37:37

Ep 006 "Frameworks and Strategic Deficit Disorder"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2022/12/18

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.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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49:41

Ep 005 "Peak Guerrilla: The Origins of Modern...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2022/12/04

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.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail me at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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44:51

Ep 004 "The Impossibility of Successful Western...

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2022/11/20

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.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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36:36

Ep 003 "Michael Collins: The Empire Blinks"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2022/11/06

The Irish Rebellion in 1916-1922 is what I characterize as in the era of "Peak Guerrilla" in concert with the exploits of TE Lawrence and GEN Paul Emil von Letter-Vorbeck that set the stage for the modern irregular warfare era in the twentieth century. I will examine the exploits of Collins and the curious currents of history on a global basis that came to have great impacts on what appear to be local and regional conflicts and their final resolution.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at

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56:42

Ep 002 "Antifragility and Irregular Warfare"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2022/10/10

In this episode, I make the case that insurgencies are antifragile and that counterinsurgencies are fragile for the most part; we discuss the concepts, examine historical and contemporary examples and set the stage for practitioners and scholars to leverage this model to gain a more true understanding of how IW works.My Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me.

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37:47

Ep 001 "Terms of Endearment"

Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast ·

2022/09/26

This charter episode will discuss the intent of the podcast and get started with the basics to create a framework of common understanding. This episode will discuss the National Defense Strategy, generations of warfare, civil war and the regional conflict complexes that emerge from larger wars and conflicts. Irregular warfare (IW) is rather complex and tends to be muddier, more nuanced and subject to interpretative misconceptions and we'll lay the groundwork for understanding these in both the

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80 results

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