Angry Planet

It doesn’t take high technology to kill someone. Simple chemicals propel pieces of lead out of steel tubes. Other simple chemicals are placed in larger vessels and are triggered by the weight of a vehicle or even a human body. Some are even set off by strings attached to fuses. Not one computer involved.

But the weapons of warfare do evolve - some into trillion dollar monsters that gobble up whole defense budgets and can destroy life on earth with the turn of a key. And new weapons are always on the horizon.

Today, we’ve brought on Patrick Tucker to talk about some recent developments and what may lie ahead. Patrick is the technology editor at Defense One and writes about weapons technology every day.

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So far, in the political battles at the heart of our democracy, they have been AWOL. Just as they should be.

The military is an expressly non-political institution, even if they do report to an elected commander-in-chief.

But with political divisions deepening, could that change?

Eliott Ackerman took on just that issue in a recent column for the New York Times. Ackerman is a combat veteran, journalist and author. And he’s here to talk to us today.

Ackermans’ article is here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/opinion/contested-elections-military.html

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Over the past few months the world watched as the conflict between Israel and Palestine flared up. I’m not interested in litigating the facts of that conflict in this opening and you’ve likely already decided where you stand on the conflict.

For some, it’s complicated. For others, the very idea that someone would call it complicated is an insult.

Here to help us untangle some of what’s happened and to discuss the future of Palestine is Joey Ayoub. Joey is a writer, scholar, and podcaster who grew up in Lebanon and is of Palestinian descent. He writes, broadly, about the experiences of displaced peoples with a particular focus on the Middle East.

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For the last two decades, America has been possessed with a Global War on Terror. The threat of militant Islam has funded the security state and given the Pentagon an overarching goal. But that threat feels increasingly distant and a new specter is haunting America—that of white nationalism.

Both groups are complicated, varied, and prone to in-fighting. Both groups rely on apocalyptic visions of the future to drive home their message. Both groups are waging war against the United States.

With us to talk through all this is Dr. Sara Kamali. Kamali is a scholar of white nationalism, militant Islam, and systemic inequality. Her new book is Homegrown Hate: Why White Nationalists and Military Islamists Are Waging War Against the United States.

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When you hear the word Sparta, there’s an immediate association with war and the military. Of the Greek City States, it’s the one most associated with battle. Spartan men were expected to be warriors and their society was geared almost entirely toward training for war. For generations, military leaders have drawn inspiration from Sparta.

Much of the romance around Sparta centers Around the battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, where the Persian Empire crushed a small and ill-equipped collection of elite soldiers. Since then, historians, propagandists, Hollywood, and the American military have turned Sparta’s epic defeat at the gates of fire into a myth of slavery vs freedom, east vs west, and democracy vs despotism. But the thing is … a lot of what hear about the Spartans is bullshit, the truth is more complicated.

Here to help us unpack modern day mythos around Sparta is Pauline Kaurin. Kaurin is the Chair of Military Ethics at the US Naval War College and the author of The Warrior, Military Ethics and Contemporary Warfare: Achilles Goes Asymmetrical.

Disclaimer: Pauline Kaurin's opinions are her own and do not reflect the opinions or policy of the US Naval War College.

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There’s a maxim that says “No two countries that both have a McDonald’s have ever fought a war against each other.” This so-called Golden Arches theory enjoyed a brief moment of prominence in the 1990s, got shaky after 9/11, and has been out-right assaulted by pundits and political theorists in the past ten years. It died it’s final death in October when McDonald’s Azerbaijan took public sides in the fight between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Here to walk us through the Golden Arches Theory and what the hell was wrong with all of us in the 1990s is Paul Musgrave. Musgrave is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His recent article in Foreign Policy about this topic is titled “The Beautiful, Dumb Dream of McDonald’s Peace Theory.”

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In the summer of 2020, violent riots broke out across America between ordinary citizens and police. These riots led to groups finding ways to develop their own security forces to deal with violence from police, opposition groups, and other antagonists on the ground.

Here to help us understand what’s going on is Nikki West. West is a local Seattle photojournalist who was previously on the show talking about the Chapel Hill Autonomous Zone. She’s documented the push and pull between protestors and tracked the development of new tactics.

One particularly unique tactic is the development of Seattle’s car brigade. This protection force consists of a multi-layered security system that is centered around a highly organized car brigade. 

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You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is angryplanetpod.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod.

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Literally recorded as missiles hit and news broke.

Guest: Noga Tarnopolsky, a reporter on Israel and Palestine.

Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.

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You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is angryplanetpod.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod.

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Russia and Ukraine have been fighting ever since Little Green Men invaded Crimea in 2014. That wasn’t enough for Russia. The former evil empire then aided separatist enclaves inside the rest of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian military was unprepared, the world mostly sat back and watched, and an ugly stalemate ensued. If a stalemate includes tanks firing at each other.

Recently, Russia massed troops on Ukraine’s border as rhetoric ratcheted up.

To help us understand what exactly is going on, we have Michael Kofman. He’s a Senior Research Scientist at CNA Corporation, which advises governments and organizations on security issues.

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“From mud, through blood, to the green fields beyond.” The tank was meant to push through entrenched enemy lines and put an end to the stale-mate of trench warfare during The Great War. It created a whole new kind of combat. It was high risk, high reward, as men in armored units trundled across the world.

With us today is comics writer Garth Ennis. Ennis is the diabolical mind behind Sara, Hitman, War Stories, The Boys, and Preacher. He’s here today talking about his new collection of war stories—Tankies. Set during WWII and the Korean War, Tankies tells the story of British tank crews as they fight across Europe and Asia.

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You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is angryplanetpod.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod.

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