Angry Planet

Bellingcat’s Giancarlo Fiorella is here to walk us through what may go down in history as the dumbest attempted coup of all time. On May 3, American mercenaries and Venezuelan exiles attempted to enter the country with the goal of overthrowing the Maduro regime. It didn’t go well.

• The Associated Press busted your coup but you went ahead anyway?

• What the hell is Silvercorp USA?

• A contract is great, but it’s not the same as paycheck.

• Who brings an Airsoft rifle to a warzone?

• Rember Óscar Alberto Pérez?

• How does Maduro stay in power? 

• Why Venezuela became one of America’s favorite political footballs.

With us today Giancarlo Fiorella. Fiorella is an investigator and journalist who’s been covering the story at Bellingcat. His May 5th and May 7th articles at Bellingcat demand to be read if you want to understand the weird comedy of errors playing out in Venezuela right now.

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

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Ecoterrorism isn’t a word you hear a lot these days and it’s usually associated with groups like Greenpeace. That might be changing. In 2011, a biotechnology researcher was shot and killed in Mexico. A group called ITS took credit. "We have said it before, we act without any compassion in the feral defense of Wild Nature," reads the group’s manifesto.

Is the new generation of activists using violence to save the planet or satisfy a darker, more nihilist urge?

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

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This week on War College, producer Kevin Knodell is back in the states after an extended stay in Iraq. He walks us through his journey and the impact of the pandemic on the Middle East.

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

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As I keep saying, war has changed. It’s the recent theme of War College. And it’s not just conflict, but the way people cover conflict. Increasingly, journalists and researchers are using open source intelligence, social media, and academic disciplines such as history and anthropology to explain the complicated conflicts of the modern world.

One of the groups doing that is Silah Report. “Silah Report is a non-commercial research project exploring contemporary and historical small arms & light weapons in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), and Central Asia regions.”

Here to talk about that work is Miles Vining and Adham Sharif. Vining is the co-founder of Silah Report and Sharif is its Podcast Coordinator and author specializing in Egyptian small arms history.

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

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War is about logistics. “An army marches on its stomach,” the idiom goes. Well, a populace can’t survive without water. One water station in Northeast Syria is the heart of a growing conflict between Turkish backed rebels and the local Kurdish population. As war rages in Syria and the COVID-19 pandemic begins, water is more important than ever. 

Here to help us figure that out is Kimberly Westenhiser. Westenhiser is a journalist, photographer and artist. Her work has appeared at The Seattle Globalist, Foreign Policy, War Is Boring and Playboy. Her story on Turkey and Rojava’s water supply appeared on Popular Front.

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

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This week we're taking a moment to work through our fear, panic, and axiety.

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

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War. War never changes.

Except … that’s not exactly true is it? I’d argue that war has changed demonstrably in the past two decades. It’s gotten longer, somehow less deadly, and far weirder. Also. Despite America being engaged in multiple conflicts on multiple continents … Americans are paying less attention to foreign military engagements than ever before. The current international situation, I’d say, is a bit of an anomaly.

Worse, the country is fractured in a way that can be hard to understand. There’s more information than ever before and, instead of uniting us, it’s making it hard for us to settle on a consensus reality. We live in confusing, stressful, and bizarre times.

How did we get here?

I don’t know. If I did, I’d be selling a book and not here, with you, podcasting. What I can do is discuss a piece of art. A prescient piece of art I think helps explain how we got here.

Here to discuss that piece of art is Cameron Kunzelman. Kunzelman is a media critic who has published in may illustrious publications. 

Cameron, thank you so much for joining us.

OK. So I’m talking about Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. This is it. We’re doing the Metal Gear Solid episode.

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

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Space Force. It’s here. It’s the newest branch of the U.S. military and it’s got it’s own uniforms and a snazzy new patch that looks a lot like the emblem for the United Federation of Planets. But it’s only got one member at the moment and what, exactly, is it doing?

Here to help us figure out what’s going on is Joseph Trevithick of The War Zone.

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

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In the closing days of World War II, the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force dropped more than 3,900 tons of high explosives and fire bombs on the city of Dresden. It was not, strictly, only a military target and the story of the bombing has captured the imagination of everyone who survived it and those who study the war.

One of those people is Sinclair McKay. McKay is a literary critic for the Telegraph and The Spectator in the UK. His latest book is The Fire and Darkness: The Bombing of Dresden 1945.

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

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From the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty to, probably, New START, all the old treaties are failing. Nuclear weapons are back in the public consciousness in a big way and old Cold War ideas that we once thought relegated to the dustbin of history are back.

One of those are so-called low yield nuclear weapons. The U.S. Navy recently fielded some of these SLBMs for the first time on its nuclear capable submarines. Are these weapons actually a game changer? When it comes to nukes, what’s the difference between yields anyway?

Here to help us figure out how much trouble we’re in is David Wright. Wright is a Senior Scientist and Co-Director of the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

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

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