Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

A brief introduction to the Department of Defense activities in special operations. I will not be discussing the dark organizations and specifically address the "vanilla" SOF in all the services.

References:

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

Ann Scott Tyson American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Grant

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down: A Story of Modern War

Bob Scales Scales on War: The Future of America’s Military at Risk

Aaron B. O’Connell Our Latest Longest War: Losing Hearts and Minds

Hy S. Rothstein Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare

Robert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In History

Special Forces Detachment Mission Planning Guide HQDA January 2020

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

We discuss the Israeli emergency in its latest iteration in the horrific attacks by Hamas into Israel in October 2023 and the simmering conflict bands that emerging globally in which this is another explosion in the global conflict rift. For those who thought the podcast died, its death has been greatly exaggerated. My move to FL from AZ is now complete and many apologies for the disturbance of my fortnightly podcast episode rhythm by being late two weeks with a new episode.

The podcast studio took some time to resurrect but here we are.

I said Pat Keller in the the podcast, it is Bob Keller; apologies Bob, senior moment.

References:

David Fromkin A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East

Jonathan Schneer The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Kenneth Pollack Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness

Darryl Cooper & MartyrMade Fear & Loathing in the New Jerusalem [podcast]

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

Every war has a seminal novel, a book that really resonates with generation that wrote it and the following generations from the Iliad to Gore Vidal's historical fiction to The Centurions by Jean Larteguy to From Here to Eternity by James Jones to this one.

References:

Paul Avallone Tattoo Zoo: A Novel of the Afghan War

Jean Larteguy The Centurions

Anton Myrer Once an Eagle

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

In the one year anniversary episode (!), we chat about the use of thin-skinned vehicles in the modern age and the asymmetric nature of the fight. The employment of commercially produced vehicles for conduct of raids and ambushes employing a wide array of weapons medium- to heavy-machine guns to mortars to ATGMs and everything in between. Please note that Toyota outside of Japan does not produce these for purpose-built military employment.

And to my fellow CruiserHeads, I salute you.

References:

Leigh Neville Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to modern Special Forces

Alaric Searle & Ed Nash Kurdish Armour Against ISIS: YPG/SDF tanks, technicals and AFVs in the Syrian Civil War, 2014–19

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

I take the time to discuss some of the conventional ramifications of modern warfare and book recommendations that have given me a deeper and more nuanced understanding of why wars begin and end as they do.

References:

Sun Tzu The Art of War

Carl von Clausewitz On War

Miyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to Strategy

H. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to Warfare

Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare

Qiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

The defeat of the USSR in Afghanistan was part of a broad tapestry of disasters that eventually brought the Russian communist state crashing down. The shattering of Soviet forces by the indigenous rebels aided by foreign fighters and sophisticated weapons technology from the West doomed the USSR to failure. The Americans would later respond with: "Hold my beer..."

References:

Ahmed Rashid Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia

Rodric Braithewaite Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan 1979-89

Daniel P. Bolger Feast of Bones: A Novel

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

We examine the Day of the Rangers: The Battle of Mogadishu 25 Years On by Leigh Neville and Matt Eversmann to discuss the book, the event and what led up to the event.

References:

Leigh Neville & Matt Eversmann Day of the Rangers: The Battle of Mogadishu 25 Years On

Mark Bowden Blackhawk Down

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

We discuss the book, guerrilla and insurgency warfare during the American war in 1861-65, the atrocity cycle, guerrilla math and the hopelessness of occupation avoiding the injury of civilians.

References:

Tom McKinney Jack Hinson's One-Man War, A Civil War Sniper

Daniel E. Sutherland A Savage Conflict: The Decisive Role of Guerrillas in the American Civil War

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

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.

References:

Nassim Taleb Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, Skin in the Game

Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].

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.

References:

Nassim Taleb Incerto: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, Antifragile, Skin in the Game

Carl von Clausewitz On War

My Substack:

https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx

Email at [email protected].