With America’s retreat from Afghanistan still fresh, it’s popular for politicians and pundits to bemoan America’s inability to fight and win a war. That line ignores an important bit of recent history we’ve memory-holed—the war against he Islamic State. America didn’t fight that war alone, however. Far from it. An international coalition of trained soldiers and volunteer troops recognized a horrifying threat and came together to defeat it. As terrifying as the Islamic State is, the successful ca...
Jun 10, 2022•48 min
Conspiracy Theories are part of the foundation of the United States. Our first strong third party, the Anti-Masonic party, had its roots in the belief in a conspiracy theory. Years later the John Birch society shaped American politics. Things feel different now. Lies are doing something to the United States that no foreign enemy has been able to achieve: Shredding it. The bizarre QAnon, imaginary purple elephant and, far more dangerous, the big lie of a stolen election. It’s time to talk about o...
May 26, 2022•39 min
Right now, Russia is learning a lesson as old as combat, morale is at the center of any fighting force. How does it change things when you can pick up your cell phone and call your mom to share your experiences, or even complain about your commander? How do you build a band of brothers when home is just a phone call away? Colonel John Spencer asked himself these questions and wrote a book about it called Connected Soldiers: Life, Leadership, and Social Connections in Modern War. Spencer is the c...
May 19, 2022•35 min
Today’s episode is brought to you by Auroch Digital, makers of many fine video games including the one we’re here to talk about today: Ogre. For almost fifty years, it has terrorized our future. The Ogre. A massive AI-controlled tank hell bent on the destruction of the human race. Ogre. That’s both the name of the game and the name of the game’s strongest unit. First published in 1977, Ogre became a phenomenon in the wargame scene. It was asymmetric, deceptively simple, and has endured for 45 ye...
May 18, 2022•40 min
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. https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe 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 . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcoll...
May 06, 2022•52 min
When it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, everything old is new again. Russia and the West are separating. Fast. For those of us who were alive in the 1980s, it all feels bracingly familiar. That includes, especially, nuclear saber rattling. Putin, the Duman, and Russian TV feel like they’ve gone out of their way to remind the rest of the world: hey, we’ve got nukes. But how likely is the possibility of nuclear war, really? And what are Russia’s nuclear capabilities exactly? Here to help us answer...
Apr 28, 2022•41 min
Over the past month, we’ve discussed a lot of specifics regarding the War in Ukraine. We’ve gone over the role of tanks, talked about Putin’s motives, and discussed War Crimes. What we haven’t done, really, is look at the big picture. What does this war mean, not just for Ukraine, but for Europe and America. What is the future of NATO? Increasingly, it feels like we’re on the precipice of something … new and, perhaps, frightening. With us today to talk through all this is Charles A. Kupchan. Kup...
Apr 15, 2022•40 min
Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine are being revealed as its military is pushed back. In the Kyiv suburbs, evidence of summary executions, torture and rape are being revealed. All countries are guilty of crimes during war, but Russia deserves special mention for its actions in the last hundred years. At the end of World War II and the occupation of Germany after, at least 2 million German women were raped by Russian soldiers, along with other atrocities on the most brutal front in the war. In the Af...
Apr 09, 2022•50 min
The tank is an iconic weapon of modern war, but the truth is that it’s more than a century old. When we think of tanks we think of the battles of World War II. The Tiger and the Sherman squaring off, the relentless push of the Soviet T-34s into Eastern Europe. Or maybe you think of beige ones driving through the deserts of Iraq, keeping its crew snug and safe. But how safe are you? In Ukraine, Russia is losing many tanks. It’s hard to know how many exactly, and what is wartime propaganda. But, a...
Apr 01, 2022•31 min
Relations between Russia and the western world are complicated. In the grand scheme of things, America is but a recent addition to a long simmering rivalry that runs back a thousand years. Putin and Ukraine? Well, that’s just the latest dust up in a very long history. So let’s talk about it. Here with us today to suss all this out is Michael Hirsh. Hirsh is a senior correspondent at Foreign Policy and the author of the excellent piece there, Putin’s Thousand-Year War . Angry Planet has a substac...
Mar 25, 2022•32 min
According to Vladimir Putin, he’s on a quest to de-Nazify Ukraine. But what about the Nazis in his own backyard? Hell, what about the Nazis all over Central and Eastern Europe. Right now, the Azov Regiment in Ukraine is dominating the conversation. Pictures of the ultra nationalist group are circulating online and being used to justify Russia’s invasion. But they aren’t the only fascists in the area. Far from it. But it’s complicated and Azov is part of a broad tapestry of Fascist movements in t...
Mar 19, 2022•47 min
Russia is at war with Ukraine and Vladimir Putin is making vague nuclear threats. Both Russian and U.S. officials are, mostly, trying to dial things down. A Russian defense official said they don’t have their hands on the button and the Pentagon said it had canceled the test of a Minuteman missile. And yet … days later the U.S. head of Strategic Command said America needed to modernize its nuclear forces and reminded everyone that the test had been postponed and not canceled. If all this is leav...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 7 min
This episode was originally going to be called something like not everything is the Holocaust. We were going to talk about how the Nazi attempt to kill all of Europe’s Jews during World War II wasn’t much like being told to get a vaccine or wear a mask. But events have overtaken us. Mask mandates are falling and the war in Ukraine is all I can think about nowadays - I don’t know about you. When Vladimir Putin ordered his invasion, he claimed he was going to de-Nazify Ukraine’s government. That w...
Mar 11, 2022•37 min
Returning guest and Russia expert Mark Galeotti comes on the show to give his perspective on the war in Ukraine. 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 . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 02, 2022•48 min
We talk about war a lot on this show. It’s kind of the foundation of what we do. But the war in Ukraine is different. Frankly, it’s scarier. It makes everyone think of World War II and World War III at the same time. So, let’s talk about it. Was there ever a chance to stop it, and what do we think will happen next? With us today is James Miller. He’s a foreign policy analyst and journalist who has spent extensive time in Ukraine. You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes , Stitcher , Google Play ...
Feb 27, 2022•44 min
Once upon a time, an enemy would pull up to your gates with his army and surround your city so that nothing could get in or out. In a short time, you’d be eating the horses, maybe the rats and, if things got bad enough and you weren’t entirely suicidal, you’d open the gates. Sometimes that would work out OK. Sometimes not. Nowadays, countries wanting something from each other seem to have more options, but one that’s still around is the siege. We just call the sanctions. To discuss sanctio...
Feb 25, 2022•41 min
It’s been a concern lurking in the minds of America’s leaders for a long time: what if Russia and China could successfully work together against the United States? A combined Russo-China empire is the stuff of science fiction, perhaps, but what’s the reality today? What goals do they share and how well can they work together? And how does that cooperation affect the potential war in Ukraine? To help us understand this situation we have Andrew Radin, who is a political scientist at the RAND...
Feb 18, 2022•29 min
Ukraine. Things are changing rapidly, but at this moment the Kremlin has the country surrounded. It’s conducting military drills in the Black Sea, marshaling troops in neighboring Belarus, and recalling mercenaries from Africa. Recently Putin even made a rape joke during a press conference to imply what he wanted from Ukraine. It doesn’t look good. But to hear Ben & Jerry's Ice cream tell it, this is all because of the imperial U.S.-led aggression in Eastern Europe. Why does it seem like som...
Feb 14, 2022•38 min
The Doomsday Clock is always ticking down. Between climate change, technological advances, new diseases, and the ever present threat of nuclear war … it often feels like we’re close to the end of civilization. How close? According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists … we’re 100 seconds to midnight. The closest we’ve ever been. But what, exactly, is the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and this bizarre clock they oversee? Why, when we imagine the end of the world, do we see a clock ticking ...
Feb 04, 2022•29 min
Everyone has an opinion about Ukraine, but something I’ve noticed in Western media is that no one really seems to be asking Russians what they think of the situation. The reasons for that are extremely complicated. So let’s talk about them. Here to talk about Russia’s view of the Ukraine conflict, Putin’s motivations, and to do a little … psychoanalysis … is Peter Pomerantsev. Pomerantsev is a returning guest, his latest in Time Magazine is What the West Will Never Understand About Putin's Ukrai...
Jan 28, 2022•47 min
Genocide and disinformation. That’s the topic of today’s heady program. I hope none of you have had the pleasure of debating the Uighur genocide with friends or with, god forbid, with anonymous people on the internet. If you have, you may have noticed a certain … uniformity to the arguments despite a mountain of evidence to the contrary. It turns out there may be a reason for that. Here to help us untangle it all is Alexander Reid Ross. Ross is a senior fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the R...
Jan 21, 2022•37 min
The Islamic State has fallen out of the headlines, but it’s still a major force around the world. Affiliates flourish across the Middle East and, especially, in Africa. The spread of the group there has some analysts calling it the Next Jihadist Battlefront . Here to help us with all this is Ryan O'Farrell. O'Farrell is a Senior Analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation and a researcher focusing on Islamist movements in east and central Africa. He’s also a contributing author of the book The Islamic S...
Jan 14, 2022•36 min
The former Soviet Union is looking a bit restive nowadays - putting it mildly. Russia has more than one hundred thousand troops on Ukraine’s borders - and has invaded Ukraine before - and has been fighting a war there ever since. And in the last few days, many Americans have learned there is a country called Kazakhstan, even if they can’t find it on a map. And Russia is playing a role to prop up the authoritarian government there. To help us understand what’s going on, we have the perfect ...
Jan 08, 2022•29 min
The Taliban - we all know them, few of us love them, and it looks like they’re going to rule Afghanistan - again. So, what was it like the first time the Islamic militants took over, in 1996? Today, we have two journalists who were in Afghanistan in the 90s. Scott Neuman was working for United Press International and wrote from the scene. Alan Chin is a photographer who went to Afghanistan to take pictures for The New York Times . Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege . Hosted ...
Dec 31, 2021•1 hr
Last week The Daily Beast broke some bizarre news. Several news outlets, including The Washington Examiner, RealClear Markets, and The National Interest , had been running op-eds of journalists that did not exist. AI generated photos attached to profiles and credentials that, once scrutinized, collapsed. It was a massive effort at digital propaganda and questions still remain about its provenance and purpose. Here to explain just what is going on is Marc Owen Jones. Jones is an assistant profess...
Dec 24, 2021•57 min
It’s the greatest story you probably don’t know anything about. Or, at least, you have no idea how bad it actually is. The U.S. 7th Fleet is the most powerful Navy in the history of the world. Its area of operations stretches throughout the Pacific. It comprised of up of upwards of 70 ships, 400 aircraft, and around 40,000 sailors and Marines. For about a far too many years it was the plaything of a Malaysian playboy who grifted a fortune off the American taxpayer. We’re finally doing it. We’re ...
Dec 17, 2021•37 min
Is the Syrian civil war over? Did Bashar al Assad win it? And if he did, what does winning even mean for a country of rubble? And most importantly, what’s next for the dictator and the people who live within the sort-of nation’s borders? To help us understand what’s happening, we’ve got Washington Post correspondent Liz Sly. She’s covered the war since it began in 2011 and has made many trips to Syria. She’s also a fantastic writer and multiple award winner. Angry Planet has a substack! Join the...
Dec 10, 2021•39 min
When the United States Air Force tests a new aircraft it needs to make sure it won't crash should a stray bird slam into the plane's side. Thankfully, the military has an artillery piece with a 60-foot barrel that hurls chicken more than 400 miles an hour. The chicken gun allows the military to make sure no stray bird will foul up its expensive jets while they're mid-flight. If you think the chicken gun is weird, it’s only the tip of a strange and fascinating iceberg. Angry Planet has a sub...
Nov 26, 2021•30 min
Ukraine. It started with pro European protests in the Winter of 2013. Then came the annexation of Crimea, the little green men, Igor Strelkov, the Donbas, and a long simmering war in the Eastern Ukraine. Things are changing. Ukraine’s president said that Russia has amassed 100,000 troops on the border, Latvia has mobilized its National Guard, and Poland called for an emergency meeting of NATO. To say tensions are rising would be an understatement. Here to walk us through what’s happening i...
Nov 20, 2021•43 min
Guns. Guns. Guns. We Americans love them, don’t we folks? But the culture is different in other parts of the world and people who want to build their own weapons, make their own Ammo, and fire down range with a sweet semi-automatic have to break the rules to do so. Thanks to 3D printing, that’s getting a lot easier to do as groups like Deterrence Dispensed spread the good word—and the plans—of making guns at home. Is it for home defense? Is it all in good fun? Or is it part of a broader ideology...
Nov 12, 2021•1 hr 6 min
