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 L...
Sep 04, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 24
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 i...
Aug 21, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 23
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 cgpodcast@pm.me....
Aug 07, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 22
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 cgpodcast@pm.me....
Jul 24, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 21
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 o...
Jul 10, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 20
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 cgpodcast@pm.me....
Jun 26, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 19
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 Al...
Jun 12, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 18
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/7a8jn2Mmnx Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.
May 29, 2023•51 min•Season 1Ep. 17
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. References: Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East James J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab Revolt TE Lawrence Seven Pillars of Wisdom Desmond Stewart TE Lawrence: A New Biography Jeremy Wilson Lawrence of Arabia: The ...
May 16, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 16
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. References: Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making o...
May 01, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 15
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. References: Scott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East James J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence a...
Apr 17, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 14
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/7a8jn2Mmnx Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.
Apr 02, 2023•24 min•Season 1Ep. 13
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...
Mar 20, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 12
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. References: David Hackett Fischer Paul Revere's Ride J. L. Bell The Road to Concord: How Four Sto...
Mar 06, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 11
I review and discuss Sean McMeekin's brilliant tome on Stalin being the ascendant and most successful antagonist in WWII. References: Sean McMeekin Stalin's War: A New History of World War II John Koster Operation Snow: How a Soviet Mole in FDR's White House Triggered Pearl Harbor Herbert Romerstein, Eric Breindel The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors M. Stanton Evans, Herbert Romerstein Stalin's Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt's Government My Substack: ...
Feb 21, 2023•33 min•Season 1Ep. 10
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. References: Martin Windrow Our Friends Beneath the Sands: The Foreign Legion in France's Colonial Conquests 1870-1935 Douglas Porch The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History of the Legendary Fighting Force Douglas Porch Counterinsurgency My Substack: https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx Email at cgpodcast@pm.me....
Feb 06, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 9
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. References: Martin Windrow The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam Bernard Fall Hell in a Very Small Place Bernard Fall Street Without Joy Ted Morgan Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War My Substack: https://t.co/7a8jn2...
Jan 23, 2023•41 min•Season 1Ep. 8
A short but effective tome that is a sound introduction to why the western COIN complex is so wrong-headed and intellectually bankrupt. References : Colonel Gian Gentile Wrong Turn: America’s Deadly Embrace of Counterinsurgency My Substack: https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.
Jan 09, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 7
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. References: ADP 6-0 Mission Command Grant Tedrick Hammond The Mind of War: John Boyd and American Security Stephen Robinson Blind Strategist: John Boyd and the American Art of War Colin Gray Modern Strategy Carl von ...
Dec 18, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 6
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. References: Tim Pat Coogan Michael Collins James Gleeson Bloody Sunday Tom Barry Guerrilla Days in Ireland Peter Hart Michael Collins E...
Dec 04, 2022•50 min•Season 1Ep. 5
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. References: Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan , Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder Douglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War R...
Nov 20, 2022•45 min•Season 1Ep. 4
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. References: Tim Pat Coogan Michael Collins J...
Nov 06, 2022•37 min•Season 1Ep. 3
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. References: Nassim Taleb: The Black Swan and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder Douglas Porch: Counterinsurgency: Exposing the Myths of the New Way of War My Substack: htt...
Oct 10, 2022•57 min•Season 1Ep. 2
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 l...
Sep 26, 2022•38 min•Season 1Ep. 1
