Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

• Ep 063 "Spanner in the Works: Sabotage and War"

  Military sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a government effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization, destabilization, division, disruption, or destruction. It can take place left of bang or during war with the object the weakening of the military effort by an adversary.Military sabotage has been taking place since the early military adventures of men. The apocryphal story of the Trojan Horse is an ancient example and variations on the theme echo through historical warfare.References:Ian Jones Booby Traps!: The History of Deadly Devices, from World War I to VietnamGordon L. Rottman World War II Axis Booby Traps and Sabotage TacticsGordon L. Rottman World War II Allied Sabotage Devices and Booby TrapsLester Grau and Michael Gress The Red Army's Do-it-Yourself, Nazi-Bashing Guerrilla Warfare Manual: The Partizan's Handbook, Updated and Revised Edition, 1942Roman Mars The 99% Invisible City: A Field Guide to the Hidden World of Everyday DesignAccess All Areas: A User's Guide to the Art of Urban ExplorationOSS Simple Sabotage Field ManualFM 5-31 BoobytrapsTM 31-201-1 Unconventional Warfare Devices and Techniques: IncendiariesEric Frank Russell The WaspMichael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh MistressRobert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In HistoryMy SubstackEmail at [email protected]

  --------  

  1:02:29
• Ep 062 "Storming America: One Year Later"

  This episode examines American landscape one year later and whether the probability of attack is reduced or increased.My Storming America Series covers the gamut of what the spontaneous attack in the US will look like when terror cells launch a simultaneous attack on the US homeland.I cover it in Episodes 37, 41-43 and 49-50 of my Chasing Ghosts podcast.I discuss the outcome of the probable jihadist invasion of America. America is in a unique position in history in which it has facilitated the unfettered invasion of its borders and a large swath of military age males have been granted asylum or gone undetected to link up with legacy underground Islamist and terrorist groups across the country.References:William Forstchen Day of WrathKurt Schlichter The AttackKarl DahlFactionFaction: With the CrusadersMatt Bracken:Enemies Foreign and DomesticForeign Enemies And TraitorsDomestic Enemies: The ReconquistaThe Red Cliffs of ZerhounCastigo CayEric Frank Russell The WaspMichael Z. Williamson The Weapon (and the entire Freehold series)Ernest R. May Strange Victory: Hitler’s Conquest of FranceRobert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh MistressRobert Asprey War In The Shadows: The Guerrilla In HistoryHoward Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into DarknessMy SubstackEmail at [email protected]

  --------  

  56:37
• Ep 061 "The Mountains of Madness: Military Defeat and Terrain"

  With Western conflict possible in Yemen and Iran, I discuss the vagaries and verities of mountain warfare. The special hell of high altitude and colder temperatures and their effect on fighting and warfare.I assess how the RMAs rapidly displacing centuries-old conflict norms are going to look for the remainder of the century.Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.”References:Points of Resistance and Departure: An interview with James C. ScottLester Grau and Charles J. Bartles Mountain Warfare and Other Lofty Problems: Foreign mountain combat veterans discuss movement and maneuver, training and resupply (Helion Studies in Military History)Lester Grau The Bear Went Over The Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics In Afghanistan [Illustrated Edition]Lester Grau The Other Side of the Mountain: Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet-Afghan WarMark Thompson The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919James C. Scott The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast AsiaSun Tzu The Art of WarCarl von Clausewitz On WarMiyamoto Musashi A Book of Five Rings: The Classic Guide to StrategyH. John Poole The Last Hundred Yards: The NCO’s Contribution to WarfareChristian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech WarfareQiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy AmericaMy Substack:https://t.co/7a8jn2MmnxEmail at [email protected].

  --------  

  53:30
• Ep 060 "The Military Historian's Craft: Past Tense Imperfect"

  I am an un-credentialed amateur historian who has done very little archive work and lack the substantial infrastructure credentialed historians have to practice their craft. I have debated esteemed historians and won on stage (Daniel Walker Howe looked at my CV and did not prepare) but that doesn't make me better than them.I think my various detours in life mostly outside the formal academy gives me a unique insight into how history works and why I think I am more sober than university historians.I describe some of the reasons I do it and the techniques I employ to get the single most accurate picture of what happened then to determine what's going on now.I am the Smedley D. Butler Fellow for Military Affairs at the Libertarian Institute.Recommended Reading:Mortimer Adler How To Read a BookRobert Strassler The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika (Landmark Series)Mike Snook How Can Man Die Better: The Secrets of Isandlwana RevealedMike Snook Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke’s DriftDavid Stahel Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the EastDavid Hackett Fischer Historians' Fallacies : Toward a Logic of Historical ThoughtKeith Windschuttle The Killing of HistoryJohn Burrow A History of Histories: Epics, Chronicles, and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth CenturyHarry Elmer Barnes A History of Historical WritingUS Army Center of Military HistoryMy SubstackEmail at [email protected]

  --------  

  51:54
• Ep 059 "The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: War Without End Part Two"

  Here is Part One:Ep 058 "The Mexican Cartel Conundrum: War Without End Part One"We continue the inquiry into the implications and future returns on going kinetic in the drug war as elucidated by worthies in the new administration.I examine the implications and the second and third order effects of this endeavor which is, by extension, a declaration of war on the Mexican government.***Anyone attending the Special Operations Forces Week festivities in Tampa on 5-8 May 2025?If so, we should arrange a rendezvous.***References:Tom Wainwright Narconomics: How to Run a Drug CartelBenjamin T. Smith The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug TradeAnabel Hernandez Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their GodfathersIoan Grillo El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal InsurgencyDavid F. Marley Mexican Cartels: An Encyclopedia of Mexico's Crime and Drug WarsCarmen Boullosa A Narco History: How the United States and Mexico Jointly Created the “Mexican Drug War”Patrick Winn Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIAJesse Fink Pure Narco: One Man's True Story of 25 Years Inside the CartelsMark Santiago A Bad Peace and a Good War: Spain and the Mescalero Apache Uprising of 1795–1799Amy S. Greenberg A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of MexicoMy SubstackEmail at [email protected]

  --------  

  59:23

Fler podcasts i Historia

Trendiga poddar i Historia

Om Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast