Podcasts, videos, books and tweets of the week 67
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You can find me at @dustinducane.bsky.social.
Phil is philipblood.bsky.social.
Maybe time to reactivate an old project
Not war
Not too hot that the next podcast was with Mark Scumbag Ames of the War Psychopath Podcast tho
I remember the eXile as a mishmash of nightclub listings (rated on how easily a man could get sex), articles on lurid escapades (sex with a 15-year-old girl, an account Ames now says was a joke), political pieces (“Why Our Military Shopping Spree Has Russia Pissed Off”) and press reviews savaging mainstream Western journalists.
Something more on Palestine
The crisis in Israel - Palestine continues, currently unfolding with the Israeli attack on Gaza, immediately preceded by the Hamas-led massacre in Southern Israel. Unpicking the history and origins of these events remains a particularly difficult task, with history used and abused by people with points to prove on all sides. For that reason I was particularly happy to be able to conduct an extended interview with the historian James Barr, whose books on the history of the Middle East, including A Line in the Sand and Lords of the Desert are some of the best regarded guides to the region, particularly in the early years of the twentieth century.
Things we predicted - superior tech and soldiers aren’t a magic bullet
This from an email from January 23 to my co-authors:
Thought for the week, did Clausewitzian fixation on destruction of enemy troops, mass, lose the Eastern Front when a drive on Moscow and the heart of the empire would have been deadly for Stalin and led at worst to a peace with a new regime.And is Ukraine at the Kursk stage where it will have superior equipment and soldiers but tries a bold maneuver which will destroy its reserves while Russia gets stronger.
And the December 2023 analysis of the war:
● U.S. and Ukrainian officials sharply disagreed at times over strategy, tactics and timing. The Pentagon wanted the assault to begin in mid-April to prevent Russia from continuing to strengthen its lines. The Ukrainians hesitated, insisting they weren’t ready without additional weapons and training.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/04/ukraine-counteroffensive-us-planning-russia-war/
Dustin Du Cane
You don’t defeat Russia with kill ratios
Dustin Du Cane
And I called the offensive presumably failed in August after being worried this would happen at the beginning of the year.
Most of the relevant tweets are in this roundup.
Dustin Du Cane
What we’re reading
Nothing because I lost my Kindle!