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Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Bill Buppert
An unauthorized podcast series peeking behind the curtain at the vast machinery and briar patch politics of fighting terrorism and insurgency and everything in between. I'm a "COINtra" and not a "COINdinista", the latter are the vast army of apparatchiks and apologists who fire the engines of Irregular Warfare (IW) planet-wide. We're the skeptics and doubters of all things IW and special operations. And we are a tiny sliver of the IW community. I have noticed a jarring gap in this part of the discussion and intend on filling the breach.
Latest Episodes
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- 1 weeks ago50 min
Ep 083 "Memorial Day Remembrance 2026: Oceans of Blood, Wars of Choice""
I discuss the darker side of celebrating war and the moral injury of wars of choice. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance and an existential wake.This day is about the ashes of victory and blood lakes of defeat. I show how the American way of war is far more brutal and murderous than the usual suspects let on..***This episode is not for the squeamish or faint of heart.***U.S. WAR CRIMES IN THE PHILIPPINESJames M. Scott Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of ManilaHoward Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into DarknessKarl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to WarBill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of WarClark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial PurposeDick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent BattlespaceAndrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided WarsShauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect UsJonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of CharacterJonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of HomecomingAnother podcast:Martyrmade: Anything That Moves - The My Lai Massacre (w/History on Fire)Email me at cgpodcast@pm.meMy Substack
- 3 weeks ago35 min
Ep 082 "The CG Mailbag: Question Time"
It's been quite some time since I have responded to "mail" so I have curated five questions to address:.What should the USAF do now?Is fraud a form of irregular warfare?What should the DoW do with 1.5 trillion dollars?References:Unauthorized History of the Pacific War PodcastRAND wish-casting on drones in 2015.Slaughterbots (2017)Slaughterbots: if human: kill() (2021)How are Drones Changing Modern Warfare?Sun 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 SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me
- Apr 13, 20261h 2m
Ep 081 "Strategic Empathy: Grokking the Pendulum of Indecision"
I examine the strategic deficit disorder that absolutely dominates the US and western military establishmentsI speak to the tools and critical thinking modalities that could spark and encourage competent martial imagination. Moral courage is necessary to tell the flag officer dullards and their Senior Executive Service (SES) necromancers that the emperor has no clothes.If not, the unblemished record of defeat and stalemate will continue.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.Note: The list of sources is limited here due to RSS but my Substack is more comprehensive.Recommended Listening:On Strategic EmpathyRecommended Reading:Christian Madsbjerg Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the AlgorithmJohnson and Abbe Developing Strategic Empathy and Perspective Taking in MilitaryZachary Shore A Sense of the Enemy: The High Stakes History of Reading Your Rival's MindDave Snowden Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our WorldMortimer 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 cgpodcast@pm.me
- Mar 30, 202657 min
Ep 080 "The Cargo Cult of Martial Belief, Wishcasting and Bloodshed"
Episode 100!Well, when I combine the 20 episodes of WarNotes with the CG podcasts but a chance to pop the bubbly anyway.Today we discuss the critical lack of critical thinking that has led the US into the unenviable position of being an extraordinarily 20th century fighting force nor fit for purpose for 21st century peer combat.It will get worse.I'll offer some more recommendations and a path forward.References:Richard Feynman Cargo Cult speech at CalTech 1974RAND wish-casting on drones in 2015.Slaughterbots (2017)Slaughterbots: if human: kill() (2021)How are Drones Changing Modern Warfare?Sun 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 SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me
- Mar 16, 202643 min
Ep 079 "Iran, Salvo Competition and the Inevitable Stalemate"
I'll discuss Iran and the grunt math of salvo competition.Buppert’s Law of Military Topography:“Mountainous terrain held by riflemen who know what they are about cannot be militarily defeated.”For other insight on Iran, I recommend CG episodes 061 , 067 and 078.References:The Boogeyman of 21st-Century Warfare: DronesWhy the US is facing strategic defeatPoints 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 cgpodcast@pm.me.
- Mar 2, 202644 min
Ep 078 "Iran and I Lost: The American Empire Tilts Again"
With Western conflict in Iran escalating and in train, I discuss the vagaries and verities of the nuclear gambit in Iran in the Middle East and what this will mean to the future of warfare for the reminder of this century.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.”For other insight on Iran, I recommend CG episodes 061 and 067.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 cgpodcast@pm.me.
- Jan 6, 202650 min
Ep 077 "The CG Mailbag: Question Time and the Backbenchers Lament 26.1"
It's been quite some time since I have responded to "mail" so I have curated five questions to address:.What are your thoughts on the Maduro and VZ kerfuffle?How do you fix the defense acquisition system and fraud?What should the US Navy do in the 21st century?How did GEN Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck do it (preview)?Are American SOF capable of 21st century mission success?References:Soryu (16SS) class Attack Submarine - SSKRobert Gaudi African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918David Smith The East Africa Campaign 1914–18: Von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Masterpiece (Campaign, 379)RAND wish-casting on drones in 2015.Slaughterbots (2017)Slaughterbots: if human: kill() (2021)How are Drones Changing Modern Warfare?Sun 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 SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me
- Dec 8, 20251h 3m
Ep 076 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Five (Conclusions)"
I offer my scorched earth solutions to fighting Antifa and communism in the US..America is in a Civil War with a major political party and its blacked-shirted paramilitary arm going from cold to hot war.Prepare accordingly.Part Four at Episode 075Part Three at Episode 074Part Two at Episode 073Part One at Episode 072.I did a primer on cell organization in Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math".References:House Un-American Activities Committee records, 1945-1975How They HuntWhy Schools Don't Educate by John Taylor GattoF A Hayek The Intellectuals and SocialismBryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary ViolenceAndy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy DemocracyAQ Training ManualThe IRA GreenbookHunting the SleepersAn Analysis of Al-Qaida TradecraftModeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-RangeUnderstanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork OperationsStephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and MilitiasMy SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me
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About Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast
An unauthorized podcast series peeking behind the curtain at the vast machinery and briar patch politics of fighting terrorism and insurgency and everything in between. I'm a "COINtra" and not a "COINdinista", the latter are the vast army of apparatchiks and apologists who fire the engines of Irregular Warfare (IW) planet-wide. We're the skeptics and doubters of all things IW and special operations. And we are a tiny sliver of the IW community. I have noticed a jarring gap in this part of the discussion and intend on filling the breach.
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