Angry Planet

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 campaign against it simply isn’t talked about much anymore.

Today let’s resurrect the memory. With me here to talk about the war is someone who fought in it: Till ‘Baaz’ Paasche.

Along with fellow soldiers John Foxx and Shaun Murray, 'Baz' is the author of America’s War in Syria: Fighting With Kurdish Anti-ISIS Forces.

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/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 down to midnight. Where did this visual metaphor come from? Here to give us the history of the clock and explain how it has permeated our consciousness is Robert K. Elder.

Elder is the Chief Digital Editor of the Bulletin and a journalist who has authored many fine books. His latest is The Doomsday Clock at 75.

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.

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 Radical Right and senior data analyst at the Network Contagion Research Institute. He’s also the co-author of the report we’re talking about here today The Big Business of Uyghur Genocide Denial.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 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.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 Ukraine Obsession. His latest book, which is also excellent, is This Is Not Propaganda.

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/warcollege.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.