Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

Bill Buppert
  • 5.0 (5)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

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. Substack: Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast Smedley D. Butler Fellow for Military Affairs at the Libertarian Institute Chasing Ghosts Podcast on YouTube I am an Amazon Affiliate. You can contact me at cgpodcast@pm.me

  1. Ep 081 "Strategic Empathy: Grokking the Pendulum of Indecision"

    APR 13

    Ep 081 "Strategic Empathy: Grokking the Pendulum of Indecision"

    I examine the strategic deficit disorder that absolutely dominates the US and western military establishments I 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 Empathy Recommended Reading: Christian Madsbjerg Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm Johnson and Abbe Developing Strategic Empathy and Perspective Taking in Military Zachary Shore A Sense of the Enemy: The High Stakes History of Reading Your Rival's Mind Dave Snowden Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World Mortimer Adler How To Read a Book Robert Strassler The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika (Landmark Series) Mike Snook How Can Man Die Better: The Secrets of Isandlwana Revealed Mike Snook Like Wolves on the Fold: The Defence of Rorke’s Drift David Stahel Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East David Hackett Fischer Historians' Fallacies : Toward a Logic of Historical Thought Keith Windschuttle The Killing of History John Burrow A History of Histories: Epics, Chronicles, and Inquiries from Herodotus and Thucydides to the Twentieth Century Harry Elmer Barnes A History of Historical Writing US Army Center of Military History My Substack Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

    1h 2m
  2. Ep 080 "The Cargo Cult of Martial Belief, Wishcasting and Bloodshed"

    MAR 30

    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 1974 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 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 Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America My Substack Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

    57 min
  3. Ep 079 "Iran, Salvo Competition and the Inevitable Stalemate"

    MAR 16

    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: Drones Why the US is facing strategic defeat Points of Resistance and Departure: An interview with James C. Scott Lester 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 War Mark Thompson The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 James C. Scott The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia 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 Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America My Substack: https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

    44 min
  4. Ep 078 "Iran and I Lost: The American Empire Tilts Again"

    MAR 2

    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. Scott Lester 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 War Mark Thompson The White War: Life and Death on the Italian Front 1915-1919 James C. Scott The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia 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 Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America My Substack: https://t.co/7a8jn2Mmnx Email at cgpodcast@pm.me.

    45 min
  5. Ep 077 "The CG Mailbag: Question Time and the Backbenchers Lament 26.1"

    JAN 6

    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 - SSK Robert Gaudi African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918 David 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 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 Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy America My Substack Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

    51 min
  6. Ep 076 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Five (Conclusions)"

    2025-12-08

    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 075 Part Three at Episode 074 Part Two at Episode 073 Part 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, 1945-1975 How They Hunt Why Schools Don't Educate by John Taylor Gatto F A Hayek The Intellectuals and Socialism Bryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy AQ Training Manual The IRA Greenbook Hunting the Sleepers An Analysis of Al-Qaida Tradecraft Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias My Substack Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

    1h 4m
  7. Ep 075 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Four"

    2025-11-24

    Ep 075 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Four"

    I further examine the educational feeder mechanism for communist and terrorist insurgency that is Antifa and its affiliated organizations both governmental and non-government. In this third episode, I examine the pedagogical origins of government supremacist ideology in American schools. 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 Three at Episode 074 Part Two at Episode 073 Part 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, 1945-1975 How They Hunt Why Schools Don't Educate by John Taylor Gatto *** F A Hayek The Intellectuals and Socialism Bryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy AQ Training Manual The IRA Greenbook Hunting the Sleepers An Analysis of Al-Qaida Tradecraft Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias My Substack Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

    57 min
  8. Ep 074 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Three"

    2025-11-10

    Ep 074 "Modern Antifa: Communist Insurgency in the US Part Three"

    I examine the feeder mechanism for communist and terrorist insurgency that is Antifa and its affiliated organizations both governmental and non-government. In this third episode, we examine the epistemology that created a rump state of communist resistance in America. now. 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 Two at Episode 73 Part One at Episode 72. I did a primer on cell organization in Ep 051 "Cellular Ecology: Guerrilla Organizations and Grunt Math". References: House Un-American Activities Committee records, 1945-1975 How They Hunt *** F A Hayek The Intellectuals and Socialism Bryan Borrough Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence Andy Ngo Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy AQ Training Manual The IRA Greenbook Hunting the Sleepers An Analysis of Al-Qaida Tradecraft Modeling Terrorist Networks - Complex Systems at the Mid-Range Understanding the Form, Function, and Logic of Clandestine Insurgent and Terrorist Networks: The First Step in Effective Counternetwork Operations Stephen Biddle Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias My Substack Email at cgpodcast@pm.me

    57 min
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About

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. Substack: Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast Smedley D. Butler Fellow for Military Affairs at the Libertarian Institute Chasing Ghosts Podcast on YouTube I am an Amazon Affiliate. You can contact me at cgpodcast@pm.me

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