Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

Bill Buppert
  • 4.8 (96)
  • 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 084 "Blood in the Water: The US Navy is Sinking"

    6d ago

    Ep 084 "Blood in the Water: The US Navy is Sinking"

    The US Navy is lost at sea and in the thrall of exquisite platform that be the maritime tombs of tens of thousands of sailors in the coming wars of the 21st century. The acquisition system is broken beyond repair, burn it down. The aircraft carrier has been a signature component of US naval power and prestige for more than a century. The utility has continued to diminish since the end of WWII. The tremendous disadvantage of putting so much manpower and treasure into these single use leviathan systems in the modern world of distributed missile and PGM systems, emerging near-peer & peer adversaries and concentration of power in vulnerable systems is a recipe for future disaster. The US Navy surface fleet is in tatters and shattered by readiness, maintenance and armament issues that are critical indicators of a navy totally unprepared. More on the carrier dilemma in Chasing Ghosts Episode #034, WarNotes #10 and Dispatch #006. Note: This post is published a little early due to my attendance at the Military Operations Research Society Annual Symposium in CO this week. References: The Documents Exist: Nobody Assigned Them As Mandatory Reading. What Would Rickover Do? Jeff Vandenengel National Policy and the Panoceanic Navy James D, Hornfischer Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960 Gregory Vistica Fall from Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy Michael Junge Crimes of Command: in the United States Navy, 1945-2015 Gerry Doyle Carrier Killer: China's Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles and Theater of Operations in the early 21st Century David Lee Russell Early U.S. Navy Carrier Raids, February-April 1942: Five Operations That Tested a New Dimension of American Air Power Jeff Vandenengel Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities in Fleet Design for the U.S. Navy Jeff Vandenengel interview on Midrats with CDR Salamander Ivan Gogin Fighting ships of the PEOPLE LIBERATION ARMY NAVY 1949 - 2023 Jerry Hendrix Retreat From Range: The Rise and Fall of Carrier Aviation My Substack Write me at cgpodcast@pm.me

    56 min
  2. Ep 083 "Memorial Day Remembrance 2026: Oceans of Blood, Wars of Choice""

    May 25

    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 PHILIPPINES James M. Scott Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle of Manila Howard Jones My Lai: Vietnam, 1968, and the Descent into Darkness Karl Marlantes What It Is Like to Go to War Bill Russel Edmonds God is Not Here: A Soldier's Struggle with Torture, Trauma, and the Moral Injuries of War Clark Savage King of All Things: A Guide to Man's Martial Purpose Dick Couch A Tactical Ethic: Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace Andrew Bacevich Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Misguided Wars Shauna Springer WARRIOR: How to Support Those Who Protect Us Jonathan Shay Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character Jonathan Shay Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming Another podcast: Martyrmade: Anything That Moves - The My Lai Massacre (w/History on Fire) Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me My Substack

    51 min
  3. Ep 082 "The CG Mailbag: Question Time"

    May 11

    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 Podcast 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

    36 min
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
See All (84)

4.8
out of 5
96 Ratings

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

Information

You Might Also Like