Radio War Nerd EP #370 — Iraq War 20th Anniversary, pt. 1: Abandoned Soldiers, feat. Seth Harp

Our man Brendon Anderegg. You can find his music here: https://thrilljockey.com/artists/mountains

I really enjoyed the music at 1:11:00. Who is the artist?

Once_Royal

Absurdly grim, thanks for sharing Seth

A Guy

No one in particular. That's just a particularly common refrain from those trying to shut someone up from saying something they often just don't want to hear.

Nathaniel G Wallace

Who are you quoting?

G W

That’s my thinking at least, Medicare is able to leverage the number of people it represents and money it has (bargaining power) to drive prices down with other medical expenses, it benefits people who don’t have it as well

Thomas

If the government ends up as a large purchaser of dental services it’ll do stuff to drive the price of care down

Thomas

the Blowback podcast did a 10-episode series on exactly this subject, worth checking out imo, probably some points you can steal for tha kidz

Karl Childers

Excellent homage to 20 years in Iraq. I was also anti war at the time. I hear what Seth says about “tribe.” We need to reintegrate vets.

Arielle Curtin

Amazing episode guys. Looking forward to pt 2 on Iraq. I teach 8th grade social studies and since we’re at the 20 year mark have been struggling with a way to frame the war to get them to understand the insanity of the lead up to and early months of the war

Josh

also, aside from being the 'Favourite Tory' of the month for the gullible and vibes dependent Liberal Centrists of the British media and political class at the moment, potentially a spook, according to Craig Murray

SLE1990

In early 2004 we (Brits) were forced to do the Basra-Amara run in Snatch Land Rovers, basically anything stronger than a pea shooter would go right through it.

Jon

The graves in Fallujah weren’t partisan vigilance retribution perhaps?

Josh

Such a lame, and a million times over recycled critique, and an ultra cliche reply. So RWN shouldn't allow us to hear his story because he's what, "taking up too much space" from Iraqi voices? Why's it gotta be one of the other? Mark and John have had Iraqis -and others from countries in the nearby Arabian peninsula- on RWN numerous times.

Nathaniel G Wallace

Seth's story reminded me of Rory Stewart's 2006 book Occupational Hazards: My Time Governing in Iraq. For those who don't know, Rory Stewart is a British academic, ex-diplomatic and former Tory MP and cabinet minister. There's a lot to say about Stewart, but in 2003-04 he was Deputy Governorate Coordinator of Maysan and Dhi Qar provinces of Iraq under the Coalition Provisional Authority, based out of Amarah then Nasiriyah. He fancied himself the swashbuckling, Lawrence of Arabia type of colonial administrator, and reading the book you can't help but think that he was unbelievably naive and ill-prepared for the task. It's been 15+ years since I read the book, so the exact details escape me. I think Stewart may have been besieged in the CPA compound in Nasiriyah in April 2004, so I don't know if there was any mention of the battle between US troops and Sadrist militia in Amarah at the time. But the book gave some insight on what an absolute gong show the occupation of Southern Iraq was from the very beginning. I won't lie, I kind of enjoyed the book at the time, but I'm curious if the War Nerd has a take on Occupational Hazards.

Nicolay Hristozov

Didn't you listen? Those two guys had LIFELONG back issues!

david fenton

I'm sorry that it was so traumatic to invade a sovereign country but can you guys maybe interview an Iraqi next time?

Around the 58 minute mark he starts talking about mass graves dug for the slaughtered men of Fallujah. How is this different from the graves of Bucha?

Angus Cairnie

My guys from the village went and fought in this war, killing the relatives of my other friends who had escaped the invasion to the town next door. Quite a few of my friends have seen people blown to pieces. They don't tend to tell stories even to people they've known all their lives. Whatever else the war was, or what we in the village thought of the politics, back home we counted them all out, and we counted them all back.