Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast

Ep 085 "Home is the High Ground: Reimagining a New Hermit Kingdom"

I discuss the possibilities of America relinquishing its global ambition to reduce its footprint to a regional hegemon in the Western hemisphere. The new technologies of AI, UAVs and hypersonics rather easily challenge the spending paradigms and mission architecture of the American armed forces.There are no near-peer competitors, every nation on Earth is now a peer to modern western war machines.America boasts a magnificent 20th century war machine is not fit for purpose for 21st century peer warfare.The crossroads is chock-full of landmines.References:Christian Brose The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech WarfareQiao Liang & Wang Xiangsui Unrestricted Warfare: China's Master Plan to Destroy AmericaMartin van CreveldThe Transformation of War: The Most Radical Reinterpretation of Armed Conflict Since ClausewitzFighting Power: German and U.S. Army Performance, 1939-1945Colin GrayStrategy and History: Essays on Theory and PracticeFighting Talk: Forty Maxims on War, Peace, and StrategyWilliam Lind Maneuver Warfare HandbookJohn Boyd Patterns of ConflictMichael Weiner Legacy of Ashes: History of the CIAJohn Prado The Ghosts of Langley: Into the CIA's Heart of DarknessSun 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 WarfareMy SubstackEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me

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 NavyJames D, Hornfischer Who Can Hold the Sea: The U.S. Navy in the Cold War 1945-1960Gregory Vistica Fall from Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. NavyMichael Junge Crimes of Command: in the United States Navy, 1945-2015Gerry Doyle Carrier Killer: China's Anti-Ship Ballistic Missiles and Theater of Operations in the early 21st CenturyDavid Lee Russell Early U.S. Navy Carrier Raids, February-April 1942: Five Operations That Tested a New Dimension of American Air PowerJeff Vandenengel Questioning the Carrier: Opportunities in Fleet Design for the U.S. NavyJeff Vandenengel interview on Midrats with CDR SalamanderIvan Gogin Fighting ships of the PEOPLE LIBERATION ARMY NAVY 1949 - 2023Jerry Hendrix Retreat From Range: The Rise and Fall of Carrier AviationMy SubstackWrite me at cgpodcast@pm.me

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

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

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