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Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Bill Buppert
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.
Latest Episodes
The most recent episodes — sign up to get AI-powered summaries of each one.
- 2 days ago48 min
Ep 090 "The German Colossus in Africa: Lettow-Vorbeck Victorious (Part One)""
In this episode, I sketch the life and exploits of one of my three Peak Guerrillas from the beginning of the 20th century, German GEN Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. I want to explore what I consider the next step in guerrilla evolution employing age-old techniques and strategies harnessed to modern technology and employment within the new age of mechanized warfare and not so mechanized warfare as the Allies would discover during their four year campaign against the poorly supported but brilliant innovations and TTP of Lettow-Vorbeck and his Schutztruppe (German for "Protection Force") .References:Edward Paice World War I: The African Front: An Imperial War on the Dark ContinentEdwin P. Hoyt Guerrilla: COL Lettow-Vorbeck and Germany’s East African EmpireIsabel Hull Absolute Destruction: Military Culture And The Practices Of War In Imperial GermanyBruce Gilley In Defense of German Colonialism: And How Its Critics Empowered Nazis, Communists, and the Enemies of the WestTim Pat Coogan Michael CollinsJames Gleeson Bloody SundayTom Barry Guerrilla Days in IrelandPeter Hart Michael CollinsScott Anderson Lawrence of Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle EastJames J. Schneider Guerrilla Leader: TE Lawrence and the Arab RevoltMy SubstackEmail me at cgpodcast@pm.me
- 2 weeks ago57 min
Ep 089 "The CG Mailbag: Question Time [Fall 2026]""
It's been quite some time since I have responded to "mail" so I have curated these questions to address:.Why the future of warfare is not clone wars?The Fall of Europe is inevitable, here is what it will look like.The rifle is no longer the future in any form of warfare.How systems engineering is ultimately the way of war now and foreverEvents and Ephemera:The Arcata Summit in Bozeman 13-14 November 2026Hearts of Space Subscription ServiceReferences:Why the M7 is Wrong with Ian McCollumUnauthorized 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
- Sep 21, 202644 min
Ep 088 "Hybrid Warfare in the New Age: The Future Forward (Part Three)"
Hybrid warfare is a can of worms, a fascinating conjoining of kinetic and non-kinetic means of achieving victory or stale between warring nations.We continue our conversation.References:The Arcata Summit 13-14 November 2026War Without a Center: Iran’s Mosaic DefenseRichard J. Samuels Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence CommunityJohn Llewelyn The Imperial Japanese Army’s Tokumu Kikan – Special Service Organisations: Connections Between Wartime and Peacetime Intelligence ActivitiesSimon Hall BLINDED BY THE RISING SUN JAPANESE MILITARY INTELLIGENCE FROM THE FIRST SINO-JAPANESE WAR TO THE END OF WORLD WAR IInterrogation of IJF CDR MiyazakiReport to Congress on Russian Hybrid Warfare in Europe 11 August 2026The Future of Hybrid WarfareHybrid Warfare: How to Escape the Conceptual Gray-ZoneThe Evolution of Hybrid Warfare: Implications for Strategy and the Military ProfessionRichard Feynman Cargo Cult speech at CalTech 1974RAND wish-casting on drones in 2015.Slaughterbots (2017)Slaughterbots: if human: kill() (2021)How are Drones Changing Modern Warfare?H. 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 AmericaEmail at cgpodcast@pm.me
- Sep 8, 202654 min
Ep 087 "Hybrid Warfare in the New Age: Japan Expands the Conflict Aperture (Part Two)"
Hybrid warfare Is a can of worms, a fascinating conjoining of kinetic and non-kinetic means of achieving victory or stale between warring nations.This second episode examines an historical example of what I think is the closest modern hybrid warfare modality in the Japanese Empire in the 1930s leading to WWII; the.Imperial Japanese Army’s Tokumu Kikan – Special Service Organizations that laid the groundwork for this phenomenon in the modern west.References:Richard J. Samuels Special Duty: A History of the Japanese Intelligence CommunityJohn Llewelyn The Imperial Japanese Army’s Tokumu Kikan – Special Service Organisations: Connections Between Wartime and Peacetime Intelligence ActivitiesReport to Congress on Russian Hybrid Warfare in Europe 11 August 2026The Future of Hybrid WarfareHybrid Warfare: How to Escape the Conceptual Gray-ZoneThe Evolution of Hybrid Warfare: Implications for Strategy and the Military ProfessionRichard Feynman Cargo Cult speech at CalTech 1974RAND 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
- Aug 24, 202649 min
Ep 086 "Hybrid Warfare in the New Age: Stretching the Envelope (Part One)"
Hybrid warfare Is a can of worms, a fascinating conjoining of kinetic and non-kinetic means of achieving victory or stale between warring nations. This first episode tries to lay the ground work of what it is and in the next two episodes we will examine an historical and a contemporary example of hybrid warfare in meat-space.References:Report to Congress on Russian Hybrid Warfare in Europe 11 August 2026The Future of Hybrid WarfareHybrid Warfare: How to Escape the Conceptual Gray-ZoneThe Evolution of Hybrid Warfare: Implications for Strategy and the Military ProfessionRichard Feynman Cargo Cult speech at CalTech 1974RAND 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
- Jul 6, 202652 min
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
- Jun 7, 202656 min
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
- May 25, 202650 min
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
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About Chasing Ghosts: An Irregular Warfare Podcast
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.
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