The Anti Empire Project with Justin Podur

On the Anti-Empire Project Youtube Channel there are frequent situation reports or Sit Reps that are posted late at night. Not all of them are reposted here to this podcast, but we’re posting this one on the day of the Rafah invasion. A breakdown of the ceasefire negotatiations and an assessment of where the war … Continue reading "AER 141: Gaza War Sit Rep Day 213 – the invasion of Rafah has begun"

From crashing test flights to close air support and strategic bombing – on the breakneck innovation in aerial warfare over the course of WW1. An issue with some implications today, you’ll agree?

It could be argued that World War I was decided at sea. The British blockade; the Germans try unrestricted submarine warfare, and massive consequences follow. We talk about Jutland, Skaggerak, the Luistania, and civilian hardships, in the war at sea.

Among the many changes wrought by WW1 was an irrevocable change in the status of women. “Munitions girls”, women running the Paris Metro and the buses in London, policewomen and auxilaries. We conclude with some notes on a conscription crisis in Canada that also played a role in women getting the vote.

The conditions may not have been optimal but they didn’t look to be getting better – so the Irish Revolutionaries made their move in Easter 1916. A week of urban warfare followed – the revolutionaries lost – but they succeeded in transforming the Irish question forever and setting the nation on the inevitable road to … Continue reading "WW Civ 36: The Easter Rising in Ireland 1916"

We didn’t have quorum for a tankie therapy session but we got together anyway – Matteo and Alex joined for a discussion of several psychological warfare methods being used on us: normalizing crimes, treating the criminals like they are a natural phenomenon, and the abuser’s method of “look what you made me do”, absolving the … Continue reading "Tankie Therapy on Day 163: Do we debate genocide?"

The battles of Verdun, the Somme, and the Brusilov Offensive. Epic, tragic military errors, horrors of trenches, battles that killed hundreds of thousands and changed the course of history.

The siege on Gaza and the role of the Palestinian Authority are critical context for the Israel’s assault on Gaza. On this episode we take a look at the history of the blockade and how Israel has ghettoized the Palestinian population. Co-production with The Brief.

Genocides happen in broad daylight – it is only afterwards that they are covered up. There are still fewer countries that recognize the Armenian Genocide than countries that do not. We read scholars that take the view that it was a genocide as well as a scholar that describes the events without using the label, … Continue reading "World War Civ 34: The Armenian Genocide 1915-16"

Waqas Ahmad is back and we recap Pakistan politics since the 2022 coup against Imran Khan. After assassination attempts, vexatious lawsuits, thousands of arrests, torture, and the banning of Imran Khan’s party and symbol, voters still foiled the best-laid plans of the Pakistan military. Where things stand after the elections of February 8, 2024 in … Continue reading "AER 139: Pakistan Election Rigging Fails"

In desperation, the European empires turn to the people they’ve colonized and press them into sacrificing their lives for their imperial masters, setting off a chain of events that makes decolonization in a few decades inevitable.

Israeli media recently published a minute-by-minute chronology of the morning of October 7th from the Israeli military perspective. Jon and I go over it as part of my youtube series of Gaza Sit Reps (for Day 104). Cross-posted over at The Brief, reposted here in case you missed it.

Early in the Great War Britain decided to dismantle the Turkish Empire and made promises to Arab leaders of independence if they would rebel against Britain’s Turkish enemy. While one British leader was making these promises, another, Mark Sykes, was making a deal with other imperialists for the division of Arab lands between them. Follow … Continue reading "World War Civ 32: Britain’s plans for Arab lands – Sykes-Picot, 1916"

By the end the World War had mobilized 65 million troops, killed 20 million people and wounded 21 million more. The money was supposed to run out in a year, the armies were big but never that big. How did the war go on? Because the belligerents made immense and irreversible changes to their economies … Continue reading "World War Civ 31: Towards Total War"

Solo episode discussing Nasrallah’s speech about the war on the Israel-Lebanon border and an analysis of the 2006 war based on a US military analyst’s paper titled, “We Were Caught Unprepared”.

Germans use poison gas on the battlefield at Ypres, British lose 60,000 and Germans 40,000. French attack at Artois with casualties of 100,000 and German 75,000. Russians lose 2 million casualties fighting Germany on the Eastern front. British defeated at Loos, lose 50,000 and Germany 20,000. French offensive in Champagne results in 190,000 casualties and … Continue reading "World War Civ 30: Allied Disasters 1915"

Our usual group gets together to talk about the Gaza War but this time we’re joined by Lara, an actual therapist, who guides us through as we try to understand where things stand on Day 78 of the war.

World War 1 goes global in 1915, as Japan takes advantage to seize more territory in Asia; Turkey fatefully aligns with Germany; Italy joins the Entente.

Joined by Nora and Jon from The Brief / Electronic Intifada to talk about the War in Gaza. More information emerges about what happened on October 7; New atrocities committed since Refaat Alareer’s murder, including bulldozing patients at a hospital and snipers killing women at a church. Some strategic speculations using the history of the … Continue reading "AER 135: Gaza War Day 73"

Our usual group gets together to talk about the Gaza War, this time we all share some words about literature prof, teacher, poet and hero Refaat Alareer, assassinated by Israel a couple of days ago. Some discussion of military tactics and strategies as always.