April Podcasts
Reflections on the US Use of Assassination and on the US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Comrades:
I hope this finds you well, the times notwithstanding. I don’t agree with Eliot about April being the cruelest month. We have a beautiful pair of red shouldered hawks nesting, flying twisty through the forest off the deck, many trees blooming. He hunts for her, calls when he has something, and she comes and eats it. Usually he brings back mice and voles and the like, but yesterday it was the bright splash of a male cardinal, which panged. So cruelty, or at least brutality, yes, but great beauty, too.
I’ve just published two podcast essays. “Assassination and Authority” was occasioned by the killing of Soleimani. “Afghanistan We Hardly Knew Ye (Why the Lessons of Vietnam Were Not Learned” was occasioned, of course, by our withdrawal from that country, and its resemblance to the end of another inglorious war. Much of “Assassination and Authority” is based on an essay available on Medium, at least for now. The Afghanistan piece draws heavily on an essay in Telos, if you can get past the paywall.
As promised in an earlier newsletter, I was going to publish both of these podcasts together, during the winter, under the title “Recent Violence.” Then the war in Ukraine began, and my title became confusing. So I postponed publication, and the rather pedestrian “April Podcasts” will have to serve as the title for this newsletter.
Vincent Parlato wrote, performed, and produced really fine, fitting, music for both podcasts. The picture of the drone above (a “Reaper” like the one used to kill Soleimani) is public domain. The picture of Afghan children was taken by my friend Vincent Littrell. I wanted to use this picture on the cover of my book Deploying Ourselves: Islamist Violence and the Responsible Projection of US Force, but the image was too low rez.
Both podcasts are available here, David A. Westbrook Intermittent Signal, as well as on Spotify and various other services. I’m still working on that. To say nothing of Search Engine Optimization. More generally, I am still learning this social publishing stuff, and it is hard to balance making, distributing, and life generally. Still resisting Twitter and Facebook . . . and resisting monetizing much.
At any rate, I would very much appreciate it if you would tell your networks about this newsletter (substack) and about the podcasts. Send to friends who may be interested, and so forth. Please sign up for the podcasts, too. And, if you can stand it, play the algos — like, clap, etc.
“O Brave New World, that has such [so many!] people in ‘t!”
Enjoy the spring, if you are in the northern hemisphere, or whatever may be special for you, now.
Cheers,
David A. Westbrook