i got the soviet-afghan war and wow did that recontextualize a lot of things about the modern world
Such as?
bear in mind i was 10 during 9/11 so a lot of it was just upending things i had taken for granted. but like, how the US was pretty much allied with the taliban throughout the 80s, giving them training and weapons to fight against the soviet-friendly progressive, secular government of afghanistan.
My case was Paraguay War a few weeks ago and I learned so damn much that school completely glossed over. What surprised me the most was just how much of a madman Solano Lopez, the Paraguayan dictator, was. You dare bring bad news to him? You bet your ass you’ll be flogged. You failed to follow one of his suicidal orders? Off to forced labor camp. You didn’t put him above God and Christ? Say your prayers, you’ll be
shotbayoneted in order to save bullets.Hey, the Falklands is the one I’m obsessed with and it’s actually really interesting. Only “modern” war between near peers before ukraine.
I’m sure you’ve come across it but David Hart Dyke’s book on the loss of HMS Coventry is one of the more vivid depictions of grief I’ve read.
Near peers? Pretty sure there’s a whole ocean separating Argentina and Britain, even if the islands where the conflict occurred were “just next door” to mainland Argentina.
I think they meant “near” as in “evenly matched”.
Iran Iraq war also known as first gulf war?
Wut
The Iraqi army got absolutely obliterated
The best class I took in college was an intercession course about the Vietnam War. We had to read an entire book pretty much every day, which was great prep for grad school.
I basically learned that the entire war was completely unjustified, it was horrific and brutal on both sides in ways that aren’t talked about, but that ultimately the United States had absolutely no business interfering. Vietnam had spent years under French colonial control, which they overthrew under their own power. They had already asserted a desire to rule themselves.
Tonkin was also a genuine false flag, which just isn’t acknowledged? We manufactured the cause for an extremely unpopular war. So many young man died or were disabled because of something that was pointless.
That class was first that really got me to question the patriotic narrative I was taught about American history in high school.
Vietnam got a rough fucking deal in the 1900s. Shortly after the US left, the Cambodians under Pol Pot invaded, and they were brutal
And Vietnam ended up kicking Pol Pot off which is impossible to argue as anything but a win for humanity.
China also invaded.
Of course we can’t acknowledge it, because then we can’t make the same “mistake” again and people will start questioning real causus belli like saddams WMDs which we’ll find any day now.
Sweet! I got Star Wars!
But it’s the Disney sequel trilogy.
the century of war between Berwick-upon-tweed and Russia
Due to a typo, I ended up with “The Cod War”
https://www.icelandreview.com/travel/the-cod-wars-in-iceland/
Pretty sure they made a video game series about that.
I’m the War on Christmas guy, and I’m getting my ass handed to me every single year.
I’m the war on drugs guy and I… what was I talking about? Man, those brownies were strong! *strolls off*
i’m the war on advent guy. you don’t know how nice you have it
pfft. enlist when you’re 18, you’ll get a whole new war.
Don’t you dare close your eyes.
prefer to close my eyes and count to fuck…
WWIII nut here.
Get yourself a Red Cross emergency kit, a lot of water jugs, and ramen. You’re underestimating your chances of survival and how much you’ll want to.
You’re underestimating your chances of survival and how much you’ll want to.
yes, you too can live out the remainder of your miserable days scrambling for rat meat in the irradiated future.
of course, the desire to live, to survive, overcomes a lot, but ‘want to live’ I think is stretching it a bit.
I’ve worked briefly with civil defense stuff and got to visit and learn a whole bunch about bunkers. That cemented my “take out the long chair, open my best bottle, put on some shades, and enjoy the brief light show” approach to a hypothetical nuclear alert.
I suspect what they’re getting at is: there are a lot of scenarios other than “all out exchange between major powers”, and when the fallout starts floating, you can either just hang out at home (and die of cancer in a year or two), or shelter in a basement for a week (and emerge to a troubled but liveable world.)
shelter in a basement for a week (and emerge to a troubled but liveable world.)
give this a read sometime. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/748264/nuclear-war-by-annie-jacobsen/
I don’t think anyone’s going to hold up for a week then find the world very livable. even the areas not eradicated by direct strikes will suffer terribly from the food shortages and collapsing societies.
I’m familiar with the extinction event scenarios, and agree that in some cases one may not find the world worth living in. I recommend Krepinevich’s “7 Deadly Scenarios”, a couple of those involve nuclear attacks. The sitations are comparable to the recent Covid pandemic: millions of people die, the world is subsequently scarred, but life goes on for most people. A bit of planning can make things less horrible and a lot of it overlaps with natural disaster.
I think you may misunderstand. <edit or I’m misreading your replies>
Jacob’s book covers an all in exchange. everyone goes max. very little in the northern hemisphere would survive. a bit of planning, all the planning in the world - neither will save you when each side is maximizing the amount of fallout with ground strikes with megaton weapons.
the ‘lucky’ folk in the southern hemisphere will just have to wait until the after effects catch up to them.
Jacob’s scenario is megadeaths to gigadeaths - literally a billion dead directly (flash/blast/etc) and multiple billions dead shortly after. Krepinevich’s scenario is a few terrorists with tactical weapons.
these are wildly different things.
<edit I don’t think you’re meaning to downplay the seriousness of any kind of major nuclear exchange, but just underestimating how seriously civilization ending it is>
Mine just says WW15 and has a picture of a green tiger in space
Is there also a buff blonde dude with a sword in a fur loincloth?
I bet we’re all space tigers by then
The War of the Tiger Kings.
I’ve got class war, which is a real doozy.
Yooo same. Why the fuck don’t these people just fuck off and relax? I can’t imagine having that much money and still feeling like I have to go to work.
Because at some point after the first few million you turn into a dragon that must hoard wealth and the people that generate that wealth become a cost to minimize.
Barf, after my first few million they better be looking all over for me cause ima be peaced out to a 100 year vacation.
When I’m a billionaire (and no longer temporarily embarrassed), I’m going to fund so much tasteless art. And by art I mean mostly pornography. But I’ll hire the best advisors to make sure it’s a classy positive influence on society.
I listened to Hardcore History’s series on World War I in that window, so that was my assigned war of interest.
This was me too. I probably listened through the “Blueprint for Armageddon” series three times. Never really found any other history podcast that piqued my interest nearly as much as that did.
I like that he’s very open about the fact that he’s not an expert/professional historian. He walks the line between storytelling and rigor pretty well for a pop historian. My favorite episode is the one about the Memnonite (edit: Anabaptist) rebellion that ended with corpses being left up for centuries.
Ah… remember when England decided they owned an island that was located inside the territorial waters of another country?
You will have to be a lot more specific when talking about the British Empire…
I hope you’re not trying to refer to the one that’s 200 miles from Argentina because that would be hilarious.
Are you dumb?
c/foundtheargentinian
Hell yeah, I got the Dominion War. Time for another DS9 rewatch.
I participated in the war on drugs…
On the winning side, I imagine.
I think so, it’s all a haze.
By winning, you meantaking copious amounts of drugs?
Buying, selling, using, abusing, growing, extracting, synthesizing, losing, hiding, educating, discarding, withdrawing, etc.