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Radio War Nerd EP #354 — Lyle Jeremy Rubin, Afghanistan War Vet & Author (Patreon)

Published:
2022-11-28 00:09:41
Imported:
2023-06

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Content

Guest: Lyle Jeremy Rubin, author 

Recorded: November 25, 2022

We talk to Afghanistan War vet & author Lyle Jeremy Rubin about his new memoir, Pain Is A Weakness Leaving The Body, and about that all too familiar (to us) journey from reactionary youth leftward.

Buy Lyle's memoir, and check out his website to find his other work.

Also mentioned: Dr Dolan's articles on Human Terrain Systems: Part 1, Part 2.
-RWN EP #27 on Human Terrain Systems.

Total time: 1:36:50

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

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Comments

Angleton

I just listened to him in Doug Henwood’s Behind the News!

Anonymous

Just form a labor union. If you want to fight someone. Fight the boss! Love our service members but man militarism is not great.

a clash of purple

Something Matt Christman goes on about, I think mostly unironically, is the idea that the only possibility of American politics swinging left in the current situation is a Gaddafi- or Napoleon-style revolution led by junior officers in the military. Americans are extremely militaristic, and even supposed 'small-government' conservatives worship the military unquestioningly. If, hypothetically, some Colonel Whoever appeared on the TV and said "Okay, the Constitution and capitalism are over, we're doing communism now," then the public would go along with it, regardless of whatever people say about their politics. I think about that every time RWN interviews these vets, and they talk about the contempt servicemembers have for the civilian power structures in America. The Armed Forces could sweep away every other institution without much difficulty or resistance. I think that's exactly what will happen once a big enough crisis comes along and the increasingly corrupt government botches handling it bad enough. The military will step in and 'reestablish order,' and everyone will understand that they're the ones in charge now without necessarily having to bomb the Congress or whatever. I could even see some bizarre situation where there's a mutiny in response to the civilian leadership trying to start World War 3 with China (the military are what passes for doves in mainstream American politics nowadays). I think it's far more likely that an American military coup would result in a very unpleasant society (even moreso), rather than anything positive, of course. But they could absolutely play kingmaker in American politics in a way no one else can, if they ever felt like it.

Doug Cartel

isn't there always something about manliness? in the 90s it was about how we were becoming soft, now they pass around pictures like HERES WHAT TODAYS MALES LOOK LIKE and it's just a picture of a girl or whatever. They're always terrified of losing their man card even if it means losing your dick to mortar fire.

Doug Cartel

the hypermasculine language really irks me because I think one of the reasons Russia invaded Ukraine is because America instinctively refuses to negotiate with designated nemeses, so when Russia began sending out feelers to try to get diplomatic talks over the Donbass going, America (and by extension NATO) just operates with their brainstems and goes "no fuck you, no talks until you give Crimea back" because anything less is "weakness and cowardice" even if you're not Victoria Nuland.

Anonymous

Having been an Army brat during the Cold War, all of this seems so retro and so stupid. I'm quite relieved to hear that some who were formerly right-wing militarists have seen the light, but terrified that so many more never will.

Anonymous

Enjoyed the ep but have to disagree with the praise heaped on Monterrey. In my experience as a civilian linguist working alongside military sigint linguists from all branches, the DLI training was nearly completely inadequate for the demands of the gwot. DLI was still teaching vocab for formatted military intercepts well into the war in Afghanistan, and the courses were so short linguists got to the field listening for keywords, unable to follow sentences. The military did (?does?) have great sigint linguists but they were few and quite noteworthy.

FamiCommie

Thoughtful interview. I ordered Mr. Rubin's book immediately.

Anonymous

Knew Lyle at Emory when I was more of a liberal. We both found our way to the socialist left after college. Although, I always respected his choice to actually enlist when so few war supporters did at the time. Great interview!

a clash of purple
>>96575129

In the American middle class, at least, being a chickenhawk is the norm. They definitely do want to die, but not if they have to stand up for long periods of time or risk not being able to eat fast food whenever they want. They love starting wars that other people fight and die in, but for themselves they prefer to shoot up an elementary school or church or concert or nightclub and then turn the gun on themselves. It's why America will never go fascist the way Nazi Germany did. Our middle class is violently reactionary, but they're too lazy and dull to form the Freikorps or whatever. They prefer to watch TV and go to school board meetings to scream at teenagers for painting murals. But anyway, yes, good interview.

Anonymous
>>96466128

The US masculine ideal (and special forces) of today have basically become real life versions of GI Joe, Rambo, and other action figures from the 80s-90s, that boys grew up with. That's one aspect at least. I'd recommend Citations Needed 138, if you want to hear more about cyclical nature of the crises of manhood. They discuss meat eating, masculinity and maintaining the US settler colonial frontier and the frontier of American empire that followed it through on until the "crises" of today. Separately, Behind the Bastards has 3 or 4 part podcast on John Wayne, which touches a lot on the reformation/perpetuation of the American ideals of manhood. In that series they cover Wayne's personal involvement in starting the DOD-Hollywood funding/consulting relationship and the beginning of the glorification of special forces in his film, The Green Berets (1968). They speculate Wayne tried making up for his "unmanly" ww2 service avoidance, by producing military propaganda.

J P 3

Hard to believe, but in 1984, Reagan's strongest performance was with voters 18-24 -- he won the group 61/30.

Anonymous

Great interview. Just ordered his book.