logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2023
1h 22m

American Militarism w/ Nadia Abu El-Haj

Daniel Denvir
About this episode
Featuring Nadia Abu El-Haj on Combat Trauma: Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America. How the civil-military divide makes troops into super citizens and what it means that agents of state violence are turning to the grammar of identity politics—and more. The second in a two-part interview.

Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig

Subscribe to New Left Review newleftreview.org/subscriptions/new

Buy My Country is the World: Staughton Lynd’s Writings, Speeches, and Statements Against the Vietnam War haymarketbooks.org/books/1956-my-country-is-the-world
Up next
Aug 2021
Chile w/ Aldo Madariaga & Camila Vergara
Dan interviews scholars Aldo Madariaga and Camila Vergara about how Chilean politics have been playing out since the massive popular uprisings that began in October 2019. Further reading: jacobinlat.com/2021/06/19/el-neoliberalismo-atenta-contra-la-democracia-2 newleftreview.org/ ... Show More
1h 59m
Apr 2021
Empire in the Philippines with Rick Baldoz
US empire in the Philippines, Filipino migration, labor organizing in the fields, and the nativist campaign for Asian exclusion. Dan interviews Rick Baldoz on his remarkable book The Third Asiatic Invasion: Empire and Migration in Filipino America, 1898-1946. Please support this ... Show More
2h 12m
Nov 20
500th Episode Party w/ Brace and Liz
Featuring Brace Belden, Liz Franczak, Gabriel Winant, Aziz Rana, Sumaya Awad, Thea Riofrancos, and Alex Lewis. Toasts and roasts celebrating 500 episodes of The Dig. Plus a short speech from Dan. Live at Brooklyn's Littlefield. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Live Dig ... Show More
41m 3s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2024
The Army of Poets and Students Fighting a Forgotten War
<p><i>Warning: this episode contains descriptions of injuries.</i></p><p>Myanmar is home to one of the deadliest, most intractable civil wars on the planet. But something new is happening. Unusual numbers of young people from the cities, including students, poets and baristas, ha ... Show More
26m 10s
Apr 2021
A Military That Murders Its Own People
<p>Two months ago, Myanmar’s military carried out a coup, deposing the country’s elected civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and closing the curtains on a five-year experiment with democracy. </p><p>Since then, the Burmese people have expressed their discontent through protest and ... Show More
25m 45s
Jul 2021
The End of America’s 20-Year War
<p>After a 20-year war, the United States has effectively ended its operations in Afghanistan with little fanfare.</p><p>In recent weeks, the Americans have quietly vacated their sprawling military bases in the nation, and without giving Afghan security forces prior notice.</p><p ... Show More
30m 19s
May 2021
Two Soldiers, Ten Years
<p><i>This episode contains strong language and scenes of war that some may find distressing. </i></p><p>In 2010, James Dao, then a military affairs reporter for The New York Times, began following a battalion of U.S. soldiers headed for Afghanistan.</p><p>Two soldiers caught his ... Show More
48m 46s
Jan 2022
The Civilian Casualties of America’s Air Wars
<p>Four years ago, Azmat Khan, an investigative reporter for The Times Magazine, told us<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/podcasts/the-daily/airstrikes-isis-iraq-civilians.html"> the story of Basim Razzo</a>, whose entire family was killed in a U.S.-led airstrike in Ira ... Show More
36m 32s
Mar 2024
Atrocities in Myanmar
We start with the fallout from a brutal military coup in Myanmar, all but forgotten by the wider world, while atrocities playout in plain view. In a new investigation, correspondent Anna Coren examines videos that show two rebel PDF soldiers being tortured and killed, part of a p ... Show More
59m 7s
Jul 2023
NPR Investigation Reveals Flaws In U.S. Claims About Baghdadi Raid Casualties
Editor's note: This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence. The U.S. military has consistently maintained that its troops didn't harm civilians during the 2019 raid on the Syrian hideout of ISIS founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which lead to Baghdadi blowing himself up. I ... Show More
13m 19s
Aug 2021
Megan Stack on the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the perilous situation for journalists on the ground
Megan Stack, a contributor to The New Yorker, discusses her recent article about the Pentagon's "de-facto press blackout" in Afghanistan, plus the threats to members of the media in the country. She describes the U.S. military's concerns about how coverage of the troop withdrawal ... Show More
34m 46s
Sep 2021
Military Officials Recommended Trump, Biden Keep Troops In Afghanistan
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee today about the Afghanistan withdrawal. Each said that, before the Taliban's swi ... Show More
12m 54s