Urban Warfare, Civilian Casualty, & Human Shields - John Spencer w' Jordan Peterson

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson sits down with urban warfare expert and scholar John Spencer. They discuss the ongoing war in Israel, the ideology of Hamas, their capture of western universities, the complexity of the tunnel system beneath Gaza, the underlying roots of anti-Semitism, and the reality of war in the mess of politics.

John Spencer is an award-winning scholar, professor, author, combat veteran, national security and military analyst, and internationally recognized expert and advisor on urban warfare, military strategy, tactics, and other related topics. Considered one of the world’s leading experts on urban warfare, he served as an advisor to the top four-star general and other senior leaders in the U.S. Army as part of strategic research groups from the Pentagon to the United States Military Academy.

This episode was recorded on June 4th, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4nbPsPia_g

- Chapters -

(0:00) Coming up
(0:34) Intro
(2:16) Urban warfare explained
(7:47) Problems with fighting out in the open
(13:21) The Gaza conflict: lawfare and hundreds of miles of tunnels
(17:32) The human shield strategy, academic capture
(20:25) Iran is the global exporter of terrorism, why the October 7th invasion failed
(24:30) The general population needs to be prepared to resist; Ukraine
(27:16) Hamas will sacrifice any number of its own people, “Martyrdom is the path”
(29:57) To what degree can you blame the indoctrinated for their actions?
(31:37) Planned propagandization
(34:01) The Israeli strategy, how to differentiate Hamas from the civilians
(37:33) How to know when Hamas has been defeated
(40:22) Optics: how social media became a tool in warfare
(47:17) Mitigating civilian casualty, evacuating cities
(55:08) The 10% who couldn’t leave
(1:00:20) The tunnels are a complex problem
(1:02:15) UN hypocrisy, UNRA in Gaza
(1:05:10) TikTok, how the algorithm aids terror
(1:09:52) All things considered, who is winning the war?
(1:14:05) Where are the Hamas leaders hiding?
(1:16:58) The roots of anti-Semitism, the canary in the coal mine
(1:20:21) The Abraham Accords still stand
(1:22:17) War is politics: perception and reality
(1:30:37) Are people swayed by evidence? The psychology of ideology