Talk:Gary Brecher

message: __TOC__
Is Chuck Mertz's 30-odd-minute interview last Saturday really the only time anybody's talked to this guy?  Anyway, the interview is at http://server.wnur.org/thisishell/archive/pods/20080405.mp3 -- it's the second interview in the show. Fang2415 (talk) 22:58, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Stylistically, there are definite differences between the major writers and there's no mistaking Brecher for Ames or Dolan.  
I disagree. Strongly. This is really a no-brainer, it was Ames that channelled the War Nerd, and no mistake. Ames' signature is all over the War Nerd. Not only did His Nerdness exhibit the unique Amish touch on the keyboard, but his range of expertise was the same, several observations about I/P and security politics are replicated in both authors' articles. I suspect Ames used Gary Brecher at a time when he didn't want his left wing cred tainted by his fascination for armed conflicts. This is useless in a Wiki, I know, and sorry for using this page to bicker. But OT, why does this page look so weird? Normally, there's an edit-button atop each section of the on the talk page. //roger.duprat.copenhagen  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.212.11.150 (talk) 02:50, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

message: a larger, more zoomed out version of the eXile site's picture appears, as pointed out by Nat Krause, at http://www.ehem.no/bilder/nerd.jpg.  But GIS also turns up the picture in another context: this dutch forum post.  translation anyone?  Note that the war nerd's first column, dated 21 Apr 02, predates the forum post by almost a year.  The post seems consistent with the idea of the photo being a stock nerd shot Dsol 09:00, 6 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Look what I found! 

message: I did a little pruning of wordiness and I might do a bit more.  I tend to laziness in the way of sources, but I'll try.  I didn't put it in, but the SIC! section of the Exile has said 3 or 4 times that the War Nerd is working on a book.  
I've read the Exile comprehensively.  Taibbi is not the war nerd...he doesn't know enough about war.  I mean, this ain't proven, but I'm fairly sure.  Ames has been writing a book and speeded out for the last couple years, which has shown in mediocre articles.  Dolan has been writing a book too.  However I'm prepared to say with almost total certainty, that neither Ames nor Taibbi are the War Nerd. 
However Dolan, in his book I read, mentions studying war material while in school in the mid-seventies at UC Berkeley.  Considering the incongruity of a 12 year old studying Jane's manuals in 1979 (not impossible) this seems to be the strongest indication that John Dolan is the war nerd.  In conjunction with the fake photo, Dolan's total nerdiness, fatness, and familiarity with California, etc., it's suggested.  
However my experience with Dolan's style totally contradicts this.  In addition it's tough to imagine him penning the recent "American Nationalism," article, considering Dolan's ideological awareness.
--Urb
:I like the change in style.  I'm fixing a spot of grammar here and there, and putting back in the quote about how he surfs war news at work, I like that little bit of info. Dsol
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Okay, so here's
http://www.exile.ru/2001-October-18/feature_story.html
a Dolan "war nerd" article.  It's significant he hasn't contributed anything in this style since then.  He calls himself a "war nerd," also asserts near the end "Turks are cool," and refers to a "lake of glass" (a book of revelation reference), both recently invoked by the War Nerd.  He espouses the basic "politics" of the War Nerd, also, obviously.  
Edit--I seem to be the War Nerd nerd, but it occurs to me the Dolan "war nerd"-reminiscent article was "helped" along by Mark Ames.  That the two of them could be to some degree collaborating on these is possible.  But I think it equally possible it's an independent author. 
Let history judge.
--Urb
:Very cool find.  I started on article on Dolan, and intend to work on it soon.  This should definitely go into the is Gary Brecher Real section, though.  Dsol 13:24, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  More Edits 

message: I like the quotes, but I don't think they should all be about the Iraq war. Dsol 21:32, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  New Quotes 

message: While I like the extra info (and just because it's circumstantial doesn't mean we can't put it in, this isn't a court of law), I agree that it has to be taken out for now, since its compilation and analysis constitutes original research.  If we can find an in depth analysis on some website or even a weblog, though, it should go back in. Dsol 17:06, 18 September 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  shorter version of "Is Gary Brecher Real" 

message: Am I missing something here?  These are all promotional photos released for public consumption to spread awareness etc. etc., so I think this constitues fair use.  We have a specific fair use tag for promophotos in fact.  The only one that seems even slightly debatable to me as fair use is the zoomed out version of the eXile photo, but this appeared on a promotional bio page as well.  I would further like to request that:
*Anyone who has further reason to delete these not misalign the remaining images to their titles.
*Anyone who wishes to delete theses images mentions something on the talk page about the fair use issue, and allows for some brief discussion before deleting.
Dsol 02:01, 21 September 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: I tagged logo for the War Nerd as "possibly infringing", because anon user 69.253.195.228 has suggested the Diet Coke can in the image may be a copyvio. --Fxer 00:52, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of Images 

message: I found more evidence that John Dolan is Gary Brecher:
http://www.exile.ru/articles/detail.php?ARTICLE_ID=6609&IBLOCK_ID=35
This sounds like something Gary Brecher could have written.  The Mongols of yore sound like Gary's type of people.
Sure, a number of John Dolan's columns have more literary references than Gary Brecher's; but Gary Brecher could be a "character" and John Dolan could be writing "in character" if he were writing War Nerd columns.  It might be a lot of fun for a literary guy to pretend to be a war-loving slob now and then.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.237.215.179 (talk) 03:31, 16 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Even more fuel for the fire -- watch out VDH 

message: I've removed a fair bit of self-referntial and scyophantic material from the article.  Heading like "The legend" and extensive lists of quotes are not encyclopedic in tone.  I've also removed most of the material that can only be verified from the exile website itself, as we're required to only reproduce material from primary sources that can also be confirmed via secondary sources. - brenneman{L}  23:53, 21 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Trim for encyclopedic tone 

message: The guy he [Mark Greuter] was looking to work for was Pat Buchanan. 
The same guy whose magazine publishes the War Nerd.
--Sic in The eXile (2006 June 29 issue)
http://www.exile.ru/2006-June-29/your_letters.html
:I think they are being facetious. zafiroblue05 | Talk 21:25, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  War Nerd published by The American Conservative? 

message: Is anyone reminded of Joe Bob Briggs? 67.117.130.181 10:01, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dolan theory 

message: Brecher's Real, man! He just remains obscure so the ex-hippies he works with won't try to get him fired. (and VDH won't try to get a restraining order against him)
--71.141.102.54 06:42, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Brecher Real 

message: I decided to compile some sources and arguments which would demonstrate that Gary Brecher, John Dolan and Mark Ames are different writers. Here goes:
John Dolan rages against Colonialism:
Whitewash on the Dark Continent by John Dolan
http://www.exile.ru/2006-February-24/whitewash_on_the_dark_continent.html
“Now Meredith performs the same service for Westerners who might feel a wee little twinge of conscience about their role in the mess that is Africa. That's not surprising. What does surprise me is how crudely it is done, and how successful sheer crude whitewashes seem to be these days.
Meredith's most powerful trick is so obvious I can't believe no mainstream reviewer has noticed it. He rigs the game by starting the story of each African country's fall into chaos at the moment of "independence"--that is, the day when the colonial occupier decided to dump a particular swath of African land it had been exploiting over several generations.
This is like starting the biography of a woman who's been gangraped and shot as she lies in Intensive Care, her vital signs fading. Clearly, she just didn't have the will to live. Nobody's fault but hers.
Of course, Meredith realizes he can't entirely airbrush the fact of colonialism. Too many people have at least a vague idea that some not-quite-cricket deeds were done by Victoria's darlings, those brave, sunburnt pederasts in pith helmets who "explored" Africa via enslavement, expropriation and massacre.
So Meredith does what any smart propagandist would do: he compresses that long nightmare story of multiple genocides, mass rape, slave raids and degradation into a 14-page "Introduction." “
His anti-colonialism rant goes on and on: just read the article.
“I get tired of saying this, and I'm sure many readers are far more tired of hearing me say it. But somebody has to, and at the moment the publishing world seems to consist solely of credulous American reviewers and Tory liars working day and night to convince them that the Empire was the best thing that every happened to Wog-dom, and the whole 20th-century "independence" guff nothing but flim-flam.”
“Of course, that last clause is true enough; Africa is a fearful mess, no doubt. But it's disingenuous at best to pretend that its problems began when the rapists shot their loads and left, sniggering. In fact, "disingenuous" my ass. It's a filthy, calculated lie designed to exonerate the Empires who perpetrated the most protracted and cruel exploitation of conquered peoples in history.”
“How can you DO this, Mister Meredith? How can you sleep after writing filth like this book? Don't you have any decency at all?”
Compare this point of view to this:
Columbia: A Hundred Years of Slaughtertude by Gary Brecher
http://exile.ru/148/148152003.html
“Colombians have been killing each other since the Spanish came ashore and got to work hacking the local Indians into extinction. The only thing that's changed in the 400 years since then is they've been getting better at it every century.”
Massacres Paid Your Mortgage, Dude by Gary Brecher
http://www.exile.ru/2005-July-01/war_nerd.html
“Where do you live? Now answer fast: Who lived there 300 years ago? The reason you can live there without asking some chief's permission is that your tribe wiped out their tribe. Primitive warfare paid the mortgage on your house, dude. And it happened every bit as cold-bloodedly as it's happening in Africa right now.
Take Montana. Now it's vacation land for every Hollywood leftie but 150 years ago it was up for grabs. As the Anglos muscled in on them, North American tribes fought, negotiated or ran. The ones who fought lost. They won some battles along the way, but they were little tribes against the Anglos, the biggest and scariest tribe in the world. The ones who negotiated knew from the start that the stronger tribe always takes what it wants, sooner or later. The ones who ran faced the same old problem: the only places you could run to were already claimed by other tribes. The only solution, in the simple hard rules of primitive warfare, was to wipe out the other tribe.”
“Us Americans can't seem to face facts like that. We're not as consciously cold-blooded or clearheaded as the Brits, who did hundreds of Wounded Knees all over the world without flinching, and without losing any sleep either.
We had to lie to ourselves about it -- first one lie, then the opposite one. Right after the "battle" of Wounded Knee, Congress went into a frenzy of patriotic bullshit. They handed out more than a dozen Congressional Medals of Honor, the highest decoration our country has, to troopers who died in the "fight," even though most accounts of the battle agree that the Cav's casualties were almost certainly caused by friendly fire. The troopers had made one of the most basic mistakes you can make in an ambush. They surrounded the Sioux encampment from all sides, so when they started firing, anything that missed its target (and that included two Hotchkiss rapid-fire cannon that could get off almost a round per second) was likely to hit the troopers across the way.”
“It really pisses me off, the way these Kevin Costner types romanticize rebel tribes, once they're safely annihilated. It's been happening for hundreds of years, too. The Brits totally wiped out the Scottish Highland tribes -- and they were tribes -- after they rebelled in 1745. It was merciless, classic primitive warfare: men hanged on the battlefield, farms burned to the ground, kids dragged away to be trained as Englishmen, the native Scottish language and songs forbidden by law. And then, once they were sure the Highlanders were gone, the English started romanticizing everything about them, even those dumb skirts the Highland men wore because they were too dumb to make pants that fit.
When I was growing up, my teachers tried to make the Sioux into saints and the Seventh Cav into murderers. I had to read that Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee book in high school, and if my teacher had heard me even hint that it wasn't a good vs. evil story, she'd have expelled me on the spot. Everybody had a great time crying for the poor Indians -- but I noticed nobody said anything about giving them California back.”
That is way, way too close to home for John Dolan’s fancy. That is a legitimization of English domination in Scotland! Comparisons between the Brits and Americans, where the Brits are described as being ‘cold-blooded’ and this in a favorable way, are found in several other of Brecher’s articles.
Degree of Nuance and Extent of Literary References
Colombia: A Hundred Years of Slaughtertude by Gary Brecher
http://exile.ru/148/148152003.html
“Killing is like the only way you can make a point in Colombia. Take soccer. We all know foreigners get a little crazy about soccer -- hooligans, riots, all that. But Colombians do it their way -- none of that noise and drunken chair-throwing crap you get with English hooligans. Colombians say it with bullets.”
The World’s Most Overrated Poets: Vol. 1 by John Dolan
http://www.exile.ru/2007-February-08/a_is_for_auden_alas.html
“The stanza is full of such prosodic gaffes, like the fact that Auden has to rechristen the deceased "William Yates" to squeeze him into his deal coffin. The man was often called "Yeats" but when more formally addressed insisted on all three names, "William Butler Yeats"; knocking out the middle name is simply Auden's home carpentry in verse at work. Indeed, the whole structure of this first stanza is maudlin, hackneyed bathos, a crude example of the most debased genre in poetry, the elegy for the illustrious dead.”
Stepmother War by John Dolan
http://www.exile.ru/2004-April-29/book_review.html
'Yet, for all the superficial resemblance to Nam books, Zinky Boys is unlike any American war
 memoir. The differences are easy to spot, but hard to explain. Some you'd expect: for one thing, the editor can hardly make a point without quoting Dostoevsky, Lermontov, Berdyayev or Tolstoy. You don't find that sort of literary figure quoted much in the typical Nam memoir. Hendrix is about as close to high culture as they usually get.'
The Research Behind War Nerd Articles
I agree with some people who have posted here that the overlap between Gary Brecher, John Dolan and Mark Ames is interesting. One of the reasons I think Gary Brecher is not a character is because of the research that goes into the articles and the way the histories are recounted. There is a lot of web research that goes into these articles. One time I used the infos given in an article to find sources about wars in Ethiopia- it was difficult! I suggest everyone try it out for themselves to find a clear narrative of something like the recent civil war in Liberia- really try researching it! It’s difficult! 
Firstly, the sources are rarely objective or complete. You can come across sources favoring one side or the other- secondly the sources often lack context, just being lists of names or events removed from the big picture. The only conclusion I can reach is that the War Nerd is a person adept at research, who does it for reasons of personal enjoyment, and writes these articles simply as a reflection upon the research, which he would do anyway because of his interest in the subject. 
On the topic of whether Brecher could be a combination of Ames and Dolan, working together, I think its suggested by the article entitled “Cleanse the World”, where Dolan, collaborating with Ames, steps away from his normal whiney self-pity trip and paints a cartoon picture of him blowing up the world. He even writes: “Oh, my poor naive war-nerd brothers, how could you ever have dreamed that Bush, or Limbaugh, or that second-rate CEO, that GM Board-of-Directors second-stringer, Donald Rumsfeld, ever shared our dreams?” That’s disturbing for two reasons- it uses the word War-Nerd in 2001, before War Nerd as a columnist existed. Secondly, he uses the formulation “Oh my brothers” from Clockwork-Orange, which is later used in War Nerd’s classic article on Victor Davis Hanson. Borrowing formulations from each other is an argument in favor of Dolan-Ames being Brecher. 
Has anyone seen this article?
http://prague.tv/articles/zine/warnerd
Whats interesting is that at the end of the article, it says:
“Gary Brecher, a.k.a. “The War Nerd,” is a columnist at Moscow’s The eXile newspaper (exile.ru). He can be reached at letters@pill.cz”
Why would Brecher ask that emails be sent to the Prague Pill, an old ezine, instead of giving his address at eXiLe, in 2002? I checked out some of the contributors to the Pill but none of them seemed to write anything similar to War Nerd- even a semi-well researched article on the history of Semtex upon further research proves to be written by people of a very different bent (Zaitchik and Koyen). 
My final observation is this: neither Dolan nor Ames could be the War Nerd alone. Dolan is too bookish and caught up in himself, and too much a pacifist, and too virulently anti-colonialist. Ames is too much a confused drug-user to need to satisfy his curiosity by researching obscure conflicts. 
Together, I also don’t think they could be the War Nerd. On the basis that they are both so lazy, and it would be a masterpiece of rhetorical posturing if they were to collaborate for 118 articles without some of the articles being visibly schizophrenic. The ‘voice’ in all the articles is the same. The ‘voice’ is consistant with a non-academic, amateur war historian of rightist political leanings, with perhaps limited life-experience, and an amoral Hobbesian world view. Had Dolan been writing, there would be some nuanced, poetic flourish somewhere, which would have slipped past whatever censor was being conducted. Was Ames writing, there would have been some of his prankishness, and his juvenile humor, which would have slipped through somewhere. E. Veklevsen 22:56, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Interesting reading. But the perfect definition of OR. We will likely have to remain unknowing.MadMaxDog 06:27, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gary Brecher vs. Dolan Ames 

message: Gary Brecher it is.
All "War Nerd" articles are now have "By Gary Brecher" clearly written. Not that anybody had any doubts for years by now :).  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.42.19.35 (talk) 11:11, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Well, it's official now. 

message: I don't really know how much this actually matters, it's just a matter of trivia I think, but here's something I just found that I think people involved in the discussions here might find interesting. 
a friend of mine sent an email to brecher and got it bounced back because the mailbox was full, as it would turn out the mail being sent to war_nerd@exile.ru is being re-directed to dolan@exile.ru. I tried sending an email myself and managed to duplicate the effect. they're just email addresses but they would have set this up several years ago for convenience's sake I would think. I've got full headers if people want them. http://xs229.xs.to/xs229/08291/snap1572.jpg Pajari (talk) 06:39, 14 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some new evidence: Dolan's the man 

message: View Dolan's new biography at his university: http://www.auis.biz/?q=node/306
"Dolan has published seven books, such as The War Nerd, Pleasant Hell, and People with Real Lives Don’t Need Landscapes  as well as hundreds of articles and reviews under his own name and several others. In addition, he has been interviewed on NPR, Radio NZ, Radio Moskva, and has been reviewed by outlets all over the world."  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.113.23.44 (talk) 11:18, 8 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It's "official", their articles should be merged. http://exiledonline.com/dylan-ratigan-talks-shop-with-the-war-nerd-about-libya-on-radio-free-dylan/ FunkMonk (talk) 03:18, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree completely. Gonna be kind of a pain to do though. dsol (talk) 10:27, 31 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dolan Cops to being War Nerd 

message: ...if it is notable at all it should at least be done from scratch...stylistically among the worst article in english-wp... :(  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Paranoid Android1208 (talk • contribs) 21:51, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Abortion of this article 

message: Article should be merged into John Dolan (writer). Brecher is a pen name of Dolan. Any objections? --RaiderAspect (talk) 04:34, 20 June 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: See above, as well as the introductions to the "War Nerd Wednesdays" here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nsfwcorp/id525138925?mt=2 FunkMonk (talk) 07:44, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

text: And as text: https://www.nsfwcorp.com/dispatch/welcome-the-war-nerd/ FunkMonk (talk) 00:53, 26 December 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Incidentally, the recent edit to this page reverted was neither nor unsourced nor speculation, however I appreciate your concern you are no doubt well apprised with that I don't get hurt myself.  Good looking out.  Incidentally, please remove the 'article outdated, please add info' box at top of page, since this is obviously no longer the case.  Thanks again 55378008a (talk) 03:32, 11 February 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: "I think the push to publicize what may or may not be this guys real name is a potential violation" as the links above show, online shows he has been on have identified him as being both, so you can be pretty sure it was with his consent. FunkMonk (talk) 20:22, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: @Chuntuk Thanks. Just to be nitpicky, and to be clear you are under no obligation to respond to the troll here, but I wasn't aware consent voids the policy.  Sorry about the snark, and just want to congratulate you on absolutely astounding work on the dinosaurs and pigeons. 55378008a (talk) 12:53, 31 December 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merger 

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thread_title:  External links modified