Blood Work

We explore the modern history of putting big guns on wheels, then dive into the history of Chad and its border dispute with Libya to learn how a humble pickup truck became a quintessential weapon of war.

If you enjoyed this episode:
– Support Blood Work via Patreon
– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app
– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

Image: A Nigerien military convoy on a counter-terrorism patrol in the Sahara Desert (UNICEF)

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Tatmadaw’s Shiny Happy People Committee for Lo-Fi Beats to Study To
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

This week, we’re in Southeast Asia, jumping just over Thailand’s north-western border to Myanmar, where the ongoing civil war between the country’s military dictatorship and numerous armed groups across the country is showing slithers of hope that a resolution might be on the horizon, nestled amidst a morass of repression and violence which has persisted, practically uninterrupted, for over sixty years.

Sources:

Mario J. Azevedo (1998), Roots of Violence: A History of War in Chad
BBC News (July, 2006), ‘Profile: Chad's Hissene Habre’, available at BBC News
Antony Beevor (2006), The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
Michelle L. Burgis (2009), Boundaries of Discourse in the International Court of Justice: Mapping Arguments in Arab Territorial Disputes
Carla Chahrour (October, 2020), ‘The arrival of Toyota in Saudi Arabia’, available at Arab News Japan
Michael Ellmer (April, 2021), ‘The Great Toyota War: Birthplace of the Technical’, available at Grey Dynamics
Human Rights Watch (September, 2005), ‘“Africa's Pinochet” Faces Extradition and Trial for Crimes Against Humanity’, available at Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (June, 2016), ‘Enabling a Dictator: The United States and Chad’s Hissène Habré 1982-1990’, available at Human Rights Watch
Frank Jacobs (November, 2011), ‘The World’s Largest Sandbox’, The New York Times, available at The New York Times Archive
Roy May (1988), ‘Internal Dimensions of Warfare in Chad’, Cambridge Antropology (13:2), pp. 17-27
Jack Mulcaire (February, 2014), ‘The Pickup Truck Era of Warfare’, available at War on the Rocks
Le Monde (March, 1987), ‘TCHAD: le conflit avec la Libye Les nouvelles inquiétudes de Paris et de N'Djamena’, available at archive.today
Le Monde (March, 1987), ‘TCHAD: N'Djamena affirme que 1 269 soldats libyens ont été tués à Ouadi-Doum’, available at archive.today
Leigh Neville (2018), Technicals: Non-Standard Tactical Vehicles from the Great Toyota War to Modern Special Forces
Lodi News-Sentinel (April, 1987), ‘How Libya lost the battle for Wadi Doum’, available via Google News
Los Angeles Times (April, 1987), ‘Chad Troops Used Pickup Trucks to Foil Libyan Tanks’, available at Los Angeles Times Archives
LRDG, Long Range Desert Group, available at lrdg.hedgewisch.net

Michael Maren (1997), The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity
Sam C. Nolutshungu (1996), Limits of Anarchy: Intervention and State Formation in Chad
Pierre Péan (March, 2001), ‘Les preuves trafiquées du terrorisme libyen’, Le Monde Diplomatique, available at archive.today
Bryan Perret (April, 1979), ‘Ford Model T Patrol Car’, Airfix Magazine, available at Landships II
Kenneth M. Pollack (2002), Arabs at War: Military Effectiveness, 1948-1991
Kenneth M. Pollack (2019), Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness
Nathaniel K. Powell (2021), France’s Wars in Chad: Military Intervention and Decolonization in Africa
Reuters (March, 1987), ‘Chad is Said to Capture Strategic Air Base’, The New York Times, available via archive.today
Geoff Simons (2003), Libya and the West: From Independence to Lockerbie
Ravi Somaiya (October, 2010), ‘Why Rebel Groups Love the Toyota Hilux’, available at Newsweek
Chandra Lekha Sriram (February, 2013), ‘“Africa’s Pinochet” or the beginning of “Africa’s solutions”?’, available at Al Jazeera
Toyota Global, ‘75 Years of Toyota: Vehicle Lineage’, available at Toyota Global
Toyota Industries, ‘The Story of Sakichi Toyoda’ available at Toyota Industries
Simon Whistler (March, 2026), ‘The Great Toyota War: How Chad Won a War with Pickup Trucks’, available at War Fronts
Luc Wiesman (August, 2025), ‘How The Humble Toyota Hilux Became The World’s Most Deadly Warzone Vehicles’, available at DMARGE
Ignacio Yárnoz (2018), ‘Toyota wars and the next generation in counter insurgency strategies’, available at Universidad de Navarra Global Affairs and Strategic Studies

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

 

Blood Work’s EU Correspondent joins us to discuss Europe’s sclerotic struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing world, why NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is such a freak, and what the heck actually went down in Ceuta.

 

For more from Ciarán Dold:

– Follow him on Bluesky
– Listen to Corner Späti

– Follow CS on Instagram

– Visit operationglad.io

 

Image: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

 

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

If you enjoyed this episode:
– Support Blood Work via Patreon
– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app
– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

 

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Southern Discomfort

ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

For this week’s newsletter, we offer a brief overview of some of the violences plaguing the border regions of Thailand before taking a closer look at the twenty-year Malay separatist insurgency which has claimed thousands of lives in the country’s ‘Deep South’.

Hussein comes on to talk about the most important film of the COVID era that isn’t Christopher Nolan’s TENET.

For more from Hussein Kesvani

– Listen to Ten Thousand Posts and Trashfuture

– Order Vittles #3 to read his piece about how Muslim consumers have become central to the evolution of British food culture

– Follow Hussein on Bluesky

If you enjoyed this episode:
– Support Blood Work via Patreon
– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app
– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

Image: An image from a Japanese promotional poster for the film Eddington, depicting a cowboy hat fashioned out of tin foil.

 

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

 

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Collateral Famine
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

This week we presenting a report published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on fertiliser shortages produced by the US-Israeli war on Iran, and the looming threat of undernourishment, famine and starvation which is becoming increasingly inevitable the longer Trump’s disastrous war drags on.

This is a preview. To hear the entire episode and help Blood Work to survive and thrive, become a supporter on Patreon.

 

Molly from Weird Little Guys comes on to talk about the long thread connecting Confederates, Klansmen, Veterans and armed white power groups past and present.

 

For more from Molly Conger:

– Follow her on Bluesky
– Listen to Weird Little Guys

 

Image: Louis Beam attending a Klan rally in Santa Fe, Texas, in 1981. Dressed in a Klan robe, he is using a torch to ignite a small fishing boat labelled ‘U.S.S. Viet Cong’

 

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

If you enjoyed this episode:
– Support Blood Work via Patreon
– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app
– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

 

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: Little Marco’s Temper Tantrum

ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

This week, we take a look at Marco Rubio’s declaration of war against the International Criminal Court in the Wall Street Journal, and interject with some running commentary to his frothing-mouthed raving to explain what might really be under his bonnet. (Featuring some commendable theatrics courtesy of Thomas O’Mahony.)

Brian and Josh enter the Blood Zone to explain how Christian conservatives were transformed into one of the most powerful blocs in contemporary US politics.

 

For more from Josh Boerman and Brian Alford:

– Listen to their podcast, The Worst of All Possible Worlds

– Listen to Josh’s podcast with June Sternbach, Ill Conceived

– Follow Josh, Brian, TWOAPW and Ill Conceived on Bluesky

 

Image: President George W. Bush attending a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the White House on May 3, 2007. Seated beside him are Dr. James Dobson (founder of the right-wing evangelical organisation Focus on the Family) and his wife Shirley.

 

Blood Work is a Scam Goldin Production
This episode was produced by Thomas O’Mahony
Our theme song is ‘Dream Weapon’ by Genghis Tron
Our artwork is provided courtesy of KT Kobel

If you enjoyed this episode:
– Support Blood Work via Patreon
– Leave a rating or review on your podcast app
– Follow us on Bluesky / Instagram / Twitter

 

THIS WEEK IN VIOLENCE: The Eleventh Night
ALSO AVAILABLE IN AUDIO

For this week’s newsletter we’re returning to Northern Ireland to examine a recent story about alleged hate crimes being perpetrated in connection with traditional Loyalist celebrations. (Yes, shocker.)