Saying Goodbye to Afghanistan

Afghanistan. U.S. troops have been leaving for years, fast, then slowly, then fast again. There is some kind of peace deal between the United States and the Taliban, but it doesn’t involve peace. The Afghan government isn’t even a party to it.

Russia—which lost its own war in Afghanistan a generation ago--may have been paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops.

Soon, though, Afghanistan will ostensibly be on its own again. What’s next, aside from more war, of course.

To help us understand all of this, we have Kathy Gannon. She is a veteran reporter with the Associated Press based in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She witnessed the Taliban’s victory in 1996, the U.S. invasion in 2001, and has won numerous awards for her work. She is the author of I is for Infidel: From Holy War to Holy Terror in Afghanistan.

• Recorded 7/21/20
• The lay of the land
• What the Taliban wants
• Taliban VS Kabul 
• The strength of Afghanistan’s warlords
• Rumors of bounties on U.S. soldiers
• No one wants chaos in Afghanistan

War College has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.

https://warcollege.substack.com/

You can listen to War College on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is warcollegepodcast.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/warcollegepodcast/; and on Twitter: @War_College.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit angryplanetpod.com/subscribe