This past weekend, we saw the Taliban seize Kabul ending the 20 year war and occupation of Afghanistan. Afghan president Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The sudden and dramatic Taliban gains came as the U.S. withdrew its ground troops from Afghanistan. Aid groups are warning of a humanitarian crisis unfolding. Since January, nearly 400,000 have been displaced. Over 1,000 civilians have been killed or injured in fighting over the past month. The images of U.S. helicopters flying over the U.S. embassy brought back memories of the April 1975 evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Saigon.
Listen in: https://bit.ly/AfghanGandR
Bob and Scott bring you a deep background on U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. We talked about several issues, including the interventions by the Cold War hawk administrations of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, the importance of resources like Rare Earth Minerals in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and the “blowback” in Afghanistan of the U.S. funding of the mujahedin to fight the Soviets that led to the emergence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. As well as the costs of the war in Afghanistan since 2001.
This is the second of three episodes focusing on the forever wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
