Two weeks ago, we’ve seen the Taliban seize Kabul abruptly 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 warned of the humanitarian crisis that is now 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.
We met twenty years ago and organized together in the streets of Houston to stop the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like many others, the images of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban have been jarring to us and brought back memories and emotions from that time.
This past week, we’ve put out a three episode series of Green and Red Podcast episodes to document, discuss and process the history, politics and current events of the wars in Afghanistan.
In the first episode, we feature the story of whistle-blower and former drone operator Daniel Hale. Last month Hale was sentenced to 45 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to the Espionage Act. His alleged crimes were releasing documents related to the Obama Administration’s drone assassination program. We speak with Daniel’s close friend and Team Hale member Noor Mir to get the full story.
In the second episode, we do a deep background on the wars 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, 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 and the costs of war.
In the third episode, Scott talks with antiwar war veteran of the war in Afghanistan Graham Clumpner. They discussed the legacy of the war, the threat of the new Taliban regime, what the anti-war movements got wrong, the true costs of war and about the impacts of the end of the war on its veterans.
Our goal is to bring you radical politics, radical history and the voices of organizers taking action around the world. We’re small, but scrappy. Please continue to check out and support us with a donation, if you can.
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