101 - Nicholas Grossman - The Crisis in Afghanistan

Two for Tea Podcast

Nicholas’s book, Drones and Terrorism: Asymmetric Warfare and the Threat to Global Security (2018) can be found here: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/drones-and-terrorism-9781838608439/ Subscribe to Arc Digital: Arc Digital For more relevant writing by Nicholas, see the following articles: https://www.arcdigital.media/p/every-option-in-afghanistan-was-bad https://medium.com/arc-digital/americas-predictable-avoidable-unnecessary-syrian-disaster-f0e1292e9449 https://warontherocks.com/2019/04/trump-cancels-drone-strike-civilian-casualty-report-does-it-matter/ https://medium.com/arc-digital/el-paso-was-terrorism-dayton-wasnt-and-why-that-matters-9b01a2ed2d94 https://medium.com/arc-digital/the-forever-war-keeps-going-76844f9ae16e https://medium.com/arc-digital/qanon-woke-up-the-real-deep-state-72bbfcb79488 Follow Nicholas on Twitter: @Ngrossman81 Timestamps 0:56 Intro 3:08 Background to the situation; Trump’s handling of the withdrawal from Syria 7:48 Have the Taliban reneged on their agreement with Trump 8:59 The nature of the US presence in Afghanistan 18:08 20 years of at least some Afghans having a freer life; treatment of women in Afghanistan 21:00 What is your explanation for the evacuation flights being mostly men? 28:08 The connections between the Taliban and Al Qaeda 35:49 The Taliban is not simply "local culture"!; but what extent are the Taliban aided by local sympathisers? 44:52 More on the withdrawal; why weren’t people working with the west taken out earlier? 53:58 What are your viewpoints on reluctance to issue visas to Afghans 1:06:51 Thought on US withdrawing from everywhere possible; did the US create the Taliban? 1:16:29 What is your sense of the short and medium term future of Afghanistan?