A Brief History of Lying About Afghanistan

Angry Planet

Matthew Gault

War, Politics, Conflict, Government, History, News

4.3 • 882 Ratings

🗓️ 27 August 2021

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Afghanistan. If you’re listening to this show you’ve probably been following the news. Despite what the Pentagon or White House will tell you, the evacuation isn’t going great. There is a dichotomy between what officials tell us and what’s actually happening that—in the age of mass communication—seems … insulting.

That dichotomy and how it affected America’s view of Afghanistan is at the heart of the new book—The Afghanistan Papers. Craig Whitlock, its author, is here with us today. Whitlock is an investigative reporter for The Washington Post who has covered America’s War on Terror since the beginning.

Recorded August 25, the day before the attacks.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Love this podcast support this show through the a cast supporter feature
0:05.1	It's up to you how much you give and there's no regular commitment. Just click the link in the show description to support now. People live in a world with their own making.
0:25.0	Frankly, that seems to be the problem.
0:31.0	Welcome to Angry Planet. Hello and welcome to angry planet. I'm Matthew Gault and I'm Jason Field.
0:47.0	Afghanistan. If you're listening to this show you've probably been following the news
0:52.0	despite what the Pentagon or the White House will tell you,
0:54.8	the evacuation doesn't seem to be going great.
0:57.9	There is a dichotomy between what officials tell us
1:01.4	and what's actually happening that in the age of mass
1:04.4	communication seems insulting and that dichotomy and how it affected America's
1:09.6	view of Afghanistan and the wider war is at the heart of a new book. The
1:14.4	Afghanistan Papers a secret history of the war. Craig Whitlock is its author and
1:19.3	he is here with us today. Whitlock is an investigative reporter for the Washington Post who has covered
1:24.5	America's War on Terror since its beginning. Craig, thank you so much for joining us.
1:30.0	Thanks very much for having me. Okay, a lot of what's in your book where we have got this political story where you know former State Department official accuses the White House of Gaslighting the American public. We've got lots of pictures from the DoD of the
1:46.8	evacuation process that look quite harrowing. We have a White House in a Democratic establishment that seemed to be saying that this is the best
1:55.3	evacuation that we've ever had. Literally, I'm quoting some senators and congresspeople now, that it could not have gone
2:02.0	any better. And this was always going to be the way Afghanistan ended.
2:06.0	What do you make of all of this kind of dichotomy?
2:10.0	Well, of course it could have gone a lot better. And clearly, the Biden administration
2:13.9	didn't plan for this sufficiently.
2:16.1	I think they thought they had a lot more time.
	...

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