and welcome to Unlimited Hangout. I'm your host. Over the past couple of weeks, the chaos in

Afghanistan has brought the country back to the forefront of American and international news in a way that we haven't seen in nearly two decades.

It has also created a rare situation in the U.S. media and political landscape, where all sides seem to agree that the Biden administration bears the responsibility

for what is widely viewed as a debacle, and I certainly will not be debating that point in this

episode. However, anytime there is such a rapid and dramatic consensus in American politics and

media, it gets my attention. This is especially true in this case, as the same consensus has also involved

the dramatic reversal of the U.S. media's treatment of Joe Biden, who, largely up until this

point, was praised by the mainstream media for his ice cream flavor preferences, and was enabled

by them to maintain the heavily scripted ruse that his presidency is not a sad exercise and elder

abuse. This lockstep shift in

consensus and also the way that the media has been portraying the Afghanistan withdrawal has

seemed a bit too scripted for my taste. There's also the fact that the U.S. Empire has been

prepping for the withdrawal from Afghanistan for some time now, with deals having been hammered out

between the Taliban and the CIA,

among other power players, since the so-called peace deal negotiations under Trump.

Even though Trump is no longer in office, I personally find it difficult to believe that,

quote-unquote, permanent organizations like the CIA would throw the results of those negotiations

completely out of the window just because of a changed administration,

especially with the U.S. troop withdrawal looming regardless of the change in the Oval Office that took place earlier this year.

Joining me to discuss what may well have been pre-planned chaos in Afghanistan is Tom Livongo.

Tom is the host of the popular Gold Goat's and Guns blog and podcast, and some of you may be

aware that I've been a guest on Tom's program a few times before. His content is regularly

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