Are the Forever Wars Really Forever?
War on the Rocks
War on the Rocks
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2020
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
America has been at war since the fall of 2001. There is no end in sight in Afghanistan, Mesopotamia and the Levant, and beyond. What political and strategic disincentives have stalled Washington's ability to responsibly end its involvement in these wars under Republican and Democratic administrations? After spraying down our studio with grain alcohol to kill the virus afflicting the world (Everclear is the unofficial sponsor of this episode, as is an excellent northern Italian vineyard called Paltrinieri), we convened a great group to grapple with the forever wars: Paul Miller of Georgetown, Sarah Kreps of Cornell, and Will Ruger of the Charles Koch Institute and Foundation.
Further reading:
- Paul Miller, Withdrawal Deadlines in War (Atlantic Council, 2020)
- Sarah Kreps, Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018)
- Will Ruger, "With U.S. Strategy on the Rocks, We Are Supporting Fresh Perspectives Fresh Perspectives in Foreign Policy," War on the Rocks
- Paul Miller, "How Does Jihadism End? Choosing Between Forever War and Nation Building," War on the Rocks
- John Kaag and Sarah Kreps, Drone Warfare (Polity, 2014)
- Sarah Kreps, Coalitions of Convenience: United States Military Interventions after the Cold War (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the War on the Rocks podcast on Strategy, Defense and Foreign Affairs. |
| 0:15.5 | My name is Ryan Evans, I'm the CEO of War in the Rocks. |
| 0:18.3 | In this episode we talk about Forever Wars. |
| 0:20.4 | America has been at war since the fall of 2001 and with no end in sight in many places across the world. |
| 0:26.0 | What is keeping us in these wars across Republican and Democratic administrations? |
| 0:30.0 | How can we make hard choices to bring them to an end? Is it even possible? |
| 0:34.0 | We got a great group for you. I'll let them introduce themselves. |
| 0:37.0 | My name is Paul Miller. I'm a professor of the practice of international affairs at Georgetown University. |
| 0:44.0 | I previously spent about 10 years in the U.S. government, including at the CIA and the NSC, |
| 0:49.2 | at the NSC as director for Afghanistan and Pakistan. |
| 0:51.6 | I'm Sarah Kreps. I'm a professor of government and |
| 0:54.6 | law at Cornell University and a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution. |
| 0:58.7 | I'm Will Ruger from the Charles Koch Institute and the Stand Together community and also a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. |
| 1:06.7 | We're here to talk about forever wars. |
| 1:08.8 | So it's become sort of a slogan and a rallying cry for those who are weary of, tired of, critical of these |
| 1:17.9 | seemingly endless commitments in the greater Middle East and in Afghanistan and the Mesopotamia, |
| 1:24.4 | as well as a host of other sort of brush fire wars |
| 1:26.8 | were involved in in one way or another |
| 1:28.2 | in lots of different places. |
| 1:30.7 | Paul, you are critical of this idea of this of this sort of slogan and I'd love to start with you to hear more about why. |
| 1:37.0 | Thanks Ryan I think all of us I hope are critical of the idea of Forever Wars. |
| 1:43.4 | Nobody wants war to last forever. |
... |
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