Welcome to The Socialist Program.

This is the audio of our monthly seminar.

Subscribe and support this programming at patreon.com slash the Socialist Program to join live once a month and ask Brian Becker your questions and listen to them as soon as they come out.

Thanks so much for your help in keeping this independent show going.

We can make this program with you,

but not without you. I'd like to start with Afghanistan because it is the one year anniversary

since the end of the war. I was on a show last night. It's called The Heat. It's a TV show.

It's on CGTN, the English language Chinese global TV network.

And it was about the one year anniversary. And it was a half an hour program.

CGTN did a seven minute video with this guy who's, I can't remember his name, Sean, somebody.

But he used to be in the U.S. Diplomatic Corps.

He was in Afghanistan a long time.

He was one of the panelists, along with myself, on the show.

But the way the show opened was with a seven-minute video of him talking to Afghan civilians

around the country about what things were like one year later. And the thing that

everyone says to him is that they feel at peace, meaning they have security. And of course,

for everyone, security is so vital. People don't feel like they're going to be shot. They're

going to be kidnapped. They're going to be targeted by a drone strike.

There is real a sense of security. But there is a growing wave of real malnutrition and hunger

based on the fact that the international community, following the so-called international

community, following the lead of the United States, has for the most part cut off all ties with Afghanistan

or refused to allow Afghanistan to integrate into the world economy or have gone along

...