Episode #83: Bruce Riedel on "Lessons from America's Secret War in Afghanistan"
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 July 2014
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the election crisis in Afghanistan comes to a head, all eyes are once again on the future of Afghan democracy. But, America’s history in the region extends back much further than its nation-building efforts since September 2001. On Tuesday, at a Brookings launch of his newest book entitled, “What We Won: America’s Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979-1989,” Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow and Director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution, discussed lessons the United States can learn from its successful efforts in the 1970s and 1980s in Afghanistan. In his talk, Riedel discusses the why the American intelligence operation in Afghanistan in the 1980s was so successful, and what, if any lessons, the United States can apply to its ongoing operations in the country. Riedel also explored the complex personalities and individuals who shaped the war, and explains how their influence still affects the region today. Brookings Institution President Strobe Talbott provided introductory remarks and moderated the conversation.
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Transcript
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| 0:27.2 | and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.2 | The one big similarity is Pakistan, the huge similarity. |
| 0:39.5 | Pakistan back to the Mojahadine in the CIA in the 1980s. |
| 0:43.8 | Pakistan backs the Taliban today. |
| 0:47.1 | Rarely in one generation do you fight the same war over again but on opposite sides. |
| 0:53.5 | Essentially that's what we're doing and what I think is clear to say is it's a whole |
| 0:57.7 | lot easier to win when Pakistan is on your side and you're trying to overthrow the government |
| 1:03.4 | than it is when you're on the other side and you're trying to keep the government in power |
| 1:07.4 | and Pakistan is trying to super it. |
| 1:10.2 | The other lesson I would say is that it's critical to define the mission. |
| 1:17.3 | The mission that was given to the agency first by President Carter and then by Reagan |
| 1:22.4 | was clear, understandable, turn this into the Soviet Union's Vietnam and in that sense |
| 1:28.5 | it was relatively easy to do. |
| 1:31.8 | I'm Cody Poplin and this is the LawFair podcast for July 12, 2014. |
| 1:38.4 | That was Bruce Rydell you just heard. |
| 1:40.4 | Senior Fellow and Director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution. |
| 1:45.4 | Earlier this week Rydell spoke at a Brookings Institution launch of his newest book entitled |
| 1:50.5 | What We Want, America's Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979 to 1989. |
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