For 20 years, I saw no peace

Reveal

The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX

News

4.7 • 8K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2021

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We open with a story from Aysha, a Kabul resident in her mid-twenties, who we’ve been checking in with over the past few months. Aysha was born in Pakistan. Her parents fled Afghanistan after the Taliban rose to power in the mid 90’s. Then, after the 2001 invasion by the U.S. and other allies, her family returned to Afghanistan. They saw the war as an opportunity to reclaim their country. Now though, 20 years later, Aysha feels betrayed. She likens it to a doctor leaving in the middle of surgery: “I opened your heart. I fixed your heart bleeding. Now you stitch back yourself.” Our story follows Aysha throughout the final U.S. withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power.

Then, Al talks with Fariba Nawa, an Afghan journalist based in Turkey, who is fielding calls from desperate people who are trying to flee Afghanistan. She talks about the uncertain future women face under the Taliban and the moral responsibility the U.S. has to accept refugees from the war we’ve waged for 20 years.

Since the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan, more than 800,000 Americans served in the war. James LaPorta is a former Marine who first arrived in Afghanistan in 2009. He describes the fighting, fear, and uncertainty he faced during two tours of duty and how after coming home, he has “the burden of memory.” He notes war doesn’t end with the signing of a treaty or the last day of combat, as everyone affected by the violence is still dealing with its aftermath.

Reveal producer Najib Aminy watched the fall of Kabul on TV, sitting next to his parents, who left Afghanistan for New York in the 1970s. Najib talks with one of Afghanistan’s most treasured poets, Abdul Bari Jahani, who wrote the country’s national anthem. Jahani says the anthem carries a message of unity and justice for the Afghan people.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Alan. I hope 2022 has been a good year for you. But to be honest, it's been a tough one for us.
0:08.0	This year, Reveal was struck by a financial crisis that jeopardized our very existence.
0:14.0	But we've rallied, and all the while that was happening, our staff forged ahead to produce ambitious investigations
0:22.0	that exposed corruption and abuses that the powerful interests did not want revealed.
0:27.0	Because that's what we do. If we're going to keep telling these kind of stories though, we're going to need support from you.
0:34.0	To support fearless investigative nonprofit journalism, please donate by December 31st.
0:41.0	Just visit revealnews.org slash 2023. Again, to donate to the show and to support our work into the future.
0:48.0	Please visit revealnews.org slash 2023. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
1:05.0	From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is reveal. I'm Al Etzah.
1:12.0	America's longest war is over. And now, 20 years after countless deaths and $2 trillion in spending, Afghanistan is back in the hands of the Taliban.
1:26.0	Many people are remembering the fall of Saigon in 1975, but this week's rapid fall of Kabul has brought its own unforgettable images, now seared into our memories.
1:46.0	Thousands of Afghans flooding into the Kabul airport desperate to flee.
1:51.0	Gut wrenching scenes of crowds of people running alongside and clinging on to an American military plane as it gathered speed across the runway.
2:01.0	In that video that went viral of bodies falling off the plane and plummeting through the air seconds after it took off.
2:10.0	This is how it ended.
2:12.0	Our mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to be a nation building. It was never supposed to be creating a unified centralized democracy.
2:22.0	Our only vital national interest in Afghanistan remains today what has always been. Preventing an terrorist attack on America and homeland.
2:32.0	But when President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan where the Taliban had been harboring Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, he had a very different vision about the U.S. mission.
2:44.0	America not only fights for our security, but we fight for our values we hold dear. We strongly reject the Taliban way.
2:55.0	We strongly reject their brutality toward women and children.
3:02.0	He promised the U.S. would defeat the Taliban and help rebuild a stable and peaceful country.
3:09.0	American or allies will do our part in the rebuilding of Afghanistan. We learned our lessons from the past. We will not leave until the mission is complete.
	...

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