Forty Years in Afghanistan (with Annie Pforzheimer)
Skullduggery
Michael Isikoff, Daniel Klaidman, Victoria Bassetti
4.0 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2021
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As US Troops and Afghan refugees are being evacuated from Afghanistan, media outlets are reflecting on the twenty year war that was. But the truth is, it's actually been forty. It dates back to the time when President Jimmy Carter signed a secret finding authorizing the CIA to funnel lethal weapons to the Mujahideen warriors who were resisting the Soviets. This was the arming of Islamic rebels who later became the Taliban. Our guest Annie Pforzheimer, former US diplomat who served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Afghanistan, gives us a harsh reality check on the situation currently going on lead by the Biden administration.
GUEST:
- Annie Pforzheimer (@pforzheimera), Deputy Chief of Mission in Afghanistan '17-'18
HOSTS:
- Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
- Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
- Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)
RESOURCES:
- Isikoff's latest article on Afghanistan - Here.
- Conspiracyland Season 3 Episode 3 (Afghanistan excerpt source) - Here.
- Yahoo News' Jon Ward article, Who are the Taliban today - Here.
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| 0:00.0 | So, do you don't think this could have been handled? |
| 0:03.6 | This acts could have been handled better in any way. |
| 0:06.6 | No mistakes? |
| 0:07.6 | No, I don't think it could have been handled in a way that we're going to go back and |
| 0:13.6 | hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos |
| 0:19.7 | ensuing. |
| 0:20.7 | I don't know how that happens. |
| 0:22.8 | I don't know how that happened. |
| 0:24.2 | So for you, that was always priced into the decision? |
| 0:26.7 | Yes. |
| 0:27.7 | That was President Biden in an interview this week with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, |
| 0:32.8 | defending his decision to abruptly pull US troops out of Afghanistan. |
| 0:37.8 | Biden in this and other comments says, contended that nobody could have anticipated the rapid |
| 0:42.8 | collapse of the Afghan government, resulting in the Taliban takeover in Kabul last weekend. |
| 0:49.1 | And the president has also argued he had no choice but to pull out because the Trump administration |
| 0:53.6 | had boxed him in by signing its own agreement last year to withdraw US troops by May of |
| 0:59.8 | this year. |
| 1:01.2 | But to Biden's arguments hold up, as the US military accelerates its efforts to evacuate |
| 1:06.1 | American citizens and thousands of desperate Afghans try to make their way to the Kabul |
| 1:11.4 | airport, we'll get a reality check from a former top US diplomat who served as deputy |
| 1:16.9 | chief of mission in Afghanistan. |
| 1:19.3 | I'm also playing excerpt from my recent conspiracy land podcast series that reminds us all American |
... |
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