Today we are talking about Afghanistan.

The U.S. military has withdrawn and was defeated.

After 20 years, the United States, the world's largest empire was defeated in Afghanistan.

We're joined today by one of the leading experts on Eurasian politics and who has spent a lot of time in Afghanistan.

I'm talking about Pepe Escobar.

He is a really unique geopolitical analyst and journalist.

I always love reading his perspective.

I don't know anyone else who has such a unique perspective.

And is also a great

writer. It's always fun to read his literary style. And his latest article begins with a quote

from lyrics of From the Doors. So he's always a fun read. But Pepe is also a great guest to talk

about Afghanistan because Pepe has actually spent a lot of time in Afghanistan and actually was arrested by the Taliban.

There aren't a lot of journalists who can say that they were arrested twice, not once, but twice.

So I want to begin this discussion, Pepe, talking about an article that you just published, which is at Asia Times.

Pepe is a columnist.

He writes for several different outlets, but he just published a really good article at the Asia Times, which is a good overview of the U.S. defeat in Afghanistan. And it's called

the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan back with a bang. It's a good piece. It explains how the

Taliban took over the capital, Kabul, and they did it in a few days after 20 years of U.S.

military occupation. But what's interesting is that as he writes here, this is his

analysis, and this is what we want to talk about today with Pepe. We're also going to talk about

his reporting on the role of the CIA and the opium pipeline, opium ratline in Afghanistan.

We're going to talk about the role of pipelines in geopolitics and minerals.

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