How Afghanistan Ended Like This

What Next | Daily News and Analysis

Slate Podcasts

Daily News, News, News Commentary

4.3 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2021

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

American forces are leaving Afghanistan after 20 years of fighting the country’s longest war. Following a hasty withdrawal of U.S. forces, the Taliban now controls most of the country, including the capital of Kabul. The U.S.-backed government has fled, leaving many civilians desperate to find a way out. How did things get so bad so quickly? Guest: Fred Kaplan, Slate’s War Stories columnist. Kaplan is the author of The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:09.0	In Kabul, on Sunday night, hundreds of people rushed across an airport tarmac to board planes out of Afghanistan.
1:17.0	There were no lines, there was no indirecting foot traffic.
1:24.0	People held hands as they snaked through the crowd, shouting over the din, clutching children.
1:30.0	Others climbed awkwardly into the back of a US cargo jet.
1:34.0	By daybreak, young men could be seen sprinting down a runway alongside a military plane as it prepared for lift-off.
1:43.0	Some of the men had clasped their bodies onto the sides of the jet, desperate to flee their country as the Taliban asserted control.
1:51.0	It's a tragic and largely preventable situation.
1:56.0	Fred Kaplan writes the war stories column for slate.
1:59.0	We spoke Monday morning, a day after Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani fled the country, and Kabul fell to the Taliban.
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