How the US was defeated in Afghanistan
The Owen Jones Podcast
Owen Jones
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2021
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Afghanistan fall to the Taliban, we interview author and expert Anand Gopal to tell you everything you need to know - taking apart the idea the US forces were "the good guys", exposing the atrocities and human rights abuses they were responsible for, looking at the role played by US-backed militias, explaining the disaster of the so-called 'war on drugs' - and looking at what next for a country which has already suffered so much.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, this is Owen Jones and welcome to the podcast. Afghanistan is essentially now falling |
| 0:13.3 | under the total control of the Taliban. It's all but over. Now, how did we end up in |
| 0:20.0 | this catastrophic situation? Two decades since a the current phase of Western involvement |
| 0:27.1 | in Afghanistan, it goes back a very long time, but huge numbers of people have died. Huge |
| 0:32.2 | amounts of resources have been spent on this conflict and it ends with the Taliban |
| 0:36.8 | we taking the whole of Afghanistan. Now, we're joined by a brilliant guest today and |
| 0:42.6 | Andy Gopal, who I actually spoke to you before the latest events that he's an incredible |
| 0:47.5 | expert who knows about Afghanistan inside out. He spent a lot of time there and we spoke |
| 0:53.3 | about how we ended up in this situation, the disastrous consequences of the Western |
| 0:58.4 | intervention, why it was so calamitous, and also the consequences for the people on |
| 1:03.5 | the ground. And where next for Afghanistan? So we've got loads we spoke to him about. Do |
| 1:08.5 | you support us on patreon.com for us Owen Jones 84? You keep the show in the road and |
| 1:12.6 | do subscribe. Leave us a rating that always helps spread the word. With that said, I've |
| 1:16.7 | done please listen to and hands brilliant in size, insightful and incisive contributions. |
| 1:22.9 | So now, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate you taking your time to |
| 1:29.6 | talk to us about what's just happened in Afghanistan. So first off, very basic question. Has |
| 1:36.9 | the US been defeated in Afghanistan? Is that what the withdrawal represents? |
| 1:42.6 | Well, thanks for having me. It's absolutely clear that the US has been defeated. If you look |
| 1:47.6 | back at the US's initial aims, either to defeat the Taliban and to rid the country of what |
| 1:54.3 | it called Islamic extremism on the one hand, or to establish a functioning stable democracy |
| 1:59.2 | on both counts, it's completely been defeated. And when I say the US has been defeated, it |
| 2:04.7 | doesn't necessarily mean that any other side really has won. Now, it looks like the Taliban |
... |
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