The Real Story: Is the U.S. Actually Leaving Afghanistan? Part 2 of our Afghanistan and U.S. Imperialism series
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 15 April 2021
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Biden administration has announced that the United States will be withdrawing its troops from Afghanistan by September 11 of this year, and that this withdrawal will take place regardless of conditions on the battlefield. What's behind this move? Is the U.S. empire's longest war really coming to an end?
Continuing last week's episode about the history of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, Brian talks with Sohrob Aslamy, a doctoral student at Syracuse University in the Department of Geography and the Environment.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's time to end the Forever War. |
| 0:04.3 | With these words, Joe Biden has announced yesterday that the United States will withdraw all of its military forces from Afghanistan by the time of the 20th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. |
| 0:21.9 | We need a new system. We need a new society. We need to demand that which may have sounded |
| 0:28.0 | impossible even a few weeks ago, but is not only realizable, but an imperative necessity. Welcome to the Reader on The Socialist Program. |
| 1:00.5 | I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:02.1 | If you enjoy the show, please support this independent programming by going to patreon.com |
| 1:07.6 | forward slash the socialist program and subscribing. |
| 1:11.7 | We can do this show with you, but not without you. |
| 1:15.3 | Today is the second episode where we are having an in-depth discussion about the U.S. |
| 1:20.8 | war in Afghanistan, including its hidden history. |
| 1:25.3 | We're joined by Sorab Eslami, who is a doctoral student at Syracuse University |
| 1:30.4 | in the Department of Geography and the Environment. So Rob, welcome back. Thank you. Happy to be back. |
| 1:37.6 | Thank you. So, Rob, we had planned last week to have a second part of our discussion with you about Afghanistan. |
| 1:46.4 | The first part, I think, was very important for many people, at least in the United States, |
| 1:52.0 | who didn't know the hidden history, that the U.S. really began intervening in Afghanistan, |
| 1:59.1 | not in 2001, not with the 2001, October 7, 2001 invasion, but earlier in |
| 2:05.8 | 1978 with what was then, up until then, the largest CIA covert operation ever, |
| 2:12.0 | against what was a socialist government in Afghanistan. A lot of people didn't know that history. And then we said, |
| 2:19.9 | let's talk about the war going forward in a second episode. And in the meantime, since our first |
| 2:28.2 | recording, our great friend and brother Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General of the United States, and someone we've all |
| 2:36.4 | collaborated with, he was a key person helping to found the Answer Coalition in 2001, right after |
| 2:43.0 | the September 11th attacks. Ramsey sadly passed away, and we had said, okay, we'll wait one |
... |
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