June 19, 2009

The Great Terror Bazaar

"We're fighting in Afghanistan so that the Taliban don't attack New York." Well, no, I don't believe that. In fact, I have yet to hear a succinct explanation for why the U.S. is in Afghanistan. If staying in Afghanistan were to help stabilize Pakistan that might make some sense, but things don't seem to be working that way. Instead, we're seeing pretty much the opposite effect. So, why? To try to sift through some of the issues and to get a sense of the larger picture I turned to Graham E. Fuller, a former CIA Chief of Station in Kabul and, later in his career, a very senior analyst. It was extremely kind of Graham to take the time and I very much appreciate having had the opportunity to talk with him. It's always a pleasure to hear from a real professional. Total runtime an hour and thirteen minutes (transcript here). Stop the War. Now.