logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2021
51m 16s

WTH is going on in Afghanistan? Gen. Jac...

AEI PODCASTS
About this episode

Twenty years after 9/11, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan is moving faster than expected, and so is the Taliban’s takeover. The Taliban have already taken more than 50 of the country’s 400 districts since May, with the US intelligence community predicting that the Afghan government could fall within six months of Biden’s withdrawal.

General Jack Keane joined Dany and Marc to discuss America’s strategic goals in Afghanistan, why the Taliban are making such strong gains, and the danger that a Taliban takeover would pose to US national security.

General Keane is a retired 4 star general, former Vice Chief of Staff of the US Army, the chairman of the Institute for the Study of War and Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst.

Download the transcript here.


Up next
Mar 3
WTH: War in Iran. David Albright Explains the Nuclear Threat.
Over the weekend, President Trump launched Operation Epic Fury, the most ambitious US military operation in decades. In the wake of the 2025 12-Day War, Iran again worked to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program and its missile arsenal. These threats, in combination with the m ... Show More
1h 17m
Feb 25
WTH: Four Years of Putin's War in Ukraine. Frederick W. Kagan Illuminates.
Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Four years of war in which Russian forces have occupied roughly one and a half percent of Ukraine’s territory at the cost of approximately half a million lives. Our guest, Frederick W. Kagan, and his team at ... Show More
1h 11m
Feb 19
WTH Does a Chinese Billionaire Need 100 American Children? Charles Hilu Explains.
Blame it on American individualism or a political aversion to regulation, but the United States has become a striking outlier in its failure to regulate the assisted reproductive technology industry. As a result, individuals from other countries have begun engaging in quasi–birth ... Show More
52m 25s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2024
An Engaging Dilemma: The Taliban’s Afghanistan, women’s rights and international diplomacy
Women in Afghanistan continue to be suppressed and marginalised by the Taliban government, with a steady stream of new laws and edicts, dictating what they can and can't do.This has alarmed and shocked human rights defenders in Afghanistan, and across the world. Also expressing t ... Show More
33m 54s
Dec 2024
3. CIA vs the Taliban: Behind Enemy Lines (Ep 1)
America knew Al-Qaeda were behind the 9/11 attacks before the day was out. They knew they were being sheltered by the Taliban in Afghanistan and so the CIA went after them. Small teams were dropped behind enemy lines with bags of cash and very little else, instructed to link up w ... Show More
45m 43s
Aug 2021
Nation Building Failed in Afghanistan
tail spinning
1h 19m
Dec 2024
Downstream: The Journalist Who Spent A Year With The Taliban w/ Ibrahim Nash’at
When the Taliban retook all of Afghanistan in 2021, it came as a shock to much of the West. The day after the last American soldier left, journalist and filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at flew into Kabul to spend a year filming with the Taliban’s senior military leadership. What he found ... Show More
53m 3s
Oct 2018
An Update on Pakistan, with Ahmed Rashid
Acclaimed journalist Ahmed Rashid discusses Pakistan's new populist prime minister, Imran Khan, whom he considers woefully unprepared. He also examines Pakistan's debt-ridden economy and Pakistan's complex relationships with China, India, the U.S., Afghanistan, and the Taliban. " ... Show More
17m 2s
Apr 2025
Why are Afghan activists facing deportation?
Afghan women’s rights activists are facing deportation from Pakistan, along with hundreds of thousands of Afghans living there. The activists risk imprisonment or death if they return to life under the Taliban in Afghanistan. Afghans have sought refuge in Pakistan for years, but ... Show More
23m 24s
Dec 2024
48. CIA, Afghanistan, and The Rest Is Classified
In 2021, US troops withdrew from Afghanistan, ending a conflict that had been brutally fought for almost 20 years. While the news dominated the headlines, fewer may have heard the story of when the CIA first entered Afghanistan in the aftermath of 9/11. Today Katty and Anthony ar ... Show More
10m 19s
Apr 2024
An Untold Story in Afghanistan
They were scenes of utter desperation and chaos: thousands of Afghans crowded outside Kabul’s airport, as American troops withdrew and the Taliban swept the country in August 2021. In a congressional hearing last month, former Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley blamed the ... Show More
59m 2s