logo
episode-header-image
Apr 15
55m 37s

CLASSIC: The Afghanistan Papers

iHeartPodcasts
About this episode

The United States invaded Afghanistan on October 7th, 2001 and remains embroiled in the conflict almost two decades later, making this the longest war in US history. Leaders from both of the dominant political parties continually argued that this was a winnable war, proposing new strategies, more troops, and more surges. Yet documents obtained by The Washington Post show that the long-running internal conversations painted a different -- and vastly more disturbing -- picture. Tune in to learn more about the Afghanistan Papers in tonight's Classic episode.

They don't want you to read our book.: https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/stuff-you-should-read/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up next
Yesterday
The Raymond Allen Davis Incident
It's an open secret that not everything is as it seems in the world of diplomacy -- a great many individuals operate with some degree of subterfuge and invisibility. So what happens when things go wrong, and these often disturbing, unseen things become visible? Tonight's story ta ... Show More
1h 16m
Jul 8
CLASSIC: The Surprisingly Unboring Story of Farm Subsidies
Make no mistake -- being a farmer is hard work. Farming outfits often have to carry a huge amount of risk from one season to the next, and any number of things may ruin their prospects, from unexpected weather, market volatility and so on. To mitigate these dangers, world governm ... Show More
1h 3m
Jul 7
Strange News: Tuvalu is Drowning, Chinese EVs, Eating Cheese and More
Australia is astonished as a full one-third of all residents of Tuvalu apply for the new, limited 'climate visa,' sparking concerns about the future of islands nations amid the global sea level rising. Chinese manufacturers are in hot water over an international scheme to flood m ... Show More
52m 55s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2011
Rodric Braithwaite, “Afgantsy: The Russians in Afghanistan, 1979-89” (Oxford UP, 2011)
I was still in high school the year the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, 1979. I remember reading about it in Time magazine and watching President Carter denounce it on TV. The Soviets, everyone said, were bent on ruling the world. Detente had been a ploy to lull us to sleep. In ... Show More
1h 6m
Aug 2021
America’s war machine refuses to let Afghanistan go
Maj. Danny Sjursen weighs in on the U.S. exit from Afghanistan and Gen. David Petraeus’ dangerously false narrative about our country’s longest war. 
36m 44s
Aug 2021
Disaster in Afghanistan: The First Afghan War of 1839
Sophie (age 7) and Ellie (age 5) tell of the First Afghan War of 1839, where the British invaded Afghanistan and were forced into a disastrous retreat from Kabul. ----more----In 1839 the British controlled India. They had built a mighty Empire. However, the Russians were also bui ... Show More
10m 8s
Oct 2024
The Afghan women writers who witnessed the fall of Kabul
The resurgence of the Taliban in August 2021 sent shockwaves throughout the world. Images from Afghanistan showed fear, panic and unrest looming. With the country back under Taliban rule, a group of Afghan women writers feared the worst. They kept in touch with the Untold Narrati ... Show More
27m 32s
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
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
47m 43s
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
Dec 2023
Ep. 351 - Ian Fritz (U.S. Air Force / 'What The Taliban Told Me')
At eighteen, Ian Fritz joined the Air Force out of necessity and was soon selected to become an Airborne Cryptologic Linguist in the war in Afghanistan. Over the course of two tours, Fritz listened to the Taliban for hundreds of hours, all over the country night and day, in momen ... Show More
1h 38m
Nov 2024
A Second Look at Book Banning
When Morley Safer traveled to West Virginia in 1975 to report on a fight over books in schools, he couldn't have known how that conflict would help lay the blueprint for many contemporary challenges over what students are allowed to read. In our first "second look," we revisit a ... Show More
51m 24s
Apr 2021
Digital espionage, cyber war and a the end of American troops in Afghanistan: Nicole Perlroth & Rep. Barbara Lee
Nicole Perlroth, New York Times reporter covering digital espionage and author of “This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends,” joins Chuck to uncover what's really happening with America's cyberwar. Twenty years after her lone vote to oppose a broad use of force authorization follo ... Show More
57m 35s