November 21 - Exiting the Quagmire as the Region Trembles; Pakistan's Perfidity in Losing our Longest War

We look into a big issue that was not mentioned in the recent presidential campaign, the Afghan war, a protracted engagement war-weary Americans want to forget, that has had eleven commanders in the last eleven years of America’s longest war. One of the leading experts on Afghanistan and its people and culture, Thomas Barfield joins us. He is the President of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies and the author of “Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History” and we discuss the future of this tormented country the U.S is withdrawing from in 2014.

Part 2

Then we further explore Afghanistan’s uncertain future with Christine Fair. She was a United Nations Political Officer in Afghanistan and is a Senior Fellow with the Counter Terrorism Center at West Point. We discuss the likely aftermath of the U.S. and NaATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and whether a reduced American footprint in the region will diminish the virulent anti-Americanism in a nuclear-armed and increasingly unstable Pakistan.