The Taliban have entered the Afghan capital, having rapidly swept to power throughout the country, while the U.S. is frantically airlifting its diplomats to safety. What explains the fall of Afghanistan? In 2001 U.S. forces targeted the Taliban’s Islamic totalitarian regime, which had harbored the 9/11 plotters. What went wrong? Join Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo for a special episode of the podcast.

Among the topics covered:

• A summary of the crisis currently unfolding in Afghanistan;
• The flawed “nation building” goals of the Afghanistan campaign, starting after 9/11;
• The unwillingness to identify the ideological nature of the enemy after 9/11;
• How the Taliban were able to take over Afghanistan so quickly;
• Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden’s failures in the Middle East;
• Why the peace accord with the Taliban exemplifies the morally bankrupt, anti-intellectual, and geopolitically impractical approach of American foreign policy;
• Why the Soviets failed in Afghanistan;
• Lessons from American policy in postwar Japan;
• ARI’s unique, philosophical approach to the Afghanistan conflict and foreign policy in general.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:41 The unfolding crisis in Afghanistan
0:09:07 Flawed "nation building" post-9/11
0:17:38 Evading the enemy's ideological nature
0:29:56 How the Taliban took over so quickly
0:34:56 Obama-Trump-Biden Mideast failures
0:45:43 America's bankrupt foreign policy
0:55:56 Why the Soviets failed in Afghanistan
0:58:41 Lessons from US-Japan postwar policy
1:01:13 ARI's philosophic approach to foreign policy

(From Youtube)