Matthew Hoh comes back on the show to talk about Afghanistan. President Biden said in a recent press conference that due to logistical difficulties, America is unlikely to meet the May 1 withdrawal deadline laid out in the Doha agreement signed under President Trump. Hoh points out that there shouldn’t really be logistical difficulties in getting about 3,000 American troops out of Afghanistan in a month (not to mention the many months both presidents have had already)—really, this is political cover to avoid pulling America out once and for all. No president has been willing to do so so far, largely because of the fear of what will happen in Afghanistan when we leave. The power vacuum created by America’s absence will lead to some chaos, to be sure, but Hoh says there’s simply no way around that fact. The only question now is when America will leave, not if. Staying any longer only continues to put American lives at risk.

Discussed on the show:

• “War Machine (2017)” (IMDb)
• The Best and the Brightest
  
• “Milestones: 1945–1952” (Office of the Historian)
• This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History
  
• “Cherry (2021)” (IMDb)

Matthew Hoh is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and formerly worked for the U.S. State Department. Hoh received the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling in 2010. Hoh is a member of the Board of Directors for Council for a Livable World and is an Advisory Board Member for Expose Facts. He writes on issues of war, peace and post-traumatic stress disorder recovery at matthewhoh.com.

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: The War State, by Mike Swanson; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Photo IQ; Green Mill Supercritical; Zippix Toothpicks; and Listen and Think Audio.

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