Matthew Hoh discusses the Biden administration’s Afghanistan policy. Trump, Hoh reminds us, had appointed Zalmay Khalilzad to negotiate a U.S. withdrawal with the Taliban; now it appears that Biden’s team is reversing that plan. Hoh says that this was to be expected: Biden represents the same entrenched interests that have kept America at war in the Middle East for more than 30 years, and so far his administration is issuing many of the same talking points as previous presidents have about keeping stability in the region, ensuring the flow of Middle Eastern oil and “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” None of these, of course, are legitimate justifications for what Hoh describes as an incredibly dishonest and pointless endeavor.

Discussed on the show:

• The Best and the Brightest
  
• “U.S. Should Slow Withdrawal From Afghanistan, Bipartisan Panel Urges” (The New York Times)
• Rage
  
• Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam
  

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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