Malou Innocent, Foreign Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute, discusses her article, “Protests in Afghanistan: Our Excuse to Get Out;” how we underestimate the Afghan resentment of our intrusion into their lives and culture; why Western-style democracy is not the end all, be all political solution for much of the world; and the myriad forces that make ending the Afghan War all but impossible: establishing a Central Asia client state, keeping the military busy, bureaucratic inertia, and a...

Malou Innocent, Foreign Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute and author of the article 'Are Our Goals in Afghanistan ‘Fairly Modest’?', discusses the Center for a New American Security‘s (unofficial) motto on nation building: 'never say die!', military pundits who cherry pick the convenient aspects of COIN doctrine, why the U.S. can’t seem to tell the difference between insurgents and terrorists, the fallacy of Afghanistan as a 'safe haven' for the 9/11 terrorists (who moved freely in the U.S....

Malou Innocent, Foreign Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute, discusses conservative opposition to the Afghanistan War, how US overreaction to minor threats creates real national security problems, the current logistical impossibility of nation-building in Afghanistan, the backlash against the Liz Cheney/Bill Kristol 'al-Qaeda 7' ad and the hypocrisy of conservatives who despise government social engineering at home but support it abroad.