In this powerful episode, Ghost is joined by CannCon to unravel the tangled history of America’s longest war. The conversation begins with George W. Bush’s televised announcement of Operation Enduring Freedom, then pivots into a deep exploration of how U.S. policies and covert funding shaped Afghanistan’s fate. CannCon shares vivid, firsthand accounts from multiple deployments, from building the remote 7171 base to daily firefights and confronting the grim reality of poppy fields fueling the opioid crisis back home. The discussion examines how the CIA’s Cold War strategies birthed the mujahideen and laid the groundwork for decades of conflict.

Alongside personal reflections on brotherhood, trauma, and the sense of futility, the episode challenges official narratives, questioning whether the war’s failures were incompetence or by design. Stories of bizarre moments, like discovering a massive IED in a bulldozer bucket and witnessing UFOs on patrol, punctuate the grim recollections. Packed with unflinching honesty, historical context, and hard-won perspective, this chapter is a sobering look at the cost of endless interventionism.