Routing the Taliban from Afghanistan was a successful exercise in brute force. But keeping them out - and helping the Afghans keep them out - was something that required skills not currently in America's tool box. If anything, we proved the ultimate futility of endless violence. We succeeded at waging war, but we failed miserably at providing the conditions of a sustainable post-war state of peace.

THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN: An Effort to More Deeply Understand, is compiled from interviews that provide meaningful reflections on the war. The individual interviews can be found here: https://mariannewilliamson.substack.com/s/reflections-on-afghanistan

On Afghanistan, as on so many issues, it's imperative that we push against the grain of shallow and ultimately meaningless narrative that dominates our politics. This podcast was produced by Jon Ehrens, with interviews from Sarah Chayes, Laura Jedeed, Zainab Salbi, Tom Freston, Joe Cirincione, and Obaidullah Baheer.

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