Afghanistan, Hubris, and U.S. Foreign Policy w/ Ret. Lt. Col. Daniel Davis + Ted Galen Carpenter

On this edition of Parallax Views, there's been a political blame game at play since President Joe Biden announced the U.S. withdrawal of its military forces from Afghanistan. The last of the U.S. forces officially left on August 30th, 2021. What now? What does this mean for U.S. foreign policy going forward? Will it open up a debate about U.S. foreign policy since 9/11? And what are the lessons that need to be learned from the U.S. military adventure in Afghanistan?

We have two interviews delving into those questions on this edition of the program. First up, Ret. Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis of Defense Priorities joins us to discuss his whistleblowing on the Afghanistan War and the surge that took place on President Obama's watch. We talk about the Afghanistan Papers and how the public was systemically misled (or lied to) about the on-the-ground reality in Afghanistan. Also, we find out Lt. Col. Davis' response to criticisms that the withdrawal will hurt Afghans, that this opens us up to new terrorist threats, and calls to end the Forever Wars are the province of dangerous "isolationists". Also, we discuss how figures like Leon Panetta and H.R. McMaster are "addicted to war" as outlined in Lt. Col Davis' commentary at The Guardian. Lt. Col. Davis argues that we need to reintroduce the diplomatic toolkit and reorient U.S. foreign policy. We also manage to delve into the the Kabul airport attack and the U.S. cooperation with the Taliban against the threat of ISIS-K during the evacuation process.


Then, Ted Galen Carpenter of the CATO Institute, who regularly writes for Antiwar.Com and the National Interest, joins us for further discussion about Afghanistan and, more broadly, the need for a revamp of U.S. foreign policy. As supplements to this conversation you may want to read Carpenter's latest Antiwar.Com piece "Blame-Shifting: The Political Elites Response to the Messy Afghan Withdrawal" and "The Cynical Campaign To Scapegoat Joe Biden for the Afghanistan Debacle" as well as his article at the National Interest entitled "U.S. Credibility Not Seriously Damaged by Afghanistan Failure".