Angry Planet

A Classical View of the Afghan Collapse

Sep 7, 2022

32:20

This will be the last episode we do on Afghanistan for a bit. We wanted to give the final word to a U.S. Marine who served there.

We’re now a year out from the fall of Kabul and what looks like the end of America’s uniformed involvement in Afghanistan. There are as many as 70,000 Afghans who helped the United States during the war who are still looking to get out.

Elliot Ackerman, who served in the region as a Marine and as a CIA operative, was trying to help as the last flights were taking off from Kabul’s Airport.

It was, as Ackerman saw it, the Fifth Act of the Afghan War.

He’s joining us today to talk about both his war and his views of the fall. He’s the author of both novels and non-fiction, including Dark at the Crossing, Green on Blue, and Red Dress in Black and White. We’ll put the full list in the show notes.

His latest book, looking at these final days is The Fifth Act: America’s End in Afghanistan.

Angry Planet has a substack! Join the Information War to get weekly insights into our angry planet and hear more conversations about a world in conflict.

https://angryplanet.substack.com/subscribe

You can listen to Angry Planet on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or follow our RSS directly. Our website is angryplanetpod.com. You can reach us on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/angryplanetpodcast/; and on Twitter: @angryplanetpod.