Afghanistan. It’s about the size of Texas – but this is not your typical “Home on the Range.”
If there’s any place that American sees as “other” today, it might be the mountainous, land-locked Land of the Afghans. Or, we should say, the Taliban. This ruling faction has taken over 95-percent of the war-torn country in the last decade – and in American eyes has suppressed women’s rights, starved and killed millions of Afghans, and harbored the largest collection of international terrorists in the world. If this isn’t the recipe for the bad guy, what is?
But behind policy pronouncements lies the spectre of so-called Islamic fundamentalism, memories of embassy bombings, and images of towering Buddhas razed to the ground. Policymakers try to stick to the facts, but our wide-angle lense projects a culture that America struggles to understand,as it struggles to decide what to do with Afghanistan.
(Hosted by Judy Swallow)
Guests:
Roving Envoy Sayed Ramatullah Hashimi from the Taliban;
Julie Sirrs, former analyst for the Department of Defense;
Neamat Nojumi, former freedom fighter in Afghanistan
Richard Hoagland, State Department Director of Public Diplomacy for the South Asia Bureau
Laylee Helms, Taliban advisor in the United States.