For much of the past year, the dateline has been “Afghanistan.” The bombs. The food drops. The refugees. The casualties. The battles and eventual fall of Kandahar, Kabul, and Kunduz. Then finally, with the fall of the Taliban, the rise of a certain kind of hope.
Suddenly, from a war zone came photos of women’s faces and kites and talk of nation building, reconstruction, and renewal. But the violence has never moved far away.
The recent assassination attempt against Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai renews suspicion about how fragile the country remains. Afghanistan, the United States, and the fight to keep history from repeating itself.
Guests:
Dexter Filkins, Reporter for the New York Times
Ahmed Rashid, correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, The Far Eastern Economic Review
and The Daily Telegraph, and author of “Jihad”
and Lyse Doucet, BBC Correspondent based in Kabul
Rina Amiri, UN political affairs officer, Kabul.