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Ten years ago today, and less than a month after the September 11th terrorist attacks, US forces began bombing one of the poorest, most war-torn countries in the world – Afghanistan. Ruled by the heavily oppressive and fundamentalist Pakistan-sponsored Taliban regime, Afghanistan was targeted for harboring Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. As the bombs rained down, the US supported the so-called Northern Alliance or United Front rebels as their ground support. These militants had a history of US support against the Soviet war when they called themselves the Mujahadeen, but most of them were just as brutally oppressive and fundamentalist as the Taliban. Today, many of these figures, rewarded for their fealty to American dollars, occupy high positions in the Afghan central government, one of the most certifiably corrupt institutions in the world. Few non-Afghans know intimately the sordid history of Afghanistan, its various wars, foreign interventions, and internal dynamics. One person who has witnessed and documented firsthand much of Afghanistan’s recent history is journalist and writer Edward Girardet. As a foreign correspondent for a number of major news outlets like the Christian Science Monitor, US News and World Report, and more, Girardet began his relationship with Afghanistan in 1979, just a few months before the Soviet Union invaded and began a ten year long occupation. Drawing on his 30+ years of reporting from Afghanistan, Girardet has written a new book, “Killing the Cranes: A Reporter’s Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan.” In it, he chronicles his experiences during the Soviet occupation, his time with Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance, who was assassinated just days before September 11th, 2001, as well as the start of the US war, the initial fall of the Taliban, and more. Girardet points out the numerous policy blunders of the US in Afghanistan and attempts to suggest solutions to end the longest war the US has ever waged.

GUEST: Edward Girardet, reporter and author of Killing the Cranes: A Reporter’s Journey Through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan