Ep 29: Wesley Morgan on Afghanistan, Part 2 of 2

School of War

Wesley Morgan, journalist and author of The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley, joins the show to discuss his experiences in the Pech valley, one of Afghanistan’s most contested battlegrounds, and to talk about the U.S. counterinsurgency’s successes and failures. This episode is part 1 of 2.

Wesley Morgan, journalist and author of The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley, joins the show to discuss his experiences in the Pech valley, one of Afghanistan’s most contested battlegrounds, and to talk about the U.S. counterinsurgency’s successes and failures.  Times  	•	01:25 Illicit Economies	•	04:13 Green Berets And CIA “Lost The Forest For The Trees” In Kunar	•	06:57 Who Is Jim Gant?	•	11:36 Self-Aware Proxy Warriors	•	13:42 Counterinsurgency Styles and Outpost Building	•	20:44 Central Government - Whether They Want It Or Not	•	33:18 Cash For Calm - Paying For Peace	•	37:22 War Winds Down In The Pech 	•	41:30 The Afghan House Of Cards Collapses	•	44:13 A Tired Afghan Army With No Good Options

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This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.This podcast seeks to fill that gap through in-depth interviews on military and diplomatic history.&nbsp; Our guests have included former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the Cold War historian John Lewis Gaddis, and China Select Committee chairman Mike Gallagher. We discuss the battlefield commanders, diplomats, strategists, policymakers, and statesmen who have had to make wartime decisions in the ancient and modern eras.The subject of an episode may be an historical battle, campaign, or conflict; the conduct of policy in the course of a major international incident; the work of a famous strategist; the nature of a famous weapon; or the legacy of an important military commander or political leader.&nbsp;&nbsp; Aaron MacLean is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He has worked as a foreign policy advisor and legislative director to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and spent seven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. <a href="https://schoolofwar.substack.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Visit our Substack for episode transcripts</a><a href="https://www.instagram.com/school.of.war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Follow along on Instagram</a>