#258 — The Fall of Afghanistan

Sam Harris speaks with Peter Bergen about the US exit from
Afghanistan, the resurgence of the Taliban, and his new book,
“The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.” They discuss the
Neo-isolationist consensus on the Right and Left, the legitimacy
of our initial involvement in Afghanistan, our ethical
obligations to our Afghan allies, Biden’s disastrous messaging,
the weakness of the Afghan army, the advantages of the Taliban,
the implications for global jihadism, the relationship between
the Taliban and al-Qaeda, how Osama bin Laden came to lead
al-Qaeda, bin Laden’s sincere religious convictions, our failure
to capture bin Laden at Tora Bora, the distraction of the war in
Iraq, the myth that the CIA funded al-Qaeda, bin Laden’s wives,
his years of hiding in Pakistan, his death at the hands of US
Special Forces, and other topics.


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