Background Briefing: August 19, 2021
Pakistan Celebrates America’s Humiliation Before They Come to Regret Their Pyrrhic Victory
We begin with the schadenfreude-like pleasure in Pakistan’s media and among its politicians at America’s pain and humiliation in Afghanistan and speak with Ambassador Husain Haqqani who was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2011 and is now a Senior Fellow and Director for South and Central Asia at the Hudson institute. He joins us to discuss his recent article at Foreign Affairs, “Pakistan’s Pyrrhic Victory in Afghanistan: Islamabad Will Come to Regret Aiding the Taliban’s Resurgence” and how celebrating a Taliban victory will take Pakistan further away from becoming “a normal country”, perpetuating dysfunctional domestic and foreign policies defined by hostility towards India and dependence on China.
The Coming Afghan Refugee Crisis
Then we speak with James Jennings, Founder and President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization that helps refugees from Somalia, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and is now setting up a camp on the Pakistan border to deal with the expected flood of Afghan refugees fleeing the Taliban. With Biden getting slammed for his handling of the US exit from Afghanistan, Fox and right-wing media along with Republicans are now demonizing refugees from Afghanistan as possible terrorists.
Could a Republican Stealth Campaign Elect a Right Wing Crackpot to Run the State With the Biggest Population and Economy?
Then finally we speak with Lincoln Mitchell, a Professor of Political Science at Columbia University who is an associate scholar in the Saltzman Institute for War and Peace. He joins us to discuss his latest article at CNN, “The most important election in America this year: Larry Elder would be disastrous for California – and the country” and how the Republican minority’s stealth attempt based on off-year apathy could end up having the state with the country’s largest population and largest economy run by a right wing crackpot.