Radio Times

Update on the war in Afghanistan: Getting inside the 'insider attacks'

August 28, 2012


AP Photo

Hour 1

As of last week, 2,000 American troops have been killed in the 11-year war in Afghanistan. This past weekend, Taliban insurgents killed 17 civilians, mostly by beheading, and in a separate attack, 10 Afghan soldiers. President Obama is drawing down the U.S. combat role in the chaotic country, but 85,000 U.S. troops are still on the ground there, as they prepare to withdraw completely by the end of 2014. But the transition plan of handing over control to Afghan security forces with training and advising by NATO troops is in question. Several Afghan Army and police have turned on those training them, and these so-called insider attacks, or ‘green on blue’ violence, have taken at least 40 lives this year, including 12 Americans in the last two weeks. We’ll talk to New York Times reporter GRAHAM BOWLEY from Kabul, Afghanistan, and JOHN NAGL, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and research professor at the U.S. Naval Academy.

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