Episodes
Tuesday Oct 14, 2014
Bing West
Tuesday Oct 14, 2014
Tuesday Oct 14, 2014
BING WEST, author of “One Million Steps: A Marine Platoon at War” and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs:
- A look back at the devastating combat waged by the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines in Sangin, Afghanistan (Helmand Province)
- Afghanistan today and the plan to withdraw most U.S. troops by the end of the year
- The skewed rules of engagement U.S. servicemen faced when implementing a counterinsurgency strategy
PART TWO
- How stringent rules of engagement breed a risk-averse culture
- President Obama’s feckless security policy and how it harms America’s long-term credibility
- The challenges posed by Iraq’s ethnic tensions
- Working with an Iranian-friendly Shiite administration in Baghdad
PART THREE
- Turkish President Erdogan’s Islamist ambitions
- Why the Afghanistan air campaign of 2001 was an ideal campaign for containing the spread of jihadist insurgencies
- How the War on Terror represents a greater clash of civilizations that will last for generations
PART FOUR
- What the two controversial memoirs by Secretaries of Defense Gates and Panetta indicate about President Obama’s leadership
- The FBI Director’s warning about China’s relentless hacking of American businesses
- Failure of the Republican Party to articulate meaningful alternatives and be consistent in its opposition to current Administration policy
- The indispensable capability offered by land mines and the ideological motive behind the President’s desire to remove them from America’s arsenal
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