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Jonathan S. Landay, national security and intelligence correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers, discusses how Afghan peace talks primarily exist as fictional inventions of the Pentagon, the US divide-and-conquer strategy employed against insurgent groups that is supposed to marginalize hardliners, India’s concern that another Mumbai attack would create overwhelming political pressure for military action against Pakistan, how a US withdrawal would turn Afghanistan into “Somalia on steroids” and destabilize much of Central Asia, how the continued US presence and Afghan government corruption fuel the insurgency and make occupation unsustainable, an analysis of ethnic and political factions that shows the Taliban is not a natural political successor and the odd spectacle of Russian and US agents jointly participating in a drug raid on Afghan heroin producers.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:00 — 7.3MB)