Afghanistan, The Middle East, and American Foreign Policy – Part 1

by Scott H. Payne on December 14, 2009

It’s been a while since Chris and I jumped on Skype and rambled on for a while about the state of the world and associated topics, so we decided to remedy that fact last night. What follows is the first part (approximately 35 minutes) of our discussion about Obama’s decisions around Afghanistan, counter insurgency strategies, and American foreign policy vis-a-vis the Middle East more generally.

Part 2 will follow in a day or two so as to break up what are usually hour plus conversations into smaller, bite sized chunks. Check out the audio below the fold.

Share and Enjoy:

Tagged as: Afghanistan, Afghanistan surge, al-Qaeda, American foreign policy, barack obama, counter insurgency, Iraq, Pakistan, Taliban

Scott is a sometimes blogger and social media consultant/principal at East Side Media. In addition to writing at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen, Scott is also a founding member of Beams and Struts and a fellow at the Canadian Council for Democracy's blog the Commons. You can reach Scott via email and follow him on Twiter.

{ 4 comments }

1 Silus Grok December 14, 2009 at 9:31 am

I think we’re missing something — I don’t see a transcript or any other sort of media. Is this the blog equivalent to forgetting to include the attachment in an e-mail? :)

2 Chris Dierkes December 14, 2009 at 9:35 am

Silus,

1) Did you click read more? It’s below the fold.

2) if yes, to #1 and still not working, what platform are you using? The audio of this popped up for me as soon as I clicked on the read more function.

3 Silus Grok December 14, 2009 at 9:49 am

There’s no READ MORE link.

I’m using the most recent Safari. On a Mac.

4 Scott H. Payne December 14, 2009 at 11:58 am: Right. It’s because your on a mac and I formatted the audio as a WMV because it is the most commonly used player out there. Two options: 1.) go download Windows Media Player for Macs and install it, the audio should appear for you, 2.) email me (scott.h.payne@gmail.com) and I can arrange to get the raw audio file to you for listening.

Your call, I’m happy to oblige in whichever fashion best works for you.