What Happened? First thoughts on the fall of Afghanistan

Conor McNamara, John Wagner and I chat about the fall of Afghanistan. We recorded this on the evening of August 16th, 2021 going off the information we had available at the time.

Each of us spent time in Afghanistan between 2010-2012 in a variety of roles all across the country. Between the three of us we worked with units from the platoon to brigade size, helped train the Army and Police, interacted with countless locals, and managed interpreters.

This is a challenging topic with a wide range of emotions hit on in this episode. From anger to sadness, frustration to confusion, there's a lot to unpack. I think each of us are still figuring out our exact thoughts and hopefully talking through some of them helped a bit.

- Should the Afghan military had fought harder, could they have?

- Is this the Afghan people choosing their future?

- How were we so wrong in their fighting capabilities?

- Was leaving the right move?

Conor was a Ranger-qualified Infantry Officer who served as a platoon leader during a twelve month deployment to Zabul, Afghanistan with the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment during 2011-2012. He is now an attorney who has volunteered with the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) for the past seven years, assisting former interpreters and Afghan support personnel with immigrating to the United States.

John was a Ranger-qualified Artillery Officer who served as a platoon leader and a fire support officer during a twelve month deployment to Zhari District, Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment during the troop surge of 2010-2011. He also served as an artillery advisor to the Afghan National Army in the Kunar River valley for most of 2012. He now works in medical device manufacturing with a startup called GT Medical Technologies, whose mission is to improve the lives of patients with brain tumors.