14. Afghanistan and the end of America's 43 Year War

In this special episode, The Burning Archive makes some fast history, and reflects on the meaning of the capitulation of the American Empire in Afghanistan. There are eight quick takes - what do you think - let me know at @ArchiveBurning on twitter:

• the humanitarian crisis - is this Saigon 1974 or  Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947?
• the end not of a 20 year war but a 43 year American-Afghan Wars
• the unwinding of America's geopolitical strategy and Zbigniew Brzezinski's shame
• Military and strategic failure of the American Empire
• The weakness of the leadership class in America
• How will the Taliban and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan act?
• The shift to regional security - without America - in Eurasia
• Will America's ultimate humiliation be that Afghanistan develops more successfully under this Eurasian wing?

Credits:

• News story from 1979 with the voice of Zbigniew Brzezinski speaking to the Mujahideen: "Your cause is right and God is on your side!"
• William Dalrymple, Return of a King: the Battle for Afghanistan 1838-42 and at https://twitter.com/DalrympleWill
• Bruno Macaes on twitter at @MacaesBruno
• The wonderful Kimiko Ishizaka and the Open Goldberg project, for the public domain recording of the Aria from J.S. Bach's Goldberg Variations https://opengoldbergvariations.org/
• Ezra Pound reading from Canto 81.

Read more of my writing at www.theburningarchive.com or buy my new book - Gathering Flowers of the Mind: Collected Poems 1996-2020 in print and e-book editions at major online retailers. The poem read in this episode, Nouriel's Shoes, appears in this book.

Check out me reading poems from the book at The Burning Archive Youtube channel