17. Letter to America: you are not the captain now

America’s defeat in Afghanistan has provoked an imperial crisis. This imperial crisis is not just a geostrategic or diplomatic game. It is a crisis of the ideas driving the empire - American culture, society and politics - its core belief that it is the exceptional nation. In Kabul America unwittingly surrendered not only as occupier of Afghanistan, but its claim to be leader of the so-called free world. Will Afghanistan teach America to be humble again or at last? That is the question for today’s Burning Archive, when Jeff Rich discusses the American response to its humiliation in Afghanistan.

Jeff Rich is a writer, historian, podcaster, poet, and presents The Burning Archive podcast about all things history and culture - where the past is never dead - the past is not even past, and where by thinking about the past we try to live better in the present.

Full details on material referenced in this week's show (there is a lot) will be posted at www.theburningarchive.com