Hopeless but Optimistic: America's Endless War in Afghanistan
(Room JW Grand Ballroom 1)
05 Jul 18
7:30 PM
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8:45 PM
Drawing on his three embeds with U.S. troops in the Afghan war zones, Douglas Wissing provides insights into America's failed war in Afghanistan. Sharing the physical and emotional pain of American soldiers far from home, he witnessed maladroit development and failed counterinsurgency. His experiences anchor his deep research into America’s dysfunctional 21st-century way of war, which has wasted more than $5 trillion while failing to accomplish the stated U.S. military, development, and diplomatic goals. This session includes the perspectives of cynical American careerists and frightened short-timers; true believers and amoral grabbers; and Americans and Afghans trying to make sense of two countries surreally contorted by war-birthed extractive commerce. He will discuss Afghan street life, the culture and institutions that anneal the people, and the poetry that enriches them. Wissing’s story arcs from cynicism to a hard-won equanimity as it explores the Afghans’ eternal resilience and long-sustained, Afghan-appropriate aid organizations.