Scott talks with Shane McCarver about an article he published last week at Antiwar.com challenging the wild assertions David Petraeus made in his Atlantic article earlier this month. Despite its length, Petraeus makes almost no concrete claims in his piece. Instead, he spends 10,000 words to make vague notions about grit and commitment that conveniently protect him from blame. One of the few specific arguments he does make, however, is that the U.S. should have supplied the Afghan National Army with more Russian-made MI-17 helicopters. McCarver was a soldier in Afghanistan working on this exact task up until the collapse of the ANA last summer. He explains to Scott why Petraeus’s argument that more helicopters could have prevented the Taliban’s victory is absurd.Â
Discussed on the show:
- “In Rebuke of the Dishonorable David Petraeus” (Antiwar.com)
- “Afghanistan Did Not Have To Turn Out This Way” (The Atlantic)
Shane McCarver was a soldier in the United States army from 2013-2017. He worked as a logistics analyst on the DOD contract maintaining the MI-17 helicopters and the PC-12 fixed wing aircraft of the Afghan Air Force and Afghan Army Special Mission Wing from November 2018 until July 2021. He has since found honest work as a shipping coordinator for a manufacturer in Newport, New Hampshire.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org