Day: July 8, 2021

Background Briefing: July 8, 2021

 

An Analysis Of Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal Announcement From a Marine Who Served There

We begin with President Biden’s White House announcement on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the press conference that followed and speak with a former Marine who served in Afghanistan in 2012, Adam Weinstein, who is now a Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He joins us to discuss how the Afghan government has the military capability to stop a Taliban takeover of the country but not the political leadership, the logistical function nor possibly the will to fight. Adam also argues that we won the war back in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 attacks but made the mistake of keeping American troops in a hostile neighborhood where Islamist holy warriors and anti-American regimes were handed Americans as targets who they would not otherwise have been able to kill. 

 

An Update on the Killing and Capture of Suspects Behind the Assassination of Haiti’s President

Then we get an update on the killing and capture of suspects behind the assassination of Haiti’s corrupt and illegitimate leader from Brian Concannon, a Human Rights Lawyer and Executive Director of Project Blueprint, which promotes a progressive human rights-based U.S. Foreign Policy. The founder and former director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti who was also a Human Rights Officer with the U.N. in Haiti, he joins us to discuss the criminality within the ranks of the police, and police within the ranks of the gangs, and the possibility that the late President Moise’s death might be connected to his alleged money laundering and drug trafficking. 

 

The Texas Governor and Republican Legislature Double Down on Distraction

Then finally we speak with Terry O’Rourke, Special Assistant County Attorney for Harris County in Houston who worked on numerous civil and criminal environmental prosecutions for the Texas Attorney General’s Office about the special session of the Texas legislature called by Governor Greg Abbott. Along with the Republican’s determination to pass even more restrictive voting laws, other priorities are focused on hot-button Republican distractions like Critical Race Theory and Transgender athletics, instead of fixing the state’s electricity grid which crashed in last winter’s freeze.