3/21/18 Andrew Cockburn on how the United States boosts the Afghan opium trade

3/21/18 Andrew Cockburn on how the United States boosts the Afghan opium trade

Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine Andrew Cockburn returns to the show to discuss his latest article “Mobbed Up: How America boosts the Afghan opium trade.” Cockburn explains how Trump’s major contribution to the war in Afghanistan has been to take the existing restraints off the air force so they can, Cockburn says, “try to pacify Afghanistan from 20,000 feet.” Cockburn and Scott then discuss the war on drugs in Afghanistan and Cockburn outlines why the narrative that the Taliban relies on opium for its power is overblown. Finally Scott and Cockburn discuss what Trump once got right about Afghanistan and why things went wrong.

Andrew Cockburn is the Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine and the author of Kill Chain: The Rise of the High-Tech Assassins. Follow him on Twitter @andrewmcockburn.

Discussed on the show:

This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Zen CashThe War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.comRoberts and Roberts Brokerage Inc.LibertyStickers.comTheBumperSticker.com; and ExpandDesigns.com/Scott.

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About Scott Horton

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 ScottHorton.org. He's the author of the 2021 book Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism, the 2017 book, Fool's Errand:Time to End the War in Afghanistan, editor of the 2019 book The Great Ron Paul: The Scott Horton Show Interviews 2004–2019 and the 2022 book Hotter Than The Sun: Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. He’s conducted more than 5,800 interviews since 2003. Scott lives in Austin, Texas with his wife, Larisa Alexandrovna Horton.

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