Post-Game: Afghanistan

It was clear from last night’s show that Ahmed Rashid, David Rohde, and Charlie Sennott — talented and curious reporters all — took away much the same message from their trips to Afghanistan: that there was (maybe still is) hope for the country, but that we’ve squandered it by focussing on Iraq. We particularly liked the live back-and-forth between David and Charlie, but Mary pointed out that we might have benefitted from a little more tension in the show. Chris wanted to hear someone advance the idea that there never was any chance we’d actually do right by Afghanistan — that it’s been a geopolitical pawn (for the British, for the Russians, for the Americans) forever. And, although we did try to reach a number of Afghan bloggers, we wish we could have gotten a voice from Afghanistan on the air.