Since President Joe Biden pulled U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, many are sorting through whether a withdrawal was really necessary. Regardless, the decision marks a decided end to a long and protracted war, which began during 9/11.

Amb. Robert Finn joins Julian Zelizer in this week's episode to analyze the decision and its effects in this week's episode. A former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Finn is a former lecturer on Turkish literature at Princeton University's Department of Near Eastern Studies and Ertegun Professor of Turkic Studies. His distinguished foreign service career includes posts at U.S. missions in Turkey and as ambassador to Afghanistan and Tajikistan.