Scott interviews Cato’s John Mueller about why it’s time to leave Afghanistan. Fundamentally, the Taliban cannot be defeated at any remotely acceptable cost of American lives and U.S. dollars, says Mueller, and at the same time military interventions has only made the Al-Qaeda problem—America’s original enemies—even worse. Fortunately, it seems like President Trump might see ending the war in Afghanistan as a possible path to reelection.

Discussed on the show:

• “Overcoming Inertia: Why It’s Time to End the War in Afghanistan” (Cato Institute)
• “Life under the Taliban shadow government” (Overseas Development Institute)

John Mueller is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute and a senior research scientist with the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University. He is the author of Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them , Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda, and many others. Follow his work at the Cato Institute.

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