Ep 154 Afghanistan Papers and the Culture of Lying feat Matthew Hoh

Guest: Matthew Hoh. We talk about the Afghanistan Papers that were published in the Washington Post at the end of 2019 and the media treatment of these issues. We discuss Matthew’s experience in the military and in foreign service, the war in Afghanistan during the Bush and Obama administrations, and the culture of lying that has developed in the military. Matthew resigned in protest in 2009 over the war in Afghanistan. 

Matthew Hoh is a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC. He’s a disabled veteran, a former US Marine Corps officer and Department of Defense and State Department official. Matthew was in the Iraq War with the Marines and in both Afghanistan and Iraq with State Department teams. He is on the Boards and Advisory Boards of a number of organizations including Expose Facts, Institute for Public Accuracy and Veterans For Peace. He writes and speaks regularly on issues of war and peace, has appeared on numerous media networks and his work has been published by a wide array of online and print media

FOLLOW Matthew on Facebook. Find his recent writings at CounterPunch, antiwar.com and on his website https://matthewhoh.com

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Reference Links:

1. Matthew Hoh website: https://matthewhoh.com
2. At War With the Truth, Washington Post, Craig Whitlock (first WaPo article on Afghanistan Papers)
3. The Secret History of the War, Washington Post, Craig Whitlock (Afghanistan Papers)
4. Wiki: Afghanistan Papers
5. Those who ran the Afghanistan war lied. They must be held to account, Washington Post, Katrina vanden Heuvel
6. Afghan Papers Inadvertently Document WaPo’s Role in Spreading Official Lies, FAIR
7. WaPo’s Afghan Papers Propagate Colonial Narrative of Noble Intentions Gone Awry, FAIR
8. Book: The Cost of Loyalty: Dishonesty, Hubris, and Failure in the U.S. Military, Tim Bakken
9. Lying to Ourselves: Dishonesty in the Army Profession, Army War College, Dr Stephen J Gerras, Dr Leonard Wong