On COI #159, Kevin Gosztola joins Kyle Anzalone to discuss the people who were right about the Afghan War all along, among them Congresswoman Barbara Lee, who cast the sole \u2018no\u2019 vote against the 2001 authorization to attack Afghanistan. Lee correctly predicted that the bill would be exploited to justify an endless war, and has continued to fight to repeal the 2001 AUMF.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kevin recounts the story of Matthew Hoh. Working as a State Department official, Hoh realized Obama\u2019s Afghan surge would be a deadly failure. He, therefore, blew the whistle on the administration\u2019s propaganda campaign, which insisted the \u2018surge\u2019 approach employed in Iraq could be exported to Afghanistan. While Hoh was largely ignored, he gained key backing for his claims, which have since been proven correct.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Like Hoh, Daniel L. Davis also blew the whistle over the disastrous Afghan surge. Years after Hoh, Davis reported to Congress \u2013 and the American people \u2013 that the country\u2019s leaders were lying about their non-existent successes in Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Kevin talks about the importance of journalist Micheal Hastings, who penned an explosive 2010 Rolling Stone profile that resulted in the firing of Stanley McChrystal, the \u201cRunaway General.\u201d Hastings also exposed the absurdity of the US counter-insurgency campaign pushed by the disgraced General David Petraeus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The horrors and failures of the Afghan War were also published by Wikileaks, thanks to leaker Chelsea Manning and journalist Julian Assange. Kevin explains why Manning passed the Afghan War Logs to Wikileaks and updates Julians Assange\u2019s extradition appeal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Daniel Hale is another persecuted whistleblower, who released important information showing the massive number of civilians murdered by the US drone program. Hale appeared in the documentary \u2018National Bird,\u2019 but was not prosecuted for leaking the information until years later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Subscribe on\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0audio only.<\/a><\/p>\n