How We Missed the Story on Afghanistan

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Related Programs:
The Bernard L. Schwartz Fellows Program, American Strategy Program, Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency Initiative

In How We Missed The Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the Hijacking of Afghanistan, award-winning journalist Roy Gutman weaves a narrative that exposes how and why the U.S. government, the United Nations, and the Western media "missed the story" in the leadup to 9/11.

Focusing primarily on events in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 1990s, Gutman contends that foreign policy in the region was non-existent. He argues that instead of a comprehensive foreign policy, the U.S. government chose to conduct a counter-terror policy that inadvertently fueled the very fire it was trying to fight. Gutman is also critical of the media's role during this period -- questioning the lack of coverage of Afghanistan prior to 9/11.

Join the New America Foundation for a robust discussion with Roy Gutman and Peter Bergen on the policy and media mistakes in Afghanistan prior to September 11.

Participants

• Roy Gutman
  Foreign Editor, McClatchy Newspapers
  Author, How We Missed the Story

• Peter Bergen
  Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
  Terrorism Analyst, CNN