In June of this year, President Obama announced that all 33,000 additional U.S. forces he ordered to Afghanistan will be home in 15 months.  Specifically, 10,000 troops would withdraw by the end of this year, and the remaining 23,000 would leave Afghanistan by September 2012.  Calling the deployment of the surge "one of the most difficult decisions that I've made as president," Obama said the military campaign was "meeting our goals" in Afghanistan and the drawdown would begin "from a position of strength."  Today's show is an update on the US deployment efforts from the perspective of Kabul and the US military.

Guests:

Edward Watts is a freelance producer/director who recently traveled to Kabul, Afghanistan on an assignment for the BBC where he was embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in Paktika Province of Afghanistan.

Produced and Hosted by Sejal Patel and Lucy Der-Tavitian with news analysis by Hamoud Salhi

of the South and West Asia and North Africa Collective of KPFK/Pacifica