We have another Remnant first-timer on the show this week, as Jonah is joined by old friend, well-traveled military writer, and Marine veteran Bing West. With a discipline that only a Marine could muster, Bing joins the program to talk about his upcoming novel, The Last Platoon: A Novel of the Afghanistan War, which uses Afghanistan as a backdrop to tell the story of men in combat who “do their duty, even when it becomes clear that there will be no reward.” Jonah also probes Bing’s brain about the overall strategic value of the Afghanistan war, the abiding faith of American soldiers in an era of secularism, how to break up the perverse friendship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and most important, how a small, tri-fold shovel is sometimes the most valuable piece of equipment a soldier can have.

Show Notes:
-Pre-order The Last Platoon
-Afghani tribal groups and opium production
-Bing’s book embedded with Marines in Fallujah
-Bing in WSJ: “How to save Kabul from Saigon’s fate”
-Sebastian Junger’s Tribe
-How counterinsurgency (or COIN) really works
-The Dispatch addresses Pompeo’s thoughts on the Taliban turning on al-Qaeda
-The Pepper Dogs