My view before listening to the entirety of Serial 2 was that I knew little of the American military presence in Afghanistan. I did not know what soldiers experienced on the ground, how captured Taliban are treated by the U.S. government or how captured U.S. soldiers are treated by terrorist organizations (the closest thing I read about it before was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, about an American POW), how long Bowe was in Afghanistan or what the U.S. was doing in Afghanistan now. I lacked the most basic awareness of Bowe’s case or what his recovery meant for American and international politics and the war in Afghanistan.
Serial 2 Thorny Politics Response
Listening to the podcast now, I want to know the answer to my original question. In the penultimate episode of Serial 2, narrator Sarah Koenig hones in on this politicization of Bowe’s rescue, and what that means for military strategies, political compromises and diplomatic negotiations today.
Serial 2 Trade Secrets Response
After listening to Episode 9, I found out that peace talks with the Taliban have hit setback after setback, and some have seemed especially calculated and intentional. For example, the leaks about the U.S.-Taliban peace talks; when the Afghanistan High Peace Council head and former president Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated, right before international peace talks were set to begin in late 2011. Then in 2013, the Afghan government, the U.S., the Qataris and the Taliban are working to allow the Taliban to have a political office in Qatar. Then the Taliban violates the ground rules and labels the office as the ‘Islamic Emirate.’ Karzai is upset, and the Taliban feel humiliated over a misunderstanding. Talks halt again.
Serial 2 Hindsight, Part 1 and 2 Response
In the Hindsight episodes, Sarah Koenig explores the idea that Bowe was unfit for military service. In Part 1, Bowe’s prior military history, his entering the U.S. Coast Guard and being discharged on a psychological diagnosis after a breakdown, is told. In Part 2, Bowe’s admittance to the U.S. Army after his previous medical and mental health based discharge is scrutinized, as well as the diagnosis of Bowe having Schizotypal personality disorder. By the end of Hindsight, Parts 1 and 2, all of this history is applied to Bowe walking off of OP Mest, and how his irrational and potentially dangerous behavior could be explained.
Serial 2 5 O’Clock Shadow Response
In episode 6 of Serial 2, narrator Sarah Koenig digs more deeply into primary source accounts from people who were involved in the same missions Bowe was, and with Bowe himself to probe how he arrived at the decision to walk off of OP Mest to FOB Sharana.
Serial 2 The Captors Response
In the fourth episode of Serial 2, Bowe’s treatment by the Taliban is contrasted with that of David Rohde, an American journalist. After last episode, where Bowe’s attempts to escape during the first year are documented, The Captors focuses on how he is treated and held for the following four years.
Serial 2 Meanwhile, in Tampa Response
In Serial 2’s fifth episode, narrator Sarah Koenig tries to make sense the entangled and frustrating process to try to bring Bowe back to the U.S., but the finished product seems to obscure more than it enlightens. The episode seems to show how impossible the situation was: Pakistan is friendly, the Haqqanis and Taliban are terrorists, Bowe is an enlisted solider.
Serial 2 Escaping Response
From the third episode, Escaping, it looks like Bowe Bergdahl is at least 60 (and probably much more than that) away from FOB Sharana, in Pakistan. Wherever he is held, especially in Pakistan, it is far from any metropolis, and far from U.S. personnel. In the third episode of the Serial 2, the listener begins to feel a sense of the vast aloneness Bowe felt in captivity, and two escapes he attempted in the first year of captivity. I was much harsher in my opinion of Bowe when I had only heard the first part of the story, but now hearing about this first year and how much he suffered, he was still a young, twenty-three year old guy, not much older than me. I do not think the media treatment of Bowe, the sensationalization of him was at all deserved.
Serial 2 The Golden Chicken Response
In the second episode of Serial 2, issues about freedom of the press and finding reliable journalistic sources is explored through contrasting stories surrounding Bowe Bergdahl’s capture by the Taliban. Narratives throughout the podcast, whether given by the Taliban of Bowe’s capture, or depicted through reactions to his disappearance from fellow soldiers, contrasted with the Wikileaks account, show that even with all the technology at our disposal to search and share information, sometimes factual truth and emotional story have effectively the same outcome.
Serial 2 DUSTWUN Response
This is the first in a series of posts about Serial 2, a podcast focused on the war in Afghanistan. It centered around Bowe Bergdahl, and I wrote responses to the podcast for my first semester International Relations major-required course, Introduction to World Politics. We learned about the international state system, and challenges to international […]
