Epilogue: Truth Is the First Casualty

In war, truth is the first casualty.

It’s a military maxim attributed to Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragedy. In the lead up to the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the end of the ensuing war that became the longest in American history, GroundTruth’s founder Charlie Sennott returns to Afghanistan and revisits a war he’s covered from the ground since its first battles and first casualties.

Two decades later, amid a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan that many have compared to the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, Sennott compares the two conflicts, the government’s lies and deceptions about Vietnam revealed by Daniel Ellsberg’s Pentagon Papers, the lessons left unheeded by American leaders during the Afghan war, and why it took us so long to see the mounting lies of that war.

This episode concludes The Whistleblower, our 10th season of the GroundTruth Podcast, which began with the award-winning series Foreverstan, on the ground reporting from Afghanistan examining the first 14 years of the war in collaboration with GBH.

As we look ahead to Season 11 of the GroundTruth Podcast, we want to hear from listeners like you: How do we keep going and finding new ways to be there on the ground, telling audio stories that matter in undercovered corners of the world?

We’d like to hear your thoughts about the podcast. Call us and leave a voice message with your feedback at ‪(339) 365-3754. We listen to everything you send us and we might even share some of them on this podcast.