Iraq & Afganistan Wars

He produced the new documentary Truth, War and Consequences (on most PBS stations Thursday, Oct. 9 at 9 p.m.) It's about the infighting between the Pentagon, State Department and White House, before the Iraq war, over the intelligence information about weapons of mass destruction.

Peter W. Galbraith is a former U.S. ambassador to Croatia, and is now professor of national-security studies at the National War College in Washington, D.C. Since the late 1980s he has been studying Iraqi war crimes and has also worked closely with the Kurds, who control a small territory in northern Iraq. He'll talk about the effect of a war on the Kurdish people.

Brzezinski has reported on the nation's homeland security since Sept. 11, for magazines including Mother Jones and The New York Times Magazine. His new book is Fortress America: An Inside Look at the Coming Surveillance State (out later this fall).

Norman Podhoretz is considered the grandfather of the neoconservative movement, which had its birth in the 1970s. The former editor of the monthly magazine, Commentary, Podhoretz subscribes to what some call the "Bush Doctrine" of foreign policy, favoring pre-emptive action against potential threats. Podhoretz wrote a 37-page defense of the Bush administration's foreign policy, published in Commentary called "World War IV: How it Started, What it Means, and Why We Have to Win."

Phil Klay served in Iraq from January 2007 to February 2008. He recently won a National Book Critics Circle award for his collection of short stories. Originally broadcast Nov. 25, 2014.

As the film's depiction of the Iraq War has come under scrutiny, Cooper, who portrays Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, says the discussion is moving away from "the fact that 22 vets commit suicide each day."

The film about a Navy SEAL whose service in Iraq made him a mythic figure has become a cultural lightning rod. But the squabbles are too simple for a low-key movie striking in its lack of stridency.

While embedded with troops in Iraq, David Morris almost died when a Humvee he was riding in ran over a roadside bomb. His book explores the history and science of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Phil Klay served in Iraq from January 2007 to February 2008. He recently won a National Book Award for his collection of short stories.

Journalist David Wood says "almost everyone" in war has suffered a violation of their sense of right and wrong. As a result. Wood tells Fresh Air, veterans deal with grief, numbness and grief.

James Risen could face prison for refusing to reveal his source for a story about a botched CIA operation intended to sabotage Iran's nuclear weapons program. His new book is Pay Any Price.

The New York Times Baghdad bureau chief Tim Arango has been reporting from Iraq for five years and has watched the rise of the Islamic State militants. He gives Fresh Air his take on the situation.

In her new book, Angela Ricketts writes about raising three kids while her husband deployed eight times over 22 years. Each separation "kind of blackens your soul," she says.

The journalist who covered the war in Iraq, and its aftermath, details the militant Sunni Islamist group, the power it has in Iraq and Syria and how its war is destabilizing neighboring countries.

In 1988, Ajami spoke with Terry Gross about an essay he'd written about how political catastrophe came to Beruit, Lebanon, and how the city where he grew up became a land of cruelty and hatred.

Clinton's new memoir, Hard Choices, outlines her four years as secretary of state under President Obama. She talks about her vote for the Iraq War, women's rights and political "gamers."

New Yorker writer Dexter Filkins finds an increasingly authoritarian prime minister — Nouri al-Maliki — sectarian violence, and concern for the future. Iraq holds parliamentary elections Wednesday.

In his short story collection, former Marine Phil Klay takes his experience in Iraq and clarifies it, lucidly tracing the moral, political and psychological curlicues of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Kayla Williams and Brian McGough met in Iraq in 2003. Williams' new memoir, Plenty of Time When We Get Home, describes their homecoming after McGough suffered physical and cognitive injuries in an IED explosion.

Roy Scranton and Jacob Siegel edited and contributed to the collection of short stories by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They tell Fresh Air about how soldiers cope with the fear of death, and why many soldiers feel conflicted about sharing their experience with a larger audience.