The November meeting will be spent discussing the war in Afghanistan, its history, the origins of contact between the US and Afghanistan, the present "state-of-the-war", what are US and international "interests" in this country, what "interests" they might have in us, and possible future resolutions/outcomes for present conflicts.
Our speaker will be William Davnie, a retired Foreign Service Officer. He has served Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan's northern neighbor, Tajikistan, where he followed Afghan affairs, and has visited Afghanistan professionally. He has also served in Iraq, in 2007 during the surge, and has published articles on both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ultimately, we'd like to address the question : If President Obama was in the room with us right now, what would we counsel him to do? This takes personal knowledge on our part regarding the intricacies of the subject!
So, please hit your local libraries and the Internet to discover what knowledge YOU can bring to the discussion next time!
The November Meetup will be held in St. Paul at the Mai Village Restaurant November 10th, 7PM.
They have private meeting accommodations that are free if the attendees plan to dine - so tell your friends!
Fawn, John and Michael