Award Winning Journalist Details Afghanistan Experiences

On March 2, 2017, the BGS IC CAE co-hosted a guest lecture from Mr. Douglas Wissing.  Mr. Wissing is an award winning journalist who has written books based on his trips to Afghanistan and interactions with U.S. military personnel.  During the lecture, Mr. Wissing read excerpts from his most recent book, Hopeless but Optimistic: Journeying through America’s Endless War in Afghanistan.  Mr. Wissing discussed some of his main points from the book and shared stories of his experiences.  He mentioned the thoughts and ideas of some of the soldiers in the units to which was embedded.  Notably, he was once embedded with an Army National Guard unit from Kentucky.  Mr. Wissing’s previous book, Funding the Enemy, was referred to along with short passages from the book.  Attendees stayed for the further discussion and a Q&A session following the lecture.  Mr. Wissing facilitated great conversation from students as well as EKU veteran students in attendance who had firsthand experience in Afghanistan.  A recoding of Mr. Wissing’s lecture can be accessed via the following link: https://youtu.be/bm5gR4WAQYQ.  Along with the BGS IC CAE, Mr. Wissing’s lecture was co-hosted by the EKU Department of Government and Economics, the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center at Indiana University, and the EKU Asian Studies Program.

Published on March 28, 2017