Evan Osnos
The Diplomat
People, composure and the difficult conversation held well.
Evan Osnos is a journalist known for his insightful analysis of political and social issues, particularly in the context of China and American politics. This interview reveals his ability to navigate complex narratives and foster understanding across different perspectives, highlighting his role as a mediator in the discourse surrounding political change.
“Yeah, I sort of became very conscious of the sheer span of possible experience as an American, the idea that you can be a kid a few blocks from here, growing up in an environment where there really is a daily reminder of the fragility of human life. I mean, it is not abstract and it has an impact on everything that you do.”
“Sense. And of course, it was a catastrophe. And there was a period of time as reporters in Iraq where we had this very strange distance between the conversation at home because we were all saying on the ground you'd get together at the end of the day and you'd all say to each other this is a disaster.”
“How do we do it? What do we tell the Pentagon about when they can come out? How do they sequence it? Those are the places where the mistakes happened. And it's going to be a while before we really go in and understand everything that went wrong. But decisions about, okay, why did we leave Bagram when we did?”
“Much so. And I often find myself returning to this principle. I keep seeing it over and over again in American life, the ways in which these tools that we create, and we create almost sort of beautiful tools in the technical sense. They're so powerful.”
The Axe Files with David Axelrod — Ep. 463—Evan Osnos
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