One Year Later: The Afghanistan Withdrawal w/ Lyla Kohistany Tuesday, August 30, 2022

On the first anniversary of the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan, program host Chris Meek speaks with Lyla Kohistany, an inclusion strategist and cultural intelligence advisor, on her thoughts about what the U.S. got right and what it got wrong about the withdrawal. Lyla began her career in 2001 as a U.S. Navy Surface Warfare Officer stationed in Japan. Born in Kabul and a refugee of the Soviet conflict, the attacks on 9/11 prompted her to transfer into the Intelligence community where she served as a Counterterrorism Analyst in Afghanistan working alongside U.S. and NATO Special Operations Forces (SOF). Upon separating from the military, she consulted for the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, and U.S. Operations Command (USSOCOM). Lyla is the co-founder and director of two national nonprofits: PROMOTE, which is focused on innovation through inclusion in national security, and Honor the Promise, which is focused on long-term refugee resilience in the U.S. Lyla will speak about her own experiences as a refugee, her family’s difficulty integrating into society, the veteran community’s deep desire to help support the Afghan veterans in the U.S. and actions they can take to support their Afghan security force partners. Additionally she will discuss how the veteran and military family communities can become more resilient in this particular moment of time and what can be done to help veterans overcome PTSD and trauma. Lyla has an uplifting perspective when it comes to resiliency and overcoming adversity - she is proof that it is possible.