TheElegantDiplomat

Hi Jeremy, great to see you here. On a lot of people's minds today is the death of Michael Hastings. Reports say he died when his car crashed into a tree at high speed. At the same time, there are some who treat that story with suspicion, especially given videos of the event, which appear to show his car turning into a fireball and then exploding a second time. (30-second video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQqtlekUPYI) While understanding that evidence is very preliminary, and while sympathizing with a public person like yourself's well-founded hesitation to be seen endorsing or giving credence to conspiracy theories, would you be inclined to say that some measure of suspicion seems warranted, or not, given the available information at this point? Hastings did certainly upset some powerful people in the military. Thanks.

Glenn Greenwald has suggested that blowback from aggressive US operations in the Muslim world may actually be a feature, not a bug, of the drone war / anti-terror program. In Q&A sessions for Dirty Wars, however, you have distanced yourself from that type of analysis. In your view, then, given the likelihood that war planners in the US have the same information that we have, and the same powers of reasoning, what is their motive in ramping up the one action (overseas strikes) that, as all evidence suggests, does little more than increase the numbers of people who want to harm the US, and therefore increase the real danger level within the US?

Today's news has been about possible talks between the US and the Taliban, and just a few hours ago Karzai condemned those prospective talks, saying that the Afghan government should take the lead in negotiations within Afghanistan. My understanding has been that Karzai entered office years ago as a partner of the US, hand-picked for political reasons, although lately he has distanced himself from US dictates and policies on several occasions. What's your sense on how Karzai is viewed within Afghanistan now, and whether his stand against US overreach is borne of genuine concern for the future of Afghanistan, or if it is for domestic political consumption so that he can keep his street cred within Afghanistan?

In the areas you have visited which are targets of US operations abroad, can you give us a sense of how the 'war on terror' is perceived or understood by the people you meet? Many people, surely, live a lifestyle that is very locally-defined and divorced from international affairs. What constitutes their picture of events when drones fly overhead or US special units conduct operations nearby? Are people generally informed about the issues which prompted these acts, or are these incursions explained and internalized in some other way?