John Kerry has returned from a trip to Afghanistan saying that the McChrystal recommendation for additional troops would ramp up forces too quickly.

In this interview on The Newshour, he talks about what he discovered on the ground, and he discusses his successful effort to get Afghan President Hamid Karzai to commit to a runoff election. This is a meaty 11 minutes.

You can also listen to the Kerry interview or read the transcript.

Gordon Goldstein’s book about Vietnam, Lessons in Disaster, is one that many in the Obama Administration are reading and talking about as they consider changes to the Afghanistan strategy.

Tuesday, you may have heard a short, but smart discussion between NPR’s Steve Inskeep and Goldstein on Morning Edition. (Listen)

We heard it and wanted more. Here’s a longer interview with Gordon Goldstein from WNYC’s Leonard Lopate yesterday. Goldstein talks about the decision-making and strategies that led the US into Vietnam, and the lessons for the Obama administration in Afghanistan.

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David Sanger of The New York Times wrote an influential book in January – The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power. The book is a catalog of the international issues the US faces at the dawn of the Obama administration. Chief among them: Iran and Afghanistan.

Sanger talked to WNYC’s Brian Lehrer on Monday about the administration’s choices as it faces a growing nuclear threat from Iran, and about the difficult decisions ahead in Afghanistan.

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Listen live at 10am ET/7am PT

On Point will now devote its first hour this morning to the UN’s sacking of Peter Galbraith, its envoy to Afghanistan.

Galbraith appears to have run afoul of the UN by calling for a complete recount of the recent election votes.

Listen live or on-demand.

Here’s a story that made us go, “Wow, huh.”

Apparently, there are a lot of ordinary folks in Afghanistan who trade in their desk jobs after a long week, and spend the weekend as jihadists, hanging out with the Taliban.

Yesterday on The Takeaway, John Hockenberry and Celeste Headlee chatted with BBC correspondent Kate Clark about these weekend warriors and how it’s making it much harder for coalition forces trying to avoid civilian casualties.

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The NewsHour’s Margaret Warner spoke at length with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview broadcast last night. Secretary Clinton discussed the administration’s strategy for Afghanistan and General McChrystal’s report.

We’ve not come across many personal stories from the conflict in Afghanistan, but here’s one worth hearing.

This is the story of an Afghan national who worked as a translator for coalition forces in Afghanistan. He fled to Canada 18 months ago after he started getting death threats from the Taliban for doing his job.

Amid (not his real name) told his story on The Current on CBC Radio One.

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July is the deadliest month for US troops in Afghanistan, since the war began.

On Tuesday, in the eastern part of the country, Taliban militants and suicide bombers launched an attack that killed 14 soldiers.

WorldFocus host Martin Savidge talked to Lisa Curtis, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, about the attacks were carried out, and the security situation in Afghanistan.

Dexter Filkins will talk about Pakistan and Afghanistan today on Fresh Air, before he prepares to return to the region to report for the New York Times. Here’s his most recent appearance on Charlie Rose – a conversation from February.

Listen live at 12pm ET/9am PT

It’s been a tough year in Afghanistan, with increasing attacks and continuing political turmoil. KUOW’s Weekday brings together a panel that includes John Dempsey from the Kabul office of the U.S. Institute of Peace, and reporter Aunohita Mojumdar, to assess the current situation. We expect this in-depth hour on Afghanistan will be excellent.

Listen live or on-demand.