Information Has Never Been More Abundant, and We Choose Not to Know
Lyse Doucet has reported from war zones for forty years, and her judgment is this: not knowing isn't because there isn't enough information, it's because we don't want to know. And this Iran war is a war of choice, and it has made everything worse.
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Not knowing is because you don't want to know
Doucet calls this "a really jarring time": information has never been more abundant, but "If we don't know about something, it's because we don't want to know about something. We choose not to know." She traces the cause to being bombarded every day by the US president's statements — yesterday it was "we don't need guardrails on AI," even though some of the leading founders in AI are asking for regulation; today it's rolling back some environmental regulations. She warns: a president who says he won't get into "forever wars" still ends up leading the country into those wars.
— Lyse DoucetThis is a war of choice, and it keeps getting worse
Doucet rarely offers a personal judgment: this war puts her under great pressure, because it is "a war of choice" rather than "a war of necessity," and "it just seems to have made everything worse in every way." She acknowledges that the US and Israel together have done enormous damage to Iran's military and navy, and that Iran's economy is suffering, but strategically "this is a war where President Trump doesn't know how to end it." Iran has not collapsed, the regime is harder than before, the promises made to the demonstrators have not been kept, and their lives have gotten worse instead.
— Lyse DoucetDaily market life under 82% inflation
Doucet uses inflation to illustrate Iran's predicament: Britons worry about single-digit inflation, "Oh, 4%, oh my God, it's 5%," while Iran is at 82%. She quotes an Iranian woman: I come to the market every day just to watch the prices go up, that's how I pass the time. She then sets Iran alongside Ukraine — both are "war of choice" and miscalculation; Trump thought he could drive straight through Iran, Putin thought he could drive straight through Ukraine, and both found that people's resistance is both creative and determined.
— Lyse DoucetIran has weaponized the Strait of Hormuz
Doucet gives the concrete mechanism: the Houthis control the western shore of the Red Sea and the islands in between, claiming they don't affect maritime traffic, but the previously de-escalating war between Saudi Arabia and Yemen has reignited; oil has risen past $108 a barrel; the Strait of Hormuz is completely frozen. The Iranians won't let go — they don't treat it merely as a bargaining chip but as a long-term chip, "They've weaponized the Strait of Hormuz." She notes that Trump repeatedly says "I didn't expect them to do this," but anyone who has done war-gaming will tell you the games always move quickly toward Iran controlling Hormuz.
— Lyse DoucetA "traditional Afghanistan" denied by exiles
When the Taliban required Afghan women to wear a burqa that leaves only the eyes exposed, Afghan women abroad pushed back, saying this is not traditional Afghanistan. Doucet points out that the burqa is locally called a chadili, with an embroidered mesh; but in the same period women were also being educated at Kabul University. While writing her book she dug out a large number of old photographs and decided she had to tell this history well, so she tracked down a person living in the United States — whose first reaction was "The Intercontinental, I love that hotel." Their first call lasted four hours, and the person drew the hotel's ground-floor plan from memory, pointing out which room belonged to the German wife of the mayor of Kabul and which to an Indian.
— Lyse DoucetFour hours of oral history, six months of silence
The second call lasted three hours, after which the person disappeared for about six months. The reason lay in Afghanistan's politics: in '73 the kingdom was ended by the first coup, and hotel employees were taken away for questioning — "Why do you work for an American hotel? Are you working for the CIA?" In '78 came the communist coup, people were thrown into prison, and she could only flee. Happy memories thus turned up sadness and pain. In the end Doucet called to ask for permission, and the person said: I can't appear in your book, it's too sad and too painful for me. Doucet's conclusion: a person writing a book can only get up the next day and find someone else to tell the story, and it will never be told as well.
— Lyse DoucetTwo trillion dollars bought a generation that knows its rights
Confronted with the question of what it was all for, Doucet acknowledges that both sides made mistakes, that this should be a humbling lesson for all NATO allies, and that there will be a formal reckoning. But she insists it was not wasted: twenty years of international involvement created the space for the most educated and most connected generation in Afghanistan's history to grow up. She quotes Malala Yousafzai — even reading a book is an act of resistance — and says these girls know their rights, know that Islam gave them the right to education, know that girls around the world go to school while they cannot. "Not enough, but it's not zero."
— Lyse DoucetThe difference between hope and optimism is agency
Doucet says she could never tell hope and optimism apart until she read Gordon Brown's "The Future Starts With Us": optimism is wishful thinking, whereas hope is different because hope carries agency — you don't just make a wish, you actually work to bring it about. She says she doesn't have the privilege of "not needing to have hope"; the agency she has is fighting for an Afghan visa, listening to stories there, and telling those stories as well as she can; and everyone has their own bit of agency — some donate money, some help girls take classes online, some teach girls in Africa, some help South Sudan, Nicaragua, and some help struggling areas within Britain itself.
— Lyse DoucetIn their own words · checked verbatim
We live in a time where never have we had so much information. If we don't know about something, it's because we don't want to know about something. We choose not to know.
Lyse Doucet3:13
It was a war of choice, and it just seems to have made everything worse in every way.
Lyse Doucet5:15
They've weaponized the Strait of Hormuz.
Lyse Doucet8:16
So her happy, happy stories turned into, it brought back the sadness and the pain.
Lyse Doucet41:12
It is not enough, but it is also not nothing.
Lyse Doucet1:04:15
And optimism is wishful thinking. Hope is different because hope has agency.
Lyse Doucet1:14:42
if you talk about building your brand, then you're saying the story is about you. And I, I think audiences can tell, audiences can tell.
Lyse Doucet1:17:51
is that you try to make a country into your own image, it will always fall afoul
Lyse Doucet1:20:53
Figures
| Iran's inflation rate | 82% | 6:16 |
| Oil price | rose past $108 a barrel | 8:16 |
| Length of Doucet's first call with the Intercontinental Hotel source | 4 hours | 40:12 |
| Length of the second call | 3 hours | 41:12 |
| How long the source went silent | about 6 months | 41:12 |
| Time Doucet spent applying for an Afghan visa | 3 years | 43:12 |
| Supplies stockpiled while staying in Kyiv | 3 weeks each of water and food | 1:11:41 |
| Distance of the Russian convoy | about 10 days' march | 1:11:41 |
| Year of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan | 1979 | 1:19:53 |
| Year of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan | 2001 | 1:19:53 |
Glossary
- war of choice
- A war launched by choice rather than out of existential necessity, as opposed to a war of necessity.
- chadili
- The local Afghan name for the full-body women's covering with an embroidered mesh.
- agency
- Not just making a wish, but the capacity to actually work to bring change about.
- madrasa
- An Islamic religious school, some of whose curricula include a jihadist agenda.
How to listen
Journalists covering the Middle East and Afghanistan, international relations researchers, humanitarian workers, and readers who want to understand the frameworks of the "war of choice" and "hope vs optimism."
The counterfactual speculation after 1:19:53, which is lower in information density.