Matt Zeller on the Campbell Conversations

WRVO | By Grant Reeher

Published May 24, 2015 at 12:19 PM EDT

Army Capt. Matt Zeller (left) credits his interpreter, Janis Shinwari, with saving his life during a firefight. Zeller has made it his mission to help Shinwari get a visa to the United States for the risks he took to aid U.S. forces.

For eight months in 2008, Matt Zeller was an Army Lieutenant acting as an embedded trainer with Afghan security forces in the Ghazni Province. Following that, he was a CIA analyst, ran for Congress, and authored a book about his war experiences. In this edition of the Campbell Conversations, he speaks in powerful and unvarnished terms about his time in Afghanistan, his struggles upon his return to the States, and the shortcomings of American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Note: This broadcast originally aired in February 2013.

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Grant Reeher

Grant Reeher is a Political Science Professor and Senior Research Associate at the Campbell Public Affairs Institute at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship. He is also creator, host and program director of “The Campbell Conversations” on WRVO, a weekly regional public affairs program featuring extended in-depth interviews with regional and national writers, politicians, activists, public officials, and business professionals.

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