Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Notes From Amnesiastan*
Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has told the Al Jazeera television channel that he wants to destroy the White House, New York and London.
In his first-ever television interview that lasted 25 minutes, Mehsud was quoted by the Daily Times as saying: Our primary aim is to finish Britain [and] the US, and to crush the pride of the non-Muslims...
Mehsud was recently chosen the leader of a militant coalition named the Taliban Movement of Pakistan, a collection of 40 groups that have come together to battle the Pakistani army.
As the situation in Afghanistan/Pakistan deteriorates, and as the Taliban continues its resurgence, I thought it would be as good a time as any to revisit this little piece of right-wing demagoguery from back in July 2006:
The latest news reports all seem to agree: Afghanistan is falling apart. Once again, pack journalism is trying to shape our foreign policy…
In a June 27 Daily Telegraph piece on the "Afghan crisis," Pakistani journalist Ahmed Rashid wrote that "people are being killed at a rate not seen since the 2001 American-led invasion." The Taliban are returning, he continues...Almost all of this picture is misleading…and the journalistic pack seems to be rooting for the wrong side. […]
As for the Taliban, it’s questionable whether there is an organized fundamentalist movement at all any more. […]
Saying that Afghanistan is on the verge of collapse is a prediction that could become self-fulfilling.
You see, things in Afghanistan/Pakistan aren't really as bad as the media says. And if they are, well, they're only that bad because the media said they would be. Yet another variation of the "stabbed if you do, stabbed if you don't" maneuver.
(h/t to Hounshell for the link) * credit Swopa with the turn of phrase
