Quality Regional Media on Afghanistan
Kudos to the Raleigh News and Observer for today’s front page story on Afghanistan. It’s a model of informative, frank news coverage. The N&O is a McClatchy newspaper, the story by Jonathan S. Landay of McClatchy, so it may also appear in other papers. The more the better for helping regional publics get the information and analysis needed amidst the latest Bush administration spin onslaught.
The story is centered on the front page with a large bold headline. Its first two paragraphs grab with a dramatic scene. The next paragraph leads with a telling quote from a U.S. officer: “They [the Taliban] hide their weapons and become farmers.” The next paragraph lead: “Afghanistan has become Iraq on a slow burn.” The next paragraph connects the “Taliban comeback” to the diversion to Iraq. The next gives the comparative stats of “only 42,000 U.S. and NATO-led troops to secure a country that’s one-and-a-half times the size of Iraq, where 150,000 U.S.-led coalition troops are deployed.” And stats on Afghan suicide bombings, from two in all of 2002 to one every five days. And that’s all before you leave the front page.
More quality coverage follows inside, including one graph showing the sharp increases in terrorism and deaths, and another on the nearly 300% increase in opium cultivation.
Along with the New York Times revelation of the latest NIE, we’re getting a clearer and more honest picture of where we stand against terrorism than the Bush series of speeches. It’s not just about how bad the threat is, but how good the strategy is.
Afghanistan is a lost cause.
If there ever was a chance, that is long gone.
What one wonders is if the decision-makers in Washington ever wanted to succeed in Afghanistan, or if it was a distraction reasonably far away to serve as entertainment for the American electorate and test site for the armed forces.
The biggest problem with U.S. foreign policies is that they are so unpredictable and it's so hard to find indications of what's real genuine national interest and what's only posturing for... yes, for what?
Presidents from the Democratic Party, and Democratic heavyweights in Congress haven't necessarily been clearer in this respect than Republicans.
September 26, 2006 1:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes a picture is worth .. tells the story ..
Quality regional media vs. regional coding.
I guess you missed this glaring example of regional coding of the news.
Which I found via AMERICAblog.
Which was found via RISING HEGEMON.
The source and copies of the image (in case of some sudden need for further regional coding corrections) -
Newsweek
AMERICAblog
RISING HEGEMON
September 26, 2006 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's heartening to know regional and local newspapers are carrying actual news. Finally. I'm surprised at the skepticism -- albeit cheerful and with some humor -- shown by the local weekly in this sparsely populated but majority (82%) Republican county. What's needed is an organized blackout of broadcast and cable TV until they get the point.
But Democrats just don't do that sort of thing nowadays.
September 26, 2006 6:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
I feel that the Bush Administration probably had no interest in going into Afghanistan (recall Rumsfeld's "there are no good targets"). But they would never have been able to sell Iraq without Afghanistan. They had to be able to say, "See we responded to 9/11. Now we have to go after the emerging threat before it emerges." Which is how they sold Iraq.
October 1, 2006 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink