The Command Post - Global War On Terror - Good News from Afghanistan: 6 June 2005

June 06, 2005

Good News from Afghanistan: 6 June 2005

Note: Also available from "The Opinion Journal" and Chrenkoff. As always, thanks to James Taranto, Joe Katzman, and all of you for continuing support. Please also note that because of the Memorial Day weekend, the publication of this "Good news" has been postponed, so it now contains the news for the past five, and not the usual four, weeks.

Over the last few weeks, Afghanistan has been in the news again - unfortunately, for all the wrong reasons. The media pack has made a brief re-appearance in Afghanistan to report on carefully staged "spontaneous" riots, which briefly erupted around the country, ostensibly in protest over a report in "Newsweek" (later retracted) about desecration of Koran by the American military personnel at Guantanamo Bay.

Sadly, in the rush of commentary about Afghanistan's slide into anarchy and America's deteriorating position in Kabul, most of the international media again missed or downplayed many other stories, some of them arguably far more consequential than an anti-government rampage whipped up by opponents of President Karzai. Take this story, for example:

A crowd of 600 Afghan clerics gathered in front of an historic mosque yesterday to strip the fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar of his claim to religious authority, in a ceremony that provided a significant boost to the presidency of Hamid Karzai.
The declaration, signed by 1,000 clerics from across the country, is an endorsement of the US-backed programme of reconciliation with more moderate elements of the Taliban movement that Karzai has been pursuing ahead of the country's first parliamentary elections, due in September.

Symbolically, the ulema shura, or council of clerics, was held at the Blue Mosque in the southern city of Kandahar, the spiritual home of the Taliban movement.
At the same venue in 1996 the Taliban leader held up a cloak said to belong to the Prophet Mohammed, which is kept in a shrine in the mosque. He was proclaimed Amir ul-Mumineen or Leader of Muslims by the same clerical body, one of the few occasions the title has been granted anywhere in the Islamic world in the modern era.

This important gathering and its implications were reported by only a handful of news outlets around the world - in stark contrast to the news several days later about the assassination at the hands of the Taliban of the head of the council and the suicide bombing at the historic mosque during his funeral, which appeared through hundreds of media outlets around the world.

Faced with this sort of media coverage, President Karzai expressed his exasperation during his recent visit in the United States: "Sometimes - rather often - neither our press, nor your press, nor the press in the rest of the world will pick up the miseries of the Afghans three years ago and what has been achieved since then, until today."

Below, then, the last five weeks' worth of stories that were yet again completely overshadowed by terrorism and violence.

Posted by Winds of Change at June 6, 2005 12:08 PM | TrackBack

Comments

Not surprising.

I refer to the media bias that President Karzai is so exasperated about.

Most folks don't understand how pervasive the cold war manuvering between the US and the USSR was, nor how deep it went.

It's not surprising that much of the institutional bias against the US, found in many parts of the world press, goes unnoticed. Considering how many people seem completely unaware of the KGB influence in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, it's no surprise that subtler forms of Cold War influence go unnoticed, especially now that the influence continues on inertia over 15 years since the Cold War ended.

I find it ironic that this institutional bias has only gotten worse since the implementation of the Bush Doctrine in the aftermath of 9/11. The fact is; the Kissingerian sort of RealPolitik that was the hallmark of US foreign policy; the pursuit of stability at all costs, was worthy of criticism. Our relationship with Saddam Hussein was part of that policy, which in fairness actually predates Kissinger quite a bit.

The Bush Doctrine's reordering of priorities, which saw the longterm spread Freedom & Democracy re-rated as more important than short term stability; should have improved the situation.

Of course, being the 800 pound gorilla tends to get you a certain amount of resentment no matter WHAT you do. That reality, combined with the media bias that Karzai referred to; which generally sees only our mistakes highlighted, tends to make that very bias self-perpetuating.

It's gotten so bad that they even find ways to criticize our astounding generousity after the December Tsunami.

A few weeks ago I saw a thread on D.U. that put forth the idea that US failure in Iraq is to be hoped for, otherwise Bush might get credit for doing something right. This thread was deleted soon thereafter, but not before garnering a good deal of support on that board.

Well, that sort of attitude is only a microcosm of the way much of the world press views the US. Frankly, I don't see that changing any time soon, regardless of what we do.

Posted by: A Vet at June 9, 2005 03:55 AM