Laurie Essig

US official uses the " S " word and the " C " word about Afghanistan

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, appeared on NBC yesterday and uttered both the S word and the C word about Afghanistan. That's right.  He mentioned the Soviets and the decades-old Afghan Civil War. For some reason, these are two words that are not used very often in US news coverage of Afghanistan, not the mainstream sort anyway.  The fact that Afghanistan has been engaged in a civil war since before the Soviet invasion (1979) and that this civil war continues and that the US is on the same side of the civil war as the Soviets were is, I suppose, too obvious to report on.  And I guess the fact that the Soviets had their butts kicked and the war in Afghanistan so thoroughly drained the Communist state of resources and credibility that many observers saw that war as the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire has been so thoroughly ignored by the mainstream media because it's just so widely known by the American voters that it doesn't merit a mention. So when a former diplomat actually utters the "S" and the "C" words about Afghanistan, it's as shocking as if he just dropped the F bomb (futile, f*#ked, etc.). Ex-diplomat says Afghanistan in ‘civil war,’ calls for US withdrawal | Raw Story. Writing in the Huffington Post last week, documentary film makers Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald pointed out that the US media has never been good about actually reporting on Afghanistan.  Even when it was clear that the US was purposefully luring the Soviets in by supporting the mujahadeen, even when it became clear that millions of Afghans would be left dead and even more would become refugees as a direct result of the US's "covert" support of the mujahadeen, the American press continued to pretend as if Afghanistan were a black and white melodrama.  Good vs. bad.  Evil Empire vs. Freedom Fighters.  Somehow the press imagined Afghanistan as if it really was a Rambo film.  Even when the freedom fighters morphed into the Taliban, there was almost no "reporting" on the consequences of US foreign policy for ordinary Afghans, especially women. After the Soviets left in 1989, it wasn't until 9/11 that the American press even really noticed Afghanistan again.  And they noticed it as "the good war" or some way to stop al Qaeda.

• Elizabeth Gould: Afghanistan: A history of failed press coverage (huffingtonpost.com)

But what happens if the US press starts noticing that this is the SAME war the Soviets fought, that it was exactly this war that drained them of any resources at home, and left them nearly powerless on the world stage?  Maybe the "C," "S," and "F" words will no longer be enough and the "B" word (bring the troops home) will be bandied about.

US official uses the " S " word and the " C " word about Afghanistan

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Image via Wikipedia"][/caption]

Former US diplomat to Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, appeared on NBC yesterday and uttered both the S word and the C word about Afghanistan. That's right.  He mentioned the Soviets and the decades-old Afghan Civil War. For some reason, these are two words that are not used very often in US news coverage of Afghanistan, not the mainstream sort anyway.  The fact that Afghanistan has been engaged in a civil war since before the Soviet invasion (1979) and that this civil war continues and that the US is on the same side of the civil war as the Soviets were is, I suppose, too obvious to report on.  And I guess the fact that the Soviets had their butts kicked and the war in Afghanistan so thoroughly drained the Communist state of resources and credibility that many observers saw that war as the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire has been so thoroughly ignored by the mainstream media because it's just so widely known by the American voters that it doesn't merit a mention. So when a former diplomat actually utters the "S" and the "C" words about Afghanistan, it's as shocking as if he just dropped the F bomb (futile, f*#ked, etc.). Ex-diplomat says Afghanistan in ‘civil war,’ calls for US withdrawal | Raw Story. Writing in the Huffington Post last week, documentary film makers Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald pointed out that the US media has never been good about actually reporting on Afghanistan.  Even when it was clear that the US was purposefully luring the Soviets in by supporting the mujahadeen, even when it became clear that millions of Afghans would be left dead and even more would become refugees as a direct result of the US's "covert" support of the mujahadeen, the American press continued to pretend as if Afghanistan were a black and white melodrama.  Good vs. bad.  Evil Empire vs. Freedom Fighters.  Somehow the press imagined Afghanistan as if it really was a Rambo film.  Even when the freedom fighters morphed into the Taliban, there was almost no "reporting" on the consequences of US foreign policy for ordinary Afghans, especially women. After the Soviets left in 1989, it wasn't until 9/11 that the American press even really noticed Afghanistan again.  And they noticed it as "the good war" or some way to stop al Qaeda.

• Elizabeth Gould: Afghanistan: A history of failed press coverage (huffingtonpost.com)

But what happens if the US press starts noticing that this is the SAME war the Soviets fought, that it was exactly this war that drained them of any resources at home, and left them nearly powerless on the world stage?  Maybe the "C," "S," and "F" words will no longer be enough and the "B" word (bring the troops home) will be bandied about.