Balloon Juice highlights a startling passage in a Washington Post story: But many residents near Kandahar do not share the view. They have lodged repeated complaints about the scope of the destruction with U.S. and Afghan officials. In one October operation near the city, U.S. aircraft dropped about two dozen 2,000-pound bombs. In another recent…
Showing all posts tagged Afghanistan
Deep behind “enemy” lines in Afghanistan
James Fergusson on the war in Afghanistan that isn’t being discussed in the New York Times or polite circles: The sound of a propeller engine is audible the moment my fixer and I climb out of the car, causing us new arrivals from Kabul to glance sharply upwards. I have never heard a military drone…
Skateistan, the movie
A stunning piece of work about a troubled land. Hope exists: To Live And Skate Kabul is a beautifully shot film that follows the lives of a group of young skateboarders in Afghanistan. Operating against the backdrop of war and bleak prospects, the Skateistan charity project is the world’s first co-educational skateboarding school, where a…
More weapons, more profits, more death
The privatisation of war is a growing phenomenon across the world. It’s rarely examined (Jeremy Scahill is a notable and noble exception). And now here’s David Ignatius in the Washington Post on the brave new world of killing “terrorists” and not telling anybody about it: A new arsenal of drones and satellite-guided weapons is changing…
Afghan politician wants us gone
Here’s a rarity. An Afghan politician calling for the removal of foreign troops. Note the sneering dismissal of her calls for withdrawal by the “balanced” ABC journalist: MARK COLVIN: Not even the optimists claim the war in Afghanistan is going brilliantly. The NATO force of which Australia is a part is still there largely because…
Do we care where we send the most vulnerable?
Many Western states are very keen to prematurely return asylum seekers to their country of origin despite the inherent dangers. Afghanistan or Sri Lanka yet safe? Of course not, but at least it’s one less problem for the government. And now this: Two asylum seekers who were deported to Baghdad and claim they were tortured…
Assange loves and loathes the MSM
Julian Assange of Wikileaks tells Al-Jazeera about his group’s relationship with the mainstream media. Intelligent discussion on a serious news network:
Americans just love being American
Why is it that when many Americans are pleased with a politician – such as during today’s big Republican win in the mid-terms – they start shouting in unison “USA! USA! USA!? I’m sure the Iraqis and Afghans are cheering every time an American soldier drops a bomb on their village.
Is the Times too worried about upsetting its mates in Washington?
New York Times‘ Public Editor looks at the ethical decisions made by the paper in accepting the Wikileaks documents over Afghanistan. In the end, he argues that the paper made the right choice but there is one thing missing; the focus the paper took towards the US government. Was it too servile? Mr. Bill Keller…
