Wars are fought with words and narratives. Who would have thought that Associated Press was stubborned to the Pentagon?
Listen to the report from Associated Press report, via Truthdig and You Tube:
As others have noticed the reporter, doubtless following the proud tradition of objectivity, talks of “Taliban infected villages”. The clear implication and association of that description is that “Taliban” who might be described otherwise as perhaps Pashtun Clansmen, are casually dismissed as vermin, and therefore non-human and fit to be exterminated. Hence we move by constant repetition into an existential war against the enemy of civilization, on the premise that the Taliban were responsible for 911 and would if successful provide succour, if not sponsor other attacks on the West. Such a proposition ignores the many 911 in the form of drone and helicopter attacks on the Pashtun rural people, whether in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
The barbarity of the tools available does not make for civilization, nor does the abuse of language, the complete disregard of workable concept of justice, nor for that matter the complete reliance on violence that has worked so well in Iraq. The latter point depends on whose perspective we adopt. Perhaps from the point of view of the oil cartels and the merchants of death it has worked exceedingly well. The politics of the Afghan-Pakistan war should be in terms of whose interests are being furthered. Equally, it is undoubtedly the case that the “Resistance” are brutal and extreme as might be expected from thirty years of war, and the special favors that some among them received from the Pakistan Inter Service Intelligence, acting independendly and on behalf of American policy and financing.
George Orwell can in prospect have the satisfaction that what he observed and predicted has come to pass. Obama can too have the satisfaction that his war would be endorsed by O’Brian. 2 + 2 = 5.
POSTSCRIPT:
Admittedly this represents just one report, but it is such an egregious violation of standards of impartiality that it stands out. Unlike individual blogging, the mainstream corporate and government quite correctly might claim to have editors. I sometimes spot the need for correction, but at other times I miss my errors. To claim to completely unbiased is absurd. I pick up on the dehumanization, which I suggest is a necessary condition for all violence. We ought at least to be working to uncover the truth, and not simply engaged in propaganda.
ELSEWHERE
By way of comparison and contrast the BBC presents the 180 degree view, including the fact that the British troops are also operating in the area and the moves of the Pakistan Army across the border. Iraq redux, the American are claiming they will “clear, hold and build” (and presumably bribe and divide). Sounds like it is all over bar the shouting.
The Pakistani refugees from the Swat Valley and other places can at least take comfort that their suffering is in the interest of a noble cause, which in the immediate time frame is the Afghan Presidential Election scheduled for 20 August.