Nederland en Afghanistan 83

De Amerikaanse hoogleraar en Afghanistan-deskundige Marc W. Herold schrijft: 'Spinning Out of Control . The US Military's Virtual Reality about a deadly day in May.

A growing disconnect exists between the daily reality of war experienced by the common Afghan and how this war is represented to the American general public by the corporate media, many non-governmental organizations favoring "humanitarian interventions" around the globe (e.g., Human Rights Watch), and the U.S. military and its defense minions. The war in Afghanistan – as most other wars beginning with Vietnam – is waged both on the ground there and in the living rooms here. The recent midnight assault upon the small village of Hajiyan (also called Alizi) along the Arghandab River in Panjwayi District of Kandahar Province provides a case study to explore this disconnect.(1) No doubt many similar cases exist, but the U.S. military media strategy to contain, isolate and stonewall succeeded there.
A very graphic way – a picture is worth a thousand words – is simply to contrast photos of how the U.S. military is portrayed with Afghan children.
The above photo depicts U.S. Army Capt. John Pritchard of Combined Joint Task Force 16 giving a tee-shirt to a young boy in Panjwayi. Another type of interaction is shown in the following photo: the legacy of "precision fire" by A-10 Warthog attack jets upon the village of Hajiyan in Panjwayi, revealed on the body of three year-old Mohammad Imran (photo by Noor Khan, A.P.).

Both pictures are "true" and neither one alone represents reality. Both illustrate two images of modern war: the war to win hearts and minds and the war to kill the enemy. They are inseparable. But every effort will be made to keep images like that of Imran off pages and screens of America because the wars the U.S. carries out are represented as being the "good fights" where only the bad guys die in a hail of "precision" bombs and rockets... "in the rockets red glare."' Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060106B.shtml