Nederland en Afghanistan 93

In tegenstelling tot de Nederlandse media die geen enkele redacteur met de troepen in Afghanistan meestuurt, doet de angelsaksische pers dit wel. (Ik heb het nu niet over een gecensureerd stand-uppertje in het Nederlandse kamp door Gerri Eickhof van het NOS-Journaal, want het klakkeloos aan het woord laten van mensen is geen journalistiek, maar propaganda).

Gerri kan veel leren van 'Jason Burke, the Observer's chief reporter, was writing in-depth about Iraq, the Kurds, Afghanistan and al-Qaeda long before September 11th 2001.'

Vanuit Afghanistan bericht hij:

'Fear battles hope on the road to Kandahar British commanders believe they can win the fight to bring democracy and peace to Afghanistan. But the Taliban are on the march again and the drug barons' poppy fields are blooming. In this remarkable dispatch an acclaimed writer travels across the badlands of a country at the crossroads
Walk out of the gates, past the bored British soldiers in their guardhouse, past the Afghan troops on the outer wall, past razor wire and take the dusty path through the ramshackle cemetery. Go past a new, whitewashed villa built for a local 'businessman' and on through the labyrinth of narrow alleys and traditional mud-walled homes and then turn left through a passage way and there you will find the scruffy bazaar of Lashkar Gah and the Taliban.
Two men, both bearded and wearing the trademark thick-coiled black turban, were sitting in the shade behind a friend's workshop. They had agreed to talk to The Observer. 'I am proud to be a Talib,' said Fazl Rahman, 40. 'Why should I deny it? Why should I be afraid?'
'The foreigners are here for their own reasons,' said his younger comrade. 'If they were here to help us, everyone would be living better. But look.' He pointed to the dirt street outside, the shacks, the sagging electricity cables, the thin trees that provide scant protection from the heat of the early afternoon sun and then waved his hand towards the camp a few hundred metres away, the longest-established British base in Helmand province. 'All foreigners are our enemy,' he says. 'You are a journalist, so we don't harm you. But if you were a soldier we would kill you. Afghanistan is the castle of Islam and the foreigners are destroying our religion.'' Lees verder:
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1805334,00.html