NEW YORK - November 30 - After months of debate and deliberation, President Barack Obama plans to announce tomorrow night yet another troop increase in Afghanistan. But according to the most recent polling, 57 percent of the public oppose the war while only 39 percent favor it (AP/Gfk, 11/5-9/09), and only 32 percent support a "surge"  (CBS, 11/13-16/09). Where have those voices of opposition been in the media during this long debate?

A newly released study in FAIR's magazine Extra! finds that antiwar voices on Afghanistan War policy have been marginalized on the op-ed pages of the country's two most powerful newspapers during the first 10 months of the year: Out of 110 columns in the New York Times and Washington Post discussing military policy in Afghanistan, only 13--or 12 percent--called for bringing the troops home from Afghanistan or clearly called into question the need or rationale for the war. Other findings from the study:

• Of the New York Times' 43 columns on the war, 36 supported it and only 7 opposed it (a 5-to-1 imbalance); 5 of the 7 antiwar columns were penned by Times columnist Bob Herbert.
• At the Washington Post, pro-war columns outnumbered antiwar columns by more than 10 to 1 (61 vs. 6).
• Neither paper published a single column written by an antiwar activist or peace movement leader.

The only "debate" given full airing in the papers was over what kind of war to wage: Washington Post columns were split, 31-30, between pro-escalation views and voices urging alternate military strategies (including troop reductions and a greater focus on drone attacks), while at the Times, 14 favored some form of escalation and 22 argued for pursuing the war differently.

Post columnist Fareed Zakaria (9/14/09) voiced what seemed to be the papers' consensus on the subject: "It is time to get real about Afghanistan. Withdrawal is not a serious option." The one-sided media debate does not seem to have convinced the American public of that.

"One can only imagine what public opinion would be, and what policy might result, if these papers truly offered a wide-ranging debate on the Afghanistan War," concluded study author Steve Rendall, FAIR's senior analyst.

The study is available at http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3949 .