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What's Sadly Missing in Time's Afghan Cover
The Time magazine cover story this week arrives with a graphic cover image next to the title, "What Happens If We Leave Afghanistan." It shows an Afghan teen named Aisha whose nose and ears had been sliced off by the Taliban.
Inside, editor Rick Stengel explains that he consulted psychologists about what harm could be done to children who might see this disturbing image. But he also defends the aim of the story itself in the following paragraph:
"The much publicized release of classified documents by WikiLeaks has already ratcheted up the debate about the war. Our story and the haunting cover image by the distinguished South African photographer Jodi Bieber are meant to contribute to that debate. We do not run this story or show this image either in support of the U.S. war effort or in opposition to it. We do it to illuminate what is actually happening on the ground. As lawmakers and citizens begin to sort through the information about the war and make up their minds, our job is to provide context and perspective on one of the most difficult foreign policy issues of our time. What you see in these pictures and our story is something that you cannot find in those 91,000 documents: a combination of emotional truth and insight into the way life is lived in that difficult land and the consequences of the important decisions that lie ahead."This Time treatment arrives on the same day Nick Kristof, a longtime defender of global women's issues, in The New York TImes took a quite different approach, highlighting the gross "misallocation" of U.S. resources to the war when our own country is suffering from horrendous unemployment and a cracking educational system, among other woes.
I've also previously highlighted the surging rate in U.S. soldier suicides -- check this shocking official report released
just today. Yesterday the Afghan government said 52 civilians had
been killed in a NATO missile attack. One could go on. (I do it every day.)
Also very much worth mentioning: the girl on the cover was attacked not in long ago days of Taliban rule but not long ago -- with tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the country.
I have to ask: In Time's mission to really "illuminate what is actually happening on the ground" has it ever put on its cover close-up images of 1) a badly wounded or dead U.S. soldier 2) an Afghan killed in a NATO missile strike 3) an Afghan official, police officer or military commander accepting a bribe from a Taliban war lord?
No one makes light of the plight of women and children in Afghanistan under the Taliban -- and, contrary to Stengel's claim, many Americans do know about it. Indeed, liberal women's groups in the U.S. have raised the issue often and expressed mixed feelings about staying (or even escalating) in Afghanistan because of it. It's a serious issue. And please see the response to Time by the Feminist Peace Network. Jezebel with another good take here.
But I'd propose here a few alternative, or at least additional, cover images, all showing Americans here at home, that Time might go with an upcoming cover on "What Happens If We LEAVE Afghanistan." Please supply your own ideas in the comments section below.
-- A student in a high-tech classroom.
-- Workers streaming into a newly re-opened factory.
-- A poor black or Hispanic woman examined by a doctor in a first-class facility.
-- A returning soldier embraced by his wife and two kids.
-- Solar panels being erected on a huge office building.
Well, you get the idea. Contribute to list or take issue below.
- Posted in
28 Comments so far
Show AllSome sane thinking on the selectivity of choosing women (and in past, ethnic minorities) as the reason for keeping an illegal foreign war ongoing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqblCu3BwE0
The British stuck around in India for centuries under the guise of improving women's lot there, which wasn't much better when they left:
Nor was it mere idiosyncrasy that inspired the devotion with which many colonial officers and archivists recorded the details of barbarity among the colonized, sati, the ban on widow marriage or the practice of child marriage in India, or slavery and female genital mutilation in Africa. I am not suggesting that this was all invention. I mean only to point out that the chronicling of atrocities had a practical purpose: it provided the moral pretext for intervention. Now, as then, imperial interventions claim to have a dual purpose: on the one hand, to rescue minority victims of ongoing barbarities and, on the other, to quarantine majority perpetrators with the stated aim of civilizing them.
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n05/mahmood-mamdani/the-politics-of-naming-genocide-civil-war-insurgency
First it looks like .gov learned a lot from the Pentagon papers. I don't see any backing down, or any change in .govs attitude toward that war. This time it looks like the plan is to crush anyone involved with this leak. I hope I am wrong, but this time I fear the leaked documents will not result in the end of this war, like the Pentagon Papers helped end the Vietnam war.
Second I love the mixed message coming out of the administration. On one hand they say these documents are no big deal and tell us nothing new, but on the other hand they are putting our troops in danger.
Now for the ultimate moment in hypocrisy. A true WTF moment that went completely unchallenged by our pieces of crap MSM. Admiral Mike Mullen Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff of the greatest killing machine the world has even known. The killing machine that dropped two atomic bombs on civilian targets. Killed untold millions(?) in Vietnam, and poisoned the place with Agent Orange. Killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq, and poisoned that place with depleted uranium. Has no problem killing unarmed civilians with Drone strikes should they be near a target. Had the frigging nerve to say: "Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he think he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family,"
So now the "Truth" is Assange and his source, "THEY" may already have blood on their hands. Seriously WTF?
Yes folks we have now officially arrived in some Orwellian/Alice in Wonderland world, where if you challenge the killers you have blood on YOUR hands. What can you say to the absurdity of that statement when it is made by one of the heads of our military? Do these people have no shame? Do they understand what hypocrisy is? Does any small ray of reality enter into their world?
Excellent post.
As long as I am on the Orwellian/Alice in Wonderland theme, lets take this quote from the article:
"Also very much worth mentioning: the girl on the cover was attacked not in long ago days of Taliban rule but not long ago -- with tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the country."
So the 'Times' logic is, we shouldn't leave Afghanistan because Taliban will continue to do to women what they are doing to them while we occupy that country.
I wonder how much different "The Times" would be if it was a state run paper? I guess in some ways it already is.
A contribution for the author's list:
-- A Currier and Ives-style image of snowflakes gently piling up in Hell while the dark angels enjoy a sleigh ride and ice skating in the background.
There's something missing from Greg Mitchell's article as well: his refutation the Time magazine piece omits the most obvious point: our government's claim that we're fighting the Taliban partly to save Afghan women from abuse is nothing but disingenuous propaganda. It's about the U.S. corporate empire, period.
Yes, and how convenient for Time Magazine to print this when support for the war is sinking. I suspect strongly more people are getting killed and getting seriously wounded as a result of our occupation than getting mutilated by the Talibans.
Desperate not to be thrown out of Af-ganef-stan, Slime magazine (a wholly owned publication of The Ministry of Truth, LLC) resorts to the widows and orphans tactic. This IS desperation. Truly, it is. Do you think the Taliban and their allies are the only brutal, stupid, medieval swine in the world? Do you think the Republicans give a rat's ass what happens to Afghan women? Or the Democrats? They could care less. Did you hear any of these Mofo's talk about this before 9/11 or the Soviet occupation?
Perhaps next year, Obama will appear on Slime magazine's cover after he has cut off his own nose to spite the nation's face. Someone go to a joke store and buy him a pair of Groucho glasses with the phony proboscis and walrus moustache. Obama for president of Fredonia!
yeah, this is what i said over on abby's column:
and next week, are they doing an article on the barbaric practice of (forced) female circumcision in africa?.......................
btw, that would be an insult to good old groucho.........
the bush gang behind bars.
A wind farm being built on a disused coal pit.
Automobile service stations dispensing hydrogen to cars powered by fuel cells.
Power from fusion.
Solar panels on every roof.
High-speed trains criss-crossing the country.
Low unemployment.
A vibrant manufacturing sector.
Single-payer health care.
Meat substitutes on every plate.
Water conservancy.
We can all dream, can't we?
People on the steps of the Capitol demanding an explanation of this (we all thought the idea for war in Afghanistan came AFTER 9/11, not before):
"Every official we questioned about the possibility of an invasion of Afghanistan said that it was almost unthinkable, absent a provocation such as 9/11...." - The 9/11 Commission Report, July 2004 (p 137)
“Officials we interviewed flatly said that neither Congress nor the American public would have supported large-scale military operations in Afghanistan before the shock of 9/11—despite repeated attacks and plots, including the embassy bombings, the Millennium plots, concerns about al Qaeda to acquire WMD, the U.S.S. Cole, and the summer 2001 threat spike.
- 9/11 Commission The Military: Staff Statement No 6, 2004 p.12
For me, the real issue, when I saw the heartbreaking cover of Time, was whether the mutilation occurred before 2002 or more recently. If it had happened before, then the argument to stay in Afghanistan had merit. If after, then the argument failed.
Now that I've had that settled, let's get the hell out of there.
You wrote: "If [the mutilation] had happened before [2002], then the argument to stay in Afghanistan had merit."
That's only true if you believe that our government invaded Afghanistan partly to rescue Afghan women from Taliban oppression, and that military invasion is a morally justified and effective way to eliminate such oppression. To believe that a government that openly embraces war, torture, rape, indefinite imprisonment without charges, and other such revoltingly barbaric acts in its quest for corporate world domination would be motivated by sympathy for the plight of women in a far-off land, is to believe the transparent propaganda of those same barbarians.
For me, the real issue, when I saw the heartbreaking cover of Time, was whether the mutilation occurred before 2002 or more recently. If it had happened before, then the argument to stay in Afghanistan had merit. If after, then the argument failed.
Now that I've had that settled, let's get the hell out of there.
Imagine a Time Magazine cover showing brave US Special Force ops digging their bullets out of two dead pregnant Afghani women! Na. Americans are just too dang special to have to deal with horror they inflict around the world. Too damn special.
http://aacounterterror.wordpress.com/2010/04/05/us-forces-kill-afghan-women-then-dig-bullets-out-of-bodies-in-cover-up/
Don't buy from companies responsible for aggressive propaganda. Don't support business you dislike. Inspire others toward a better world.
It is irrelevant if you consider this propaganda from Time, this Taliban punishment is an utterly barbaric practice. We in the west may be guilty of heinous crimes against individuals, but there are NO excuses for cruel and unusual punishment. The Taliban should not be allowed to have any power over the Afghan people. They are sick, sick, sick.
Would you accept Christian Fundies in control of the US and allowed to implement their barbaric rituals such as child molestation (amongst many others)? I thought not.
Religion is the largest source of crazy, unbalanced and sick people on the planet, and is a blight on humanity. The day we eliminate the disease of faith from the planet will be a day of universal peace.
Okay, but what does that have to do with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan?
The US invasion of Afghanistan was motivated by US monotheism. Remember Bush's early calls for invasion as a crusade?
The photo on time's cover is designed to elicit the following reaction: "Oh my God! Look what the evil Taliban is doing! Of course we have to stay in Afghanistan to stop those barbarians!"
The editor of time is paid well to come out with mealy-mouthed explanations about "balanced journalism" but the real agenda is as I've stated; otherwise there would have been many pictures on the cover of blown-up civilians bombed at wedding parties, soldiers bodies on the roadside, etc.; over the last 7 years how many of those have you seen?
The Afghan war has caused more harm to Afghan women and children then the Taliban ever had, and now , the Taliban treat them worse.
Prior to 9/11, did anyone in America know anything about Afghanistan or the Taliban? Did anyone know that the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden were trained by us armed forces and the CIA to fight the Russian occupation.
Money and arms supplied by the USA. Surface to air missiles to take out Russian military fighting air craft
and RPG to shoot at tanks.
The Wiki-leaks reports talk about these weapons being used in Afghanistan, our main stream media has stopped reporting about the truth in Afghanistan 6 years ago.Hell , they are useless or on the Pentagons payroll,or afraid of Pentagon retaliation.
Wikileaks was the only news agency Manning could go to that would print the reports.
For Robert Gates to say the reports put people in harms way is a hypocritical joke.
You sir, have lied and put people in harms way for 9 years.
The truth is always soul cleansing, you sir are going to hell.
So, tell me, because I don't read Time. Did they mention anywhere in the article that the US CREATED BOTH THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA to punish the USSR for the bad press of the American War in Southeast Asia? Did they mention that YOUR TAX DOLLARS were used to fuel rabid religious nuts that Reagan called 'freedom fighters' - the TALIBAN, guys!!!
This is sick - but exactly what I would expect from a country drowning in religious fundamentalism and superstitious nonsense (such as the US is NUMBER ONE).
Americans are responsible for this heinous behavior - they encouraged it, funded it, and now secretly continue to fund it (mostly through Pakistan, who uses Afghanistan to counter India and hold on to Kashmir). The CIA is a terrorist organization - just like Mossad. The current 'Taliban' in Afghanistan is a motley crew of nationalists (with no religious connections to fundamentalism), various drug-lords, and of course those 'fundamentalist' nut-jobs that have been supported by every administration since Carter - he did start this mess, although it was just a continuation of the Iran fiasco and other black-bag adventures of his predecessors - including the previous British occupations.
Exactly, do not read Time, if you see it in the gym or on an airplane, destroy it. It is so bad it is dangerous. How dare they take such an obviously pro-war position on their cover. They did the same throughout the vietnam war. This is despicable. Clearly, the Pentagon or someone paid tiem or used their influence to try to overcome the wikileaks info.
Very good post, armybrat! Thank you!
Has anyone seen yesterday's CNN interview Ali Velshi had with a Republican Senator? The Senator said that the US wants to build a highway in Afghanistan linking Asia to Europe. That's what the damn war is all about! Drug trafficking!
"What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan?"
Express your views by e-mail to Time Magazine about this article and the cover of this issue.
http://www.time.com/time/letters/email_letter.html