"You Wouldn't Know It From the US News Coverage, But ..." Straight talk from TPM
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/you-wouldnt-know-it-from-the-us-news-coverage-but
The bonfire of hyperboles in US press coverage seems limitless at the moment. And the consequences of the fall of the US-backed government in Kabul are likely to be very, very limited beyond Afghanistan itself. But I wanted to focus on something that seems to be getting very, very little above-the-fold coverage in the American press coverage:
SNIP
If nothing else it reminds us that a key truth of any military occupation is that the locals live there and the occupiers don’t.
They’ll be there after the foreigners are gone; a reality never lost on the people from the country.
In this particular case, everyone’s interests seem pretty straightforward. Karzai, Abdullah and Ghani want some role in the new regime or at least don’t want to be on the wrong side of it.
At least in the short-run stabilizing the situation is likely in everyone’s interests.
The Taliban meanwhile, for all their military success, will rapidly need international recognition, access to the global banking system and access to the country’s money in US banks.
All of that was cut off as soon as the former government fell. The country has rapidly gone from an importer of all manner of US and other foreign aid to being locked out of the international financial system. That will become a problem very quickly.
I flag this first because it seems highly newsworthy if we’re trying to understand just what is happening in the country.
But it is remarkable to me that you can immerse yourself in the current US media coverage and as far as I can tell see very, very little discussion of this at all. I only noticed it and started digging around because I noticed Abdullah’s tweet and did some digging from there.
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Most sensible informative article I've read yet on.Afghanistan..
Josh Marshal, TPM
= new reply since forum marked as read
