The Penultimate Genius
. . . Someone has to be second-to-last. |
| My So-Called Blogroll |
|---|
| Grande Pescadoes |
| Instapundit |
| Protein Wisdom |
| Ace of Spades HQ |
| James Lileks |
| Achewood |
| Mark Steyn |
| James Taranto | 
|
| Archives |
| There used to be archives going back to January 2003. Use the search bar atop the page to find what you're looking for. Or not. |
Thursday, December 08, 2005
But First, The Bad News
Well, if it hadn't been for the brutal Afghan winter, maybe the US would've had a chance in toppling the Taliban and bringing freedom and democracy to Afghanistan. Oh, right: what brutal winter?
Afghanistan is an emerging success story, as can be seen in this ABC news story, which of course starts off with what appears to be bad news:Four years after the fall of the Taliban, Afghans express both vast support for the changes that have shaken their country and remarkable optimism for the future, despite the deep challenges they face in economic opportunity, security and basic services alike.How was poverty before the Taliban were toppled? And all those other points, eh? Okay, but what do the locals think about this newfound peace and freedom thing the US unilaterally handed them without first asking:
...
Poverty is deep, medical care and other basic services lacking, and infrastructure minimal. Nearly six in 10 have no electricity in their homes, and just 3 percent have it around the clock. Seven in 10 Afghan adults have no more than an elementary education; half have no schooling whatsoever. Half have household incomes under $500 a year.Yet despite these and other deprivations, 77 percent of Afghans say their country is headed in the right direction — compared with 30 percent in the vastly better-off United States. Ninety-one percent prefer the current Afghan government to the Taliban regime, and 87 percent call the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban good for their country. Osama bin Laden, for his part, is as unpopular as the Taliban; nine in 10 view him unfavorably.Progress fuels these views: Despite the country's continued problems, 85 percent of Afghans say living conditions there are better now than they were under the Taliban. Eighty percent cite improved freedom to express political views. And 75 percent say their security from crime and violence has improved as well. After decades of oppression and war, many Afghans see a better life.
Note the qualifiers at the start of each paragraph, meant to indicate that life might have been better before the US invasion - we'll never know, nobody thought to inquire - but that things are finally coming around. There's no success by the US that the US media won't piss on if it can. Like the poll of Iraqis I linked to the other day, the views of the inhabitants of the countries we liberated are unsurprisingly optimistic and good, despite the problems, but you have to work hard to find the good news in the US media, and when you do, like in this story, the reporter tries to cast doubt over it by using language meant to overshadow the facts and make things seem shaky, tenuous and uncertain.
William Young 2:19 PM #0 comments
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
