The entire war in Afghanistan has had an extraordinary character.
The Taliban, we are told, has been crushed. Yet we were told that they
had a military force in the region of 35, 000 soldiers (correct me if I
am wrong). Where are these 35,0000 soldiers. If the Taliban forces have
been defeated then there must be evidence to show this --thousands of
dead and wounded soldiers and thousands of prisoners of war. If the
thousands of Bin Laden's force, that we were told existed, have been
defeated then hundreds of them must be dead or wounded and hundreds of
them held as prisoners of war. Yet, we are led to believe, the figures
are not at all that high. Professional (bourgeois) journalism is
conspicuously failing to ask these challenging questions let alone
investigate the matter.
Now we are being told that Mullah Omar and Bin Laden are neither dead
nor captured. Indeed it would seem that much, if not most, of the entire
top leadership of the Taliban and Bin Laden's forces have escaped death
and capture. This again is rather extraordinary. Perhaps in this secret
war Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are dead. Perhaps this is not being
divulged to the world because of the possible reaction among the Muslim
masses to such news. Perhaps the delay in releasing such information is
to avoid their being viewed as martyrs. The point is that we just don't
know. We just don't know what has been happening in Afghanistan. The
commercial media is the only with the necessary resources to seriously
attempt to follow these matters up. Yet it has conspicuously failed to
do so. Even its opinion columnists have been in the main mediocre and
uninspiring in their analysis. The media has been very cooperative with
Washington and London.
It is also extraordinary that we are told there has been fierce fighting
on the part of Bin Laden's forces at Tora Bora. Yet if this is true how
is it that these fierce warriors have apparently fail to kill and wound
significant numbers of the enemy? How is it if there have been US and UK
special forces engaged with Bin Laden's forces that these special
forces suffered no casualties?
Then these sophisticated cave complex at Tora Bora, we were told,
contained all kinds of resources. We were almost led to believe they
were furnished with the latest fittings from Harrods. Yet the reports
coming in don't seem to suggest such previously reported complexity and
sophistication. Again the press may have been misinforming its audience.
Such disinformation renders it even more difficult to understand what is
going. Indeed it is quite treacherous when the press, without any
evidence, makes suggestions that are entirely unfounded. This is an all
the more serious matter when it acquires a systematic character.
Karl Carlile
Be free to visit the web site of the Global Communist Group at
http://homepage.eircom.net/~beprepared/
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