"Corporate media coverage of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the collapse of the country’s US-backed government has offered audiences more mystification than illumination. I looked at editorials in five major US dailies following the Taliban’s retaking of Kabul: the Boston Globe, LA Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. The editorial boards of these papers consistently trivialized South Asian lives, erased US responsibility for lethal violence, and made untenable assertions about Washington’s supposedly righteous motives in the war.
The editorials evince a callous indifference to the toll of the war on civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the war has also been fought. The New York Times (8/15/21) referred to 'at least 2,448 American service members’ lives lost in Afghanistan,' and to 'Afghan casualties so huge—60,000 killed since 2001, by one estimate—that the government kept them a secret.' The link makes clear that the authors are talking about deaths among Afghan police and soldiers. Yet, as of April, more than 71,000 civilians—over 47,000 Afghans and more than 24,000 Pakistanis—have been directly killed in the US-initiated war.
The Boston Globe’s piece (8/16/21) described 'two decades of the United States propping up Afghan forces to keep the Taliban at bay at the cost of more than $2 trillion and more than 2,400 lost military service members.' Tens of thousands of dead Afghan and Pakistani civilians evidently aren’t significant enough to factor into 'the cost' of the war. ..."
https://fair.org/home/as-kabul-is-retaken-papers-look-back-in-erasure/
-->Yes, the whitewashing of the empire is at its peak in the nation's media. How the US got into the war, the unimaginable profits for the weapons makers, and the cowardice of Bush, Obama, and Trump for not withdrawing earlier are all forgotten.
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The Hill:
"New report says US government deliberately targeted Black Lives Matter
More than 90 percent of the federal criminal cases could have been charged under state or local laws. The report, first released by The Associated Press (AP), was conducted in partnership with the Movement for Black Lives and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility clinic (CLEAR) at City University of New York School of Law.
Whether or not protesters did commit any crimes, the report signifies that the highest offices in the federal government used criminal prosecution tactics to disrupt and discourage protesters from expressing themselves, the AP reported. ...
'We want to really show how the US government has continued to persecute the Black movement by surveillance, by criminalizing protests, and by using the criminal legal system to prevent people from protesting and punishing them for being engaged in protests by attempting to curtail their first amendment rights,' said Amara Enyia, the Movement for Black Lives’ policy research coordinator."
-->Why wouldn't the mainstream media like the NYT be all over this story? It is exactly what the federal government did to the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s. Can't our society come to terms with its official racism?
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The Guardian:
"Cybersleuths have tracked down two men who allegedly attacked police officer Jeffrey Smith at the US Capitol during the 6 January insurrection, leaving him with injuries that have been linked to his death days later.
In a new complaint, attorney David P Weber – who represents Smith’s widow, Erin – wrote that David Walls-Kaufman and and Taylor F Taranto appeared to specifically target Smith because his eyes and face were vulnerable. ...
'I thought the I in FBI stood for investigation,' Weber told HuffPost. 'It’s pretty lame that a private lawyer for a dead police officer’s widow has to be the one conducting the investigation.' "
-->The feds did a good job investigating Black Lives protesters, but they were not so good finding white supremacists, the real terrorists in our society. Compounding the official racism, the NYT didn't print this story.
