reflectivepundit

The Truth About Afghanistan

 

By Brigitte L. Nacos 

After reading of more suicide bombings, attacks on NATO soldiers, and the killing of two German journalists in Afghanistan and after listening to a NATO general’s assessment of the Afghan situation, I should have been surprised to read Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s up-beat op-ed article in the Washington Post. Strangely, I was not. More than five years after 9/11, there is nothing surprising about the administration’s steadfast efforts to put an optimistic spin on all its policies, particular if they involve the war on terrorism. In his op-ed piece, Mr. Rumsfeld admits that “not all news about Afghanistan is encouraging,” but concludes, “In Afghanistan, the trajectory is a hopeful and promising one.” What is excluded here is probably more telling than what is included concerning the true situation in Afghanistan.For example, in listing the successes of the last five years of the liberated Afghanistan, Rumsfeld mentions the growing economy but not the fact that the poppy plantings are again drastically rising after promising decreases in previous years. As for security, the Secretary of Defense’s account omits that except for Kabul there are increasing security problems—not only in the mentioned South.

"Family Values" and the Page Scandal

By Brigitte L. Nacos

House Speaker Dennis Hastert continues to deny early warnings of Representative Mark Foley’s unusual attention to male House pages even in the face of contrary revelations by former and present Republican staffers in the House as the Washington Post reports. Instead, Mr. Hastert and his supporters blame their usual villains—the liberal media and partisan Democrats. It is strange that nobody seems to recall how the media exploited the Clinton-Lewinsky liaison and how Republicans were determined and nearly successful to force the President out of office. The behavior of both Mark Foley and Bill Clinton was despicable but whereas Foley’s interest concerned high school students under 18-years old, Clinton’s involved an adult woman. The uproar over Hastert’s and the Republican power-holders’ prolonged do-nothing stance vis-à-vis Foley proves ones again that many public officials in the self-proclaimed party of family values (see E.J. Dionne Jr.) are tireless in proclaiming such values and far less eager to live by them.