http://www.globaldashboard.org/2009/07/13/afghanistan-what-the-leaders-think/ Global risks and how to respond to them, edited by Alex Evans and David Steven Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:49:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.globaldashboard.org/2009/07/13/afghanistan-what-the-leaders-think/comment-page-1/#comment-12830 David Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:53:52 +0000 http://www.globaldashboard.org/?p=10603#comment-12830 Lots of coverage, reminiscent of Baudrillard's infamous dictum that the Gulf war never happened. Nobody is reporting reality on the ground (there is no news of military actions in Helmand yesterday, for example); nobody is writing about politics; above all, almost nobody is talking to Afghans (Jerome Starkey an honourable exception in the Independent). Paddy Ashdown's assertion has hardly been picked up, although it seems remarkably controversial: "The army were persuaded, for political reasons, to follow a Beau Geste strategy putting people, our people, out in forward forts, largely because the politicians were persuaded by Karzai that this was where his supporters and family lived. It led to a military error of major proportions." Are British soldiers really dying to support Karzai's election campaign? All in all, a dreadful weekend for the UK media. Lots of coverage, reminiscent of Baudrillard’s infamous dictum that the Gulf war never happened. Nobody is reporting reality on the ground (there is no news of military actions in Helmand yesterday, for example); nobody is writing about politics; above all, almost nobody is talking to Afghans (Jerome Starkey an honourable exception in the Independent). Paddy Ashdown’s assertion has hardly been picked up, although it seems remarkably controversial: “The army were persuaded, for political reasons, to follow a Beau Geste strategy putting people, our people, out in forward forts, largely because the politicians were persuaded by Karzai that this was where his supporters and family lived. It led to a military error of major proportions.” Are British soldiers really dying to support Karzai’s election campaign? All in all, a dreadful weekend for the UK media.

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