SPON Rewriting Afghan History?

Here is an interesting piece by a Medienkritik reader who criticizes a SPON article. I haven't made any changes to the text.

I am an American citizen of Afghan origins.  I have been reading both your blog and Spiegel for a long time.  I enjoy your calling of a spade a spade. 

 

Spiegel notes that NATO chased Taliban out. No, it was not NATO.  It was US/UK/Australia after Pakistan was clearly warned by President Bush that you are "either with us or against us." Given the gravity of the situation in the aftermath of 9/11, the US could not rely on a committee to fight America's war after the distasteful experience of Kosovo.  America said, thank you but no thank you to European forces that could not operate with the US military anyway.  And Rumsfeld's pronouncements on putting the mission before the coalition is well documented.  European "forces" joined the festivities only in Kabul and Mazar-i-Sharif after Taliban were roundly routed after their last stand in Tora Bora.  Germans came to the scene much much later in Kunduz, a northern city and not the southeastern parts of Afghanistan where Americans/Brits are still fighting against Taliban/Al-Qaeda.  Currently, the European "forces" which actually rely on American firepower and logistics capability should they come under fire are seen as nothing but a bunch of tourists in Afghanistan -- almost on par with NGOs whom Afghans view as a bunch of spoiled expats who live off the charity given to Afghans.  However, among European Left there is this revisionism that "NATO chased Taliban out."  Afghans know who the real power on the ground is.  Expect European "forces" to land in Iraq also when the country is finally pacified ... and German children will be taught about bringing "German liberty" to Iraqis.

You should read the complete SPON article. You get the impression German military forces singlehandedly conquered Afghanistan... I vaguely remember Germany didn't even have planes to transport troops to Afghanistan!

Anyway, it's interesting to note that the German media all of a sudden have discovered the often appalling treatment of Christians living under Islamic rule (the SPON article is about an Afghan man who converted to Christianity during his stay in Germany, and who is threatened with capital punishment after this return to Afghanistan.) Not that there hadn't been many instances in the last years in Arab countries, in Pakistan, in Indonesia, in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, etc., etc., where Christians where threatened, sometimes killed, often mutilated, by radical Muslims, just because of their faith. I don't remember this making any waves in the German media...

Any idea why this might be different in the case of post-Taliban Afghanistan?

Comments

[Dan Kauffman]

You think they will also report how Palestinians treat apostate converts to another religion?

Islamists butcher new Christian
Body of man who converted sent to family in 4 pieces
After slaughtering a Muslim-turned-Christian, Islamic extremists have reportedly returned the man's body to his Palestinian family in four pieces.

According to a report from the Barnabas Fund, the newly converted man left his friends and family earlier this month bound for a mountainous region of the Palestinian Authority area. He reportedly took Christian material with him – videos, cassette tapes and a Bible. After approximately 10 days, the body of the man, who left behind a wife and two small children, was returned to his home, having been cut into four pieces. The family believes the act was meant a warning to other Muslims who might consider becoming Christians

Probably not

[Martina Zitterbart]

> Spiegel notes that NATO chased Taliban out. No, it was not NATO. It was US/UK/Australia

True, but everybody makes msitakes!

> after Pakistan was clearly warned by President Bush that you are "either with us or against us."

Is that what he said? ;-)

> ... and German children will be taught about bringing "German liberty" to Iraqis.

I think you just didn't get the pun :-(
(Agreed, it was probably lost in the translation of the SPIEGEL article)

[Don]

Perhaps Speigel was trying to be positive about the Afghan War, it being an established principle that a US war is an evil war. Calling it NATO makes it a little better in their view - and also implies that Germany played a part.

[Doug]

That's "German liberty" as in "the same type as Germans have", not "from Germans" - that means "granted by Americans", see? In that light, the Japanese have German liberty, the South Koreans, the French, etc. etc.

[Tyranno]

The joke amongst the guys in Afghanistan was the bravery of even the NGOs ("OXFAM chicks had bigger cojones than . . . ") compared to the NATO troops. Perhaps the media only shows the IEDs and the odd Taliban resurgence in some peripheral village because there was no "lead" footage in showing the NATO forces hunkered down in their body armor behind the high walls of their relatively safer compounds.
How interesting that when the worst part of the fighting was taking place ~ it was bad and evil. (Halliburton, Bush oil buddies and Cheney with the ephemeral mythology of an oil pipeline!!!) And now that it is over and safe enough for PRTs to venture out, the same MSM smearers of the coalition are attempting to grant NATO credit for it???
So can we deduce it wasn't really the fighting that was bad but rather, who was doing the fighting, and the fact that they were succeeding?

It appears the EUropean MSM believes the European public has just as short a memory as those bad and stupid ol' Amis.

Tyranno

[The Editrix]

German hypocrisy is beyond redemption. I found this cartoon comparing Afghanistan to WWI and WWI by Greser & Lenz, notabene the pet cartoonists of the "conservative" FAZ, in a back number of DER STERN: http://editrixblog.blogspot.com/2006/03/bermenschen-in-pc-mode.html