It is amazing how much the US media is now concentrating on the war in Afghanistan as the war in Iraq is dropping further and further onto the back pages. This also appears to be true in looking at US government entities as Afghan envoy Richard Holbrooke is seemingly everywhere and we do not even have an official Iraqi ambassador yet. There is also much more talk about an Afghan troop surge than an Iraqi troop withdrawal. Obama’s emphasis on the one conflict over the other is apparently having a major impact on the press and government, if not the actual situation on the Afghan ground. Or does this shift come more from changes on the Afghan and Iraqi ground, with Iraqi becoming more stable and Afghanistan moving in the other direction?
Another interesting aspect of this Afghan media and attention ‘surge’ is the dire descriptions and warnings about the conflict. Now, I have been asking for a more realistic view and focus on the situation for over a year, but I do not think we should be damping down on our prospects to such a degree that we undermine the still emerging Afghan democratic government. Here are a couple examples of the newfound media and political emphasis on Afghanistan:
Senator John Kerry’s ‘Race Against Time‘
The National Interest’s ‘Going South’
