How to translate the news!

I thought it would be a good idea to show people how to translate a corporate media news article so we can all learn how to "read between the lines". We will be translating "The Way out of Afghanistan" by Fareed Zakaria. It's a misleading title because its actually a pro-war, pro-imperialistic article.

Hope you enjoy my commentary!

The Way Out of Afghanistan

Author: Fareed Zakaria

http://www.newsweek.com/id/215318

:Quote:
The United States, NATO, the European Union, and other nations have invested massively in stabilizing the country over the past eight years, and they will not—and should not—abandon it

The most important reality of the post-9/11 world has been the lack of any major follow-up attack. That's happened largely because Al Qaeda has been on the run in Afghanistan and Pakistan. :End Quote:

Channeling the 9/11 myth and then stating that "Al-Qaeda" (US funded) is on the run. Where are they on the run? Pakistan. Why? Because Obama wanted to and HAS BEEN bombing Pakistan because they are allies with China.

:Quote:
Were America to leave the scene, all the region's players would start jockeying for influence over Afghanistan. That would almost certainly mean the revival of the poisonous alliance between the Pakistani military and the hardest-line elements of the Taliban. :End Quote:

If we left that means that the Afghani's would have control over their own country again......What a Terrible idea, right? "Poisonous alliance" = fear mongering

:Quote:
The number of civilian deaths, while grim, is less than a 10th the number in Iraq in 2006. In the recent election, all four presidential candidates publicly endorsed the U.S. presence there. Compare this to Iraq, where politicians engaged in ritual denunciations of the United States constantly, to satisfy the public's anti-Americanism. :End Quote:

The innocent deaths continue for no reason. Wars built on lies. the Afghani president was funded into power by the US. If the new candidates speak out against the US they may get shot or the funded may be stripped away.

:Quote:
The Obama administration's answer to the worsening situation in the country appears to be: "more." More troops, civilians, tasks, and missions. There is nothing wrong with helping Afghans develop their country. But if the goal is to give Afghanistan a strong, functioning central government and a viable economy, the task will require decades, not years. :End Quote:

Translation = ENDLESS WAR, JOIN THE ARMY, ENDLESS IMPERIALISM

:Quote:
The focus must shift from nation building to dealmaking. The central problem in Afghanistan is that the Pashtuns, who make up 45 percent of the country and almost 100 percent of the Taliban, do not feel empowered. We need to start talking to them, whether they are nominally Taliban or not. Buying, renting, or bribing Pashtun tribes should become the centerpiece of America's stabilization strategy, as it was Britain's when it ruled Afghanistan. :End Quote:

Great, use a British destabilization plan to bribe the Afghani people to shoot at our troops so we can loot their land. Wonderful idea.

:Quote:
First, increase American troops. Second, increase Afghan troops. Third, shrink the number of enemy forces by making them switch sides or lay down their arms. That third strategy is what worked so well in Iraq and urgently needs to be adopted in Afghanistan. A few years from now, we can be sure that Afghanistan will still be poor, corrupt, and dysfunctional. But if we make the right deals, it will be ruled by leaders who keep the country inhospitable to Al Qaeda and terrorist groups like it. That's my definition of success. :End Quote:

Translation = Increased number of body bags, pay off Afghan troops to subjugate their own people, and shrink the number of civilians through Obama Predator drone attacks on villiages, wedding parties, friendly sports games, and all of this while siphoning all the natural resources and heroine away from their country.

War......What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing.

I never thought in my life that I would have to live through another Vietnam. At first I tried to compare it to Desert Storm 1 as an example but that skirmish didn't linger half as long as the nightmare that perpetuates on a daily basis in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Pakistan.

What's the reason for this article?

Well, I'm sick and tired of seeing mountains of fluff and entertainment. Yes, I do them as well but I also know how to balance them with the cold hard ugly reality that we need to gaze into every once in a while.

I guess the next question I should ask myself would be why do I care?

No one else does. People love to wave around their chinese made American flags and drink beer and obsess about their material posessions. Well I'm not going to be like that, I remember the first time the war(s) hit home for me. I turned on the television and we saw the portraits of dead soldiers recently blown to bits in the pointless wars. The same wars that were built on paranoia and lies. Most of the visages I let pass by without even glancing at their once smiling faces until just then a young blonde haired boys mug centered on the screen. Until this very day I hear the media announcer stating his age as his face continued to stare back at me through the television screen.

21 years old......21 years old...... the voice echoed.

I was twenty one as well at the time and for some reason I put myself in his position. I pictured myself shot to pieces in some desert wasteland by a bunch of Iraqi people that didn't want us there to begin with. I saw the anger in their faces of what we were doing to them, bombs dropping on suburban areas, my troops and private mercenary groups shooting civilians for no reason. Then I pictured the black rubber body bag bring zipped around me and the bouncing around on the cargo deck of a plane heading back home. To the land of the free. I didn't stop there either. I went even farther with my thoughts. I pictured my mother in pain and misery looking at me inside the shiny casket. The child which she once gave birth to dead prematurely because of lies....... because of deceit........ because of greed of the wealthy war profiteers.

I still hold those feeling with me every time I come home. Every time I see my father screaming at the TV because he disagrees with the news reporter. Every time I see my Mother cooking dinner. I then think of the Fathers and Mothers of the children who were led to the slaughter because Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, GE, Halliburton, Blackwater, and now Obama wanted to make a profit off the Human sufferage. I sometimes think of Colin Powell holding up the fake "anthrax" vial and shaking it around as if Saddam Hussein the nefarious substance at his disposal. I think of how President Bush kept envoking the 9/11 myth over and over again to fool the American people into fighting a war of imperialism. How they played upon their irrationality, their emotional weakness convince them to offer up themselves and their children on the to alter for the good of corporate monopolies.

It still continues to this day. Obama is no different. He promised an end to the war but then starts a new one with Pakistan. Obama's predator drones are the bane of peaceful Pakistani villages all over the country. Civilians are prey for our souless flying machines. Commanded cynically by some brainwashed 19 year old service member in some far off air conditioned bunker.

I now invite all of you to look at Mrs. Sheehans website and continue the anti-war sentiments until this useless chaos stops. Please visit the link below and realize that Obama and Bush are controlled by the same people. The same people who killed that 21 year old soldier and ruined the lives of his family.

http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com/