…and the rest of the article pretty much goes downhill from there.
Now will someone please tell me how the FUCK we’re supposed to ‘win the hearts and minds’ of these people, when their domestic press agencies feel no qualms about manufacturing shit like this?
I mean hell, we’ve got plenty of radical media agencies in this country; but we EXPECT it here, and we’re cynical enough to look closely at the source to see which way it’s spinning. Are Pakistanis equipped with a similar bullshit detector? Does anyone know?
Fuck ‘em all. They’re going to believe what they want to believe and join a hopeless jihad based on lies. What a cryin’ shame to die all confused and clueless. But it’s dying, all the same.
apotheosis, I’ve never heard of that particular news source. The three prominent English newspapers in Pakistan are Dawn, Nation, and The Pakistan Times. I usually consult the first at http://www.dawn.com. It is pretty reputable and wouldn’t print blatant rubbish like this but is still not 100% reliable. However, most English-speaking Pakistanis have access to CNN and BBC, not to mention Time Magazine and other international media sources. I suppose they can choose what they want to believe, but so can anyone.
Most Urdu newspapers are no more reputable than tabloids in America (and I mean the type that have headlines about Hillary having sex with aliens). The only difference is that there are more uneducated people in Pakistan willing to believe that kind of rubbish.
You can take solace in the fact that less than half of the population can read, though.
Wakey, Wakey! - I don’t know what you expect – it’s a war, that includes a Propaganda War and if you don’t think your views are also being manipulated then I really don’t know what to say. Sure, it might be more subtle but it’s happening.
Remember, dude, if you recognise you’re being manipulated then it ain’t manipulation. The fact that you seem to think you’re not should be a concern.
Also, remember that not only can you read but you’re educated. You’ve got less excuse than those who have this rubbish read to them as ‘fact’.
FWIW, I haven’t heard of this paper, either. I also look at those resources suggested by pennylane. Here’s a link to The Nation, a more balanced resource:
Well, I have to say I was dismayed that the Pentagon dropped food packets labelled in English and Spanish(?!) on people who don’t read or speak those languages. No wonder they think it’s poison.
I’m thinking that’s why they’re dropping leaflets now as well, gobear.
(I guess they could have relabeled them all, but time is of the essence… plus, if I was starving, I would open the damn packages and take my chances if it looked like food! Yay! No camelthorn for dinner tonite!)
So, you’ve never had WWII-vintage K rations? Well, neither have I because my brother wouldn’t share and, they being K rations and 25 years old, I wasn’t going to push the issue. Modern MREs may not have THAT shelf life, but they are designed to last. I did notice we were dropping vegitarian MREs. I didn’t know we made them, but it was mighty considerate of us.
When I was in the service, we passed out those same “humanitarian” MREs to Haitians during our Caribbean Excursion of '95. They’re based on millet as a source of protein, instead of meat, so they’re more comparable with Third World diets. Most of them sucked for us GIs, except that they all had fresh fig bars and real bread. Those were ok to munch on.
I don’t know why a Pakistani aid worker claims those humanitarian MREs won’t adjust to an Afghan diet. If they worked on Haitians, the absolute dead-last, dirt-poor country of the Western Hemisphere, then they should work out fine for Afghan refugees. The UN officials with us thought they were OK too. So what’s the freakin’ problem now? No Happy Meal toys included?
Hmmm…the last I saw of those food packets on CNN was a bunch of displaced Afghans running around and collecting yellow-plastic rapped packets eagerly. They interviewed one woman who said something along the lines of “We don’t know exactly what to do with this, since I can’t read, but I know it’s food.” I could swear that this was Reuters footage, when the Taliban allowed them in, so I’m not so sure about reports that the Afghan civilians are so hesitant in eating the airdropped food. Then again, I suppose what I saw could just be US propoganda, but I doubt it.
The packets cited in the Daily News article include peanut butter, strawberry jam, crackers, beans, and rice.
Okay, so the PBJ doesn’t conform to Afghan culinary tradition, but what’s the prob with rice and beans? EVERYONE in the Global Village eats rice and beans.
Oh, also, in the same piece, Taliban leaders announced that the rations were being burned publicly because they were an “insult to the dignity” of Afghanistan.
(There was an article in yesterday’s NY Times that said the same thing pulykamell says…refugees are snapping these babies up in great glee, easily interpreting the pictograms as “Hey, There’s Food Inside Me!”)
Well, I’d also like to mock that Spritle but the leaflets did do a good job in the Gulf War – up to 40% of troops went AWOL in some Iraqi units as a result of a similar campaign, it is estimated.
Sure, this is a different ball game but a lot of the non-OBL recruits (from other Muslim nations) are just regular soldiery bending with the wind and pretty much doing whatever their immediate commanders say. Dedication to the Taliban cause isn’t so unquestioning and this may, may, have some merit. Got to be worth a go.
Re: The food drops. I assumed they were originally intended for earthquake (or similar) food relief anywhere in the America’s – hence the language choices ?
Also, the BBC is reporting a significant proportion of the food packages are appearing on market stalls in towns – good to see they’re getting the hang of the free enterprise thing – but no one yet knows how many people got their legs blown off by mines while collecting them.
