In the past week, I’ve heard this from both national and local news. If you can’t take the time to learn how to pronounce the names of the places you’re reporting on, get a different job! It’s no wonder there are accusations about the press being disconnected from reality. Sheesh.
I’ve always pronounced it “cobble”. Am I disconnected from reality? Seriously, is that right?
I hate these types of OP’s. Really, I do. People do their best to pronounce unfamiliar place names correctly, and should be given an “A” for effort, and a gentle correction when needed.
I learned my pronunciation of 'eathen places from Brother Rudyard. Ka-bool it is.
Besides, half the fun of mangling the pronunciation is watching certain people come completely unhinged when you do. 
That’s right, everyone knows it’s pronounced کابل.
Hey, who wants to travel to Warshington D.C.?
What’s the right way to pronounce Iraq?
I’ve heard:
I-rack
E-rack*
I-rock
E-rock
*Is how I say it.
“Vee - et - NAM”
Aw, snap.
HAW! Thass fonny.
Iraq is pronounce ee-RAHK, with a single trilled percussive R; almost a D.
… which no American can pronounce properly and shouldn’t even try. I say eye-RACK when speaking English, myself, even though I’m perfectly capable of pronouncing it “correctly.”
I’ll admit that my Farsi is lacking. Which Arabic school do you go to? 
I’m assuming that you’re getting your pronunciations from an Arabic speaking person, not just the news source of your choice. What sort of background do you have that entitles you to make corrections on other people’s pronunciation of Iraqi town names?
I’m not saying that you’re wrong (I wouldn’t even know if you were) or uninformed, but I’d love to know how you determine which pronunciation is correct.
Well, Kabul isn’t in Iraq, for starters, so I’d say my school is probably a little further up on step than yours. 
After many years with the State Department and living overseas, I picked up a tiny bit of culchah and larnin’.
Frank:
Certainly, if those people are, say, grocery clerks. These are supposed to be professional newspeople, whose JOB it is to get things right, and who seem in large part to make little effort in that direction. And yes, it’s close to being “cobble”.
I still call it Peking Duck. Shoot me.
Ok, hey, I can pronounce it correctly and still pronounce it the American way when speaking with Americans. Why? When in Rome…
I do have a big problem with the Afghan/Afghani thing. I know someone is going to come along and tell me Afghan is indeed the correct word, according to some cite, but you know, I’ve heard it Afghani from Afghanis. But even that’s not important. I can concede that. But…An afghan is a blanket, and it gives me a jolt every time I hear “Afghans take to the hills.” I have this mental image of a whole bunch of rolled-up blankets shuffling into the mountains.
I dunno, maybe it’s just being around my polyglot parents, but by your description I can say that without trouble. I mean, I might have trouble snapping it off in conversation, but you just flick your tongue against the top of your mouth just so… I can even get that vibratey feeling briefly against that more sensitive bit.
I never had trouble rolling my 'r’s in Spanish class either. And getting my friends to pronounce ‘pho’ properly is an uphill battle, so I just say it somewhere between properly and improperly. It’s not Foh, it’s a little more like Phuh or Fuh, but not quite. My Vietnamese is… nonexistent, except I think I might be able to say ‘helicopter’.
Kabul doesn’t fall into the same category of a city like Vienna, which is spelled Wien (veen) by the locals, but pronounced ‘Vienna’ in the English-speaking world. There is no ‘American way’ of pronouncing Kabul that I’m aware of, other than that dictated by ignorance. Newscasters should know better.
An Afghan is also a dog breed, which is what pops into my head unbidden.
There is now. 
We are goathered here before Gid, to jain this couple in haley woodlock…
This makes no sense to me. It’s *not *pronounced eye RACK, so why is that your preference?
Many of those “English” words for foreign places–Turin is a recently prominent example–are from a time when they only existed on paper, or in story. You were likely to go your entire life without hearing the word spoken by a native speaker. Nowadays, with mass media, that’s no longer an issue. While the old names like Vienna have kind of been grandfathered in, names with no such traditional Anglicization should be pronounced the way the locals do.