Time Takes Sides

The problem with this cover is not the stark image--it shows the brutality that women face in Afghanistan. The issue is the headline: it suggests this imagery is what we can expect should American forces leave after nine years. The problem is, it's what is happening NOW, with us in the country.

I am not naive. Things will not go well for a lot of people when American forces leave.  Women, in particular, face a very rough road. We have examples from our prior wars to learn from, including Vietnam and Cambodia, Somalia and others. And I have no idea if we have a plan to rescue some people, to bring out the schoolteachers, translators and aid workers who most helped the American side. But the cost the people of Afghanistan will pay has to be weighed against what they are paying now for our presence, including bombings, raids, etc.

Time magazine may not have intended to make a political statement with its choice of images, but it certainly did with its words.

Greg Mitchell's thoughts.

Death on Display

I find the issue of whether to use the  photo of the mortally wounded Marine a tough one, though come down on the side of publishing it. It is no doubt painful for his parents and many others who loved him to see him dying, bloody on the field of battle.

But this is what is going on, in full view of others on the battlefield, thus hardly a secret. The romance, the endless labeling since Sept. 11 of all soldiers (and cops and firefighters) as heroes and warriors, the refusal to question what is happening to soldiers, not to mention our military and political policies, requires us to do hurtful things some times.

We have a fair amount of military service in my family; the latest is my "little" nephew, Jeff (he's 6 foot 5, I think),  who's headed over there soon to fly Army helicopters.  I would never, ever, want his mother--my sister-- or anyone else to see him in a photo like this. But really what we all want is to not see any of our sons and daughters, or fathers and mothers, or nieces and nephews, have any reason to wind up in these photos.

It's hard to read the personal, individual stories told at Daily Kos I Got The News Today and not weep and wonder how the families cope. And where the country goes from here.

 But in the haze of unending and ridiculously tacky celebrity news, faked controversies and genearl artifice, it's easy to forget what real news is. News is ugly because it is reality and presenting a pristine view of what goes on does no one any good.

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Journalists' murderer is executed

The man convicted of murdering four journalists in Afghanistan in 2001 was among 15 prisoners executed in Afghanistan on Sunday. Reza Khan was sentenced to death in November 2004 after he was found guilty of killing El Mundo reporter Julio Fuentes, Italian journalist María Grazia Cutuli, Australian cameraman Harry Burton, and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari, who worked for Reuters.

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Journalists' murderer is executed

The man convicted of murdering four journalists in Afghanistan in 2001 was among 15 prisoners executed in Afghanistan on Sunday. Reza Khan was sentenced to death in November 2004 after he was found guilty of killing El Mundo reporter Julio Fuentes, Italian journalist María Grazia Cutuli, Australian cameraman Harry Burton, and Afghan photographer Azizullah Haidari, who worked for Reuters.