Myth debunking has become a full-time job on the editorial pages of the Washington Post. Last Sunday, Jacob Heilbrunn debunked five myths regarding “those nefarious neocons.” On Monday, Ann Marlowe took on two myths regarding Afghanistan.
Myth 1. Hamid Karzai is a good president who looks after American interests.
Myth 2. The second is that the situation in Afghanistan is going from bad to worse.
As for Myth 1, I’ve never met Hamid, so I don’t know if he’s a straight shooter or not. But as for Myth 2, if things are getting better, as Ann says, why is Sec. of Defense Robert Gates yelling at the Europeans for not sending more troops? Because he wants them to get in on the fun?
After paragraph after paragraph of upbeat anecdotes, including the hilarious line “roads are development magic,” Ann’s summing up is close to pathetic: “Considering where it started, Afghanistan isn’t doing too badly.” Considering that we’ve been there for close to six years, I’d say that that’s pretty awful. *
Afterwords
Since I’ve been beating up on the Post, or at least its columnists, so regularly, I’d like to compliment the Post on its Feb. 8 editorial “A President Who Tortured: Waterboarding will leave an indelible stain on the legacy of George W. Bush.” In fact, that stain applies to the entire Washington political establishment, Democrats and Republicans alike. John McCain talked tough for awhile, but caved miserably in the end. The others didn’t even try.
*Of course, Ann did give herself an out. She didn’t say that things were getting better in Afghanistan, or even that things were OK. Just that they weren’t getting worse. Read the damn fine print!
