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Entries in Marc Grossman (2)

Wednesday
May042011

Bin Laden Follow-Up: US-Pakistan Tension Escalates (Myers/Perlez)

Obama Envoy Grossman & Pakistan PM GilaniTensions between the American and Pakistani governments intensified sharply on Tuesday as senior Obama administration officials demanded answers to how Osama bin Laden managed to hide in Pakistan, and the Pakistani government issued a defiant statement calling the raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader “an unauthorized unilateral action.”

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Tuesday
May032011

Bin Laden Follow-Up: Obama Administration Frets About Withdrawal from Afghanistan & Tensions with Pakistan (But, Hey, We Sure Showed Iran)

UPDATE 0730 GMT: The Obama Administration's top journalist accomplices this morning? Reveal yourself, the editors and reporter Joshua Partlow of The Washington Post....

The headline blares, "Afghans Worry Bin Laden’s Death Could Weaken U.S. Resolve", and Partlow writes, "One persistent worry repeated here was that U.S. support for the war could erode at an accelerated pace now that America’s most wanted man is dead. With that decade-long goal achieved, Afghan officials said, the case for troop withdrawal becomes that much more convincing for Americans."

And how many Afghans does Partlow quote in what is effectively a PR piece for a continued US military presence?

Two. A "senior Afghan official" says, "Americans will forget Afghanistan again.” And Hanif Atmar, Afghanistan’s former interior minister, declares, “A warning to the United States and the rest of our NATO allies. This should not be seen as mission accomplished.”

Indeed, so intent is The Post on pushing this case that it includes, without apparent recognition, a quote that says something completely different:

President Hamid Karzai, who praised American troops for killing bin Laden, used the opportunity to reiterate his message that the locus of terrorism remains beyond Afghan borders. “For years we have said that the fight against terrorism is not in Afghan villages and houses. Stop bombarding Afghan villages and searching Afghan people.”

For some reason, I think that statement sends a far different message to the US military than "Please. Stay."

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