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World | November 6, 2011 at 4:47 pm

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Afghanistan in the Media

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This past June, the conflict in Afghanistan became the longest-running war in American history.
Casualties have climbed into the thousands, and the cost of the seemingly never-ending conflict
against terrorists has risen to hundreds of billions of dollars. Until recently, however,
mainstream news media has failed to question or even largely cover the conflict, an outcome
contrasting sharply with the experience of the Vietnam War. American justifications for the
initial invasion, coupled with a great sympathy for Afghan civilians among the media, have
dampened investigative reporting until recently.
A Just War?
Ten years ago, American and British armed forces
and the Afghan United Front launched Operation
Enduring Freedom, with the goals of ousting alQaeda and creating a democratic Afghan state.
Steven Bloomfield, Executive Director of Harvards
Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, told
the HPR that there was very little public outcry
against the sudden war because of the immediacy
and shock of 9/11. It was a retaliatory movement.
There was such surprise and shock and trauma that
there was a sense that lashing out was legitimized.
By contrast, Bloomfield argues, That was never,
ever legitimized in a war like Vietnam.
Timothy McCarthy, adjunct lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, adds that the media failed
to critically question the justification and rationale for the war. McCarthy asserts that members
of the U.S. media were emotionally connected to the events of 9/11, potentially explaining their
reluctance to challenge the morality of the conflict. Indeed, Bloomfield says, It was the foreign
media and the rise of Al Jazeera and some European news sources who brought more incisive
questions to what was the accepted standard of American and European foreign policy.
Recently, the U.S. media has become more critical. However, most questions today focus on
either the possibility of victory or the justification of spending taxpayer dollars on war during a
domestic fiscal crisis. McCarthy maintains, Those are fine questions to ask. But they miss the
point. The point is that, should we even be there? Indeed, under a Just War framework of a
morally sanctioned conflict requiring a both a just causelike defense against aggression or
protection of the vulnerableand a just manner of actionincluding targeting only combatants
and the proportional usage of forcethe case for Afghanistan seeks week indeed. New media
coverage increasingly reflects this analysis.
Afghan Women in War
The medias portrayal of Afghan women further contributed to the popular justification for
intervention. McCarthy notes that in the midst of the wars, Laura Bush and a number of other
people talked about the way this was helping to free the women of Afghanistanthat the war
was some kind of feminist enterprise designed to liberate women from an oppressive culture.
Kathleen Foster, director of the documentary, Afghan Women: A History of Struggle, adds that
despite horrendous human rights abuses directed against women in Afghanistan, Afghani
women have been extremely active and for decades been fighting for their rights. Groups like
the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan organize against fundamentalist
leaders, including those established and supported by the United States. The mainstream media
rarely addresses this side of womens rights in Afghanistan, however. McCarthy adds, It plays

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very well into the rhetoric when you see a poor Muslim woman that were trying to save. By
inaccurately cloaking the conflict in Afghanistan with the womens liberation movement, the
media strengthens the perception of the just cause for war.
Media Coverage
In 2006, Sherry Ricchiardi of the American
Journalism Review called Afghanistan the
Forgotten War. Her article noted that only a
few major news outlets consistently placed
reporters in Afghanistan, despite the conflicts
import. Ricchiardi joined a growing chorus of
voices criticizing the lack of consistent
coverage of daily battles and engagements in
Afghanistan. The Obama administrations
newfound focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009 led to a shift in coverage, with Ricchiardi
asserting that, as fighting increased, more of our troops were being killed in Afghanistan and it
was a hotter war zone.
Nonetheless, the Pew Research Center nevertheless reported that 2010 coverage of Afghanistan
constituted less than four percent of total news coverage. Beyond periods of intense interest in
surrounding events like Wikileaks release of related documents, mainstream media sources
have focused comparatively little on the war in Afghanistan. Ricchiardi observes that from 2003
onwards, the Iraq War was simply more interesting than Afghanistan because more troops,
firepower, and action made it more exciting, while post-Iraq public weariness has contributed to
a lack of consumer interest in war-related stories.
Reporting in Afghanistan
Marvin Kalb, former Harvard Kennedy School Professor and co-author of the recentlypublished book Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to
Obama, notes that reporters in Afghanistan enjoy significantly different roles than their
predecessors during Vietnam. Then, reporters would fly from Saigon to the battle zone, take
pictures and mingle with soldiers, and fly back in the evening. At 5 PM news conferences every
day, U.S. officials would present their version of the days events. According to Kalb, That
generally contrasted with what the reporters were reporting. This divergence created a
credibility gap, and Kalb notes that, the public ended up not quite believing the government.
In Afghanistan though, news organizations and the Pentagon have arranged for journalists to
become embedded with troops. Some criticize embedded journalism, arguing that it allows
military officials to manipulate the news produced by reporters. Kalb disagrees, maintaining that
the Afghanistan war gave a whole generation of reporters who had no military experiences
their first contact with American troops at war. Nevertheless, the government has released
conflicting reports. For example, in 2009, NATOs reported that a military operation had killed
nine armed insurgents, but later Afghan investigators revealed the casualties were innocent
civilians. The close relationship between the military and the media may thus undermine
reporters primary goal of uncovering the truth.
Media Coverage and Anti-War Activism
During the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of students mobilized to protest Vietnam. Helen
Garvey started working for Students for a Democratic Society the day after she finished her
final college exam, even helping to organize the 1965 March on Washington for Peace in
Vietnam. Garvey notes that in 1964, no one had heard of Vietnam. But then on other
campuses, there were a lot of people being drafted. Most Americans had a family member or
friend in Vietnam, and media coverage of the conditions and fruitlessness of the fighting led to
widespread resistance to the draft.
In contrast, the past decade has seen minimal anti-war mobilization, and public outcry against
the Afghanistan War was muted until very recently. Now, even the national Occupy Wall Street
protests have taken up the rallying cry, End the wars, tax the rich! Will renewed public
consciousness about the wars result in increased large scale anti-war protests? Media coverage
may determine the answer.
Photo Credits: Flickr (familymwr, The U.S. Army)

Tags: Afghanistan , Afghanistan War , American , editorspicks , Fall 2011 , Helen Garvey , Kalb ,
McCarthy , Media , Media Coverage , movement , news , Occupy Wall Street , Online Exclusives ,
public , students , tax , U.S. , Vietnam , Vietnam War , War , Washington , women

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