• Mood: quixotic
• Music: Thou Shalt Not - Dying Boy

Interesting Time article... not in U.S. Time...

This article on the Taliban in Pakistan is incredibly interesting, and illuminating for the politics of that region. It tells a story of a Pakistani government that is left helpless in the turmoil of conflicted support domestically and internationally while the Taliban takeover more and more of the country, setting up training camps in the open.

Given the Bush Administration's party lines, you'd think that this was their biggest target; but Cheney's visit apparently only solidified our support with the helpless president. In fact, we're planning to send him $75 million for taking care of the Taliban problem. I am given to wonder how effective this can be, since most of the constituency for this president is more and more controlled by that Taliban (another thing the article elucidates is that the Taliban have very little support, but they do control much of the population through fear.)

Also, I should point out that it sickens me that this article is not in the U.S. version of Time Magazine. While Time: Asia, Time: South Pacific, and Time: Europe are running this article, Time: U.S.A. is running an article on "Why We Should Teach The Bible in Public Schools". We are the very audience who needs to see this information, but it is not being given out to our masses. Why?

I think that question is not very simply answered; consider that the editors of Time are publishing the information, so it's not that they don't want it themselves. Also consider that the Bush Administration is not actually in control of them, so it's not a simple case of "The Bush Administration can't have this information given us." It's more a question rooted in... Why would the publishers of Time consider that the American Public itself does not want to see this article? Because that is the crux of matter, and that's the question I really can't answer.

Thanks to popejeremy for pointing this out, btw.