Sheldon Richman on the Media’s Dishonest Bergdahl Narrative

When it comes to national security matters, the
news media couldn’t do a better job misinforming the public if it
tried. The latest example is the portrayal of the five Taliban
officials traded for Bowe
Bergdahl.

The media of course has an incentive to accentuate
controversy. In the Bergdahl deal, this includes
portraying the five Taliban prisoners as, in Sen.
John McCain’s words, “hard-core
jihadists responsible for 9/11.” McCain is wrong,
but the major news outlets don’t care. Over and over again, the
five are identified as terrorists. Facts take a backseat to
drama and conflict.

But according to Sheldon Richman, the five
Taliban prisoners only fell into U.S. hands because the U.S.
created a strong incentive for rival warlords to rat out personal
enemies.

The U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was a war
of choice, not necessity, writes Richman. American
forces made it worse by indiscriminately placing a price on the
head of any Afghan whom someone else was willing to
destroy.

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