Media silence as US violates peace deal for Afghan withdrawal by May 2021
Propaganda isn’t always about what is said, but often, about what is not said.
CNN and the rest of the pro-war American mainstream media chorus are claiming that the Taliban “are not honoring commitments” in a peace agreement negotiated by the Trump administration last year, which called for the Taliban “to reduce violence and cut ties with terrorist organizations, among other demands.” If the conditions of the deal were met, US forces would leave Afghanistan by May 2021.
Conveniently for the pro-war Biden administration, this pullout probably won’t be happening. However, this won’t be the fault of the Taliban failing to “honor commitments” - but the US:
“The other side have violated the agreement, almost every day they are violating it,” Mohammad Naeem, a Taliban spokesman said. “They are bombarding civilians, houses and villages, and we have informed them from time to time, these are not just violations of the agreement but violations of human rights.”
The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission reports that up to 3,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan last year, despite peace talks.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid added on Twitter that allegations against the group were “unfounded” and that it was “fully committed” to the agreement:
Allegations that the US has been bombing civilian targets in violation of the peace agreement were not only absent from the aforementioned CNN article, but also from other articles recently published on the topic. Even worse, these same articles blame the Taliban for violence in their desperate attempt to paint the occupied as the aggressor and justify the US staying in mineral-rich Afghanistan even longer.
Just consider some of these headlines:
“Violence May Delay U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Afghanistan”
- New York Times, 1/29/21
“Taliban violence gives U.S. pause about meeting treaty deadline to remove troops from Afghanistan”
- Yahoo! News, 1/29/21
“Pentagon uncertain on pullback date for U.S. troops in Afghanistan”
- CNBC, 1/28/21
“Biden signals a tougher line with the Taliban”
- MSNBC, 1/30/21
These articles are all happy to regurgitate the same talking points from US “officials” about Taliban violence and oppression, yet when it comes to talking about routine US atrocities committed in violation of the peace agreement, they are all silent.
Propaganda isn’t always about what is said, but often, about what is not said.
Millions will read these articles from CNN, Yahoo!, CNBC, MSNBC and come away believing that the Taliban - not the US - is responsible for violating the peace deal.
Millions more will read these stories and come away believing that the US is somehow the victim in a country it has occupied for over two decades, and that it somehow has justification to stay in Afghanistan even longer.
Biden, a hawk - with a cabinet full of other hawks - is almost certainly not going to end the occupation of Afghanistan. But he should, because as Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, deputy Taliban peace negotiator, said during a visit to Moscow:
"In the history of Afghanistan, no one ever gave a safe passage to foreign invading troops. So, this is a good chance for the Americans that we are giving them safe passage to go out according to this treaty. We hope that when they are reviewing it they will come to the same positive [conclusion].”