Benefits of being out of the country (III): Magazines

While wandering through Rio’s metro this week, I noticed a Newsweek (in English) talking about Afghanistan. While I didn’t have a chance to actually read it, it was clear from the phrasing and the photo that this was basically a story showing how we’ve failed to do anything productive in Afghanistan in terms of the Taliban (some of you might remember them – they, and not Iraq, were the government that sponsored bin Laden and killed women as the “halftime show” at soccer games). At any rate, I was quite pleased to see the mainstream media actually offering the chance (though again, I couldn’t confirm it) to really criticize the horrible decisions of the Bush administration.

Then, thanks to my friends at M-Pyre, I learned that America apparently doesn’t get to hear from mainstream media how potentially disastrous the unnecessary focus on and presence in Iraq may be in terms of the Taliban. Why not? Because, as Maggie excellently points out, Annie Liebovitz is far more interesting than geopolitics.

Remarkable in all this is the fact that the rest of the world knows how bad America’s screwed up things in the Middle East – it’s Americans who voted for Bush in 2004 (and maybe 2000) who need to see just what the impacts of their votes in 2004 will have on America for a long time…

…unfortunately, as is almost always the case, I guess they’ll remain unedcated.

But that Annie Liebovitz…..what an artiste!