Page 266 - Mass Media, Mass Propoganda Examining American News in the War on Terror

256 Chapter 10

Iraq raged on. As a result, many looking for better reporting on the desolate
conditions in Afghanistan were increasingly forced to look to more critical
sources in the Progressive-Left media, international media, and human rights
organizations for much of their information.
Overall, U.S. spending levels on "reconstruction" in Afghanistan have been
far less than those committed to Iraq. After twenty-five years of war, as well as
massive foreign intervention, Afghanistan has been left to a large degree with
little working infrastructure; its cities lie in ruins as a result of civil conflict, with
millions of refugees and internally displaced, hundreds of thousands of which
are children, forced to live near landfills and markets in neighboring ~akistan.'~
The state is in need of a minimum of tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars
in reparations, should it ever come to resemble a state with properly functioning
infrastructure and stable central authority. A report from a British Parliamentary
Committee warns that Afghanistan may disintegrate as a result of Western spon-
sored destruction and neglect: "there is a real danger if these resources [needed
for reconstruction] are not provided soon that Afghanistan-a fragile state in
one of the most sensitive and volatile regions of the world--could implode, with
terrible ~onse~uences."'~
U.S. aid to Afghanistan averaged between only one and two billion dollars a
year from 2002 to 2005, and the funding has fallen far short of the amounts
needed for rebuilding and restoration of vital services. In 2003, the Bush ad-
ministration initially failed to request any funds at all for rebuilding Afghanistan
until Congress stepped in to fund an emergency 300 million dollars for the

Figure 10.1

Total U.S. Assistance to Afghanistan (Fiscal Year)

Billions

Year