The liberal media are frantically spinning today's meeting of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and President Bush at the White House, focusing on prisoner abuse and growing Afghan resentment of the U.S. presence.
The BBC, Radio Free Europe, Al Jazeera, and the New York Times, to name just a few, are all stressing tension between Bush and Karzai.
From the BBC's "analysis of US-Afghan tensions":
Bush rejects Karzai army demand
President George W Bush has ruled out handing over command of US troops in Afghanistan to the government there.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he would demand the move during talks with Mr Bush at the White House.
It follows anger over fresh details of torture and the deaths of two Afghan citizens at the main US military base in the country.
"Our troops will respond to US commanders," Mr Bush told journalists, when pressed on the issue.
He said the US and Afghans would "co-operate and consult" over military operations.
He also made no commitment to hand over prisoners to the Afghan authorities.
Obviously, the media prefer to present a strained relationship between the two leaders rather than report on their agreements.
Karzai and Bush engaged in talks in the Oval Office, resulting in the signing of a "joint declaration that commits both the United States and Afghanistan to closely work together to enhance Afghanistan's long-term democracy, prosperity and security."
Can't you just feel the tension?
Clearly, the liberal media seek to offer a much more negative view of US-Afghan relations than Karzai and Bush gave during a joint session with the press.
Excerpts from the press availablity in the East Room of the White House:
PRESIDENT KARZAI: Mr. President, it's a great pleasure and privilege to be visiting the United States again, to be visiting you in the White House with the usual warmth and hospitality. I was in Boston yesterday, meeting with all the students on their commencement day. I was given an honorary degree, which was a great honor for me, and received tremendous warmth there, as well.
The United States has been the country with whose help we have rebuilt our country, are in the process of rebuilding our country. And you have been at the forefront of that effort with us in Afghanistan and in the rest of the world. I'm here today to thank you, Mr. President, once again for your leadership in providing Afghanistan the security, the reconstruction, and the freedoms that the Afghan people have today.
You cannot imagine, Mr. President, and I cannot tell you that in a few words -- there are so many words, it has to take a much longer time for me to describe to you what Afghanistan was going through three years ago. So it's difficult to say, and I'm sometimes -- rather often -- neither our press, nor your press, nor the press in the rest of the world will pick up the miseries of the Afghans three years ago and what has been achieved since then, until today. We have a constitution; we had a presidential election -- and I'm glad it turned out to be good for me. (Laughter.)
...
PRESIDENT KARZAI: On the question of the prisoner abuse, we are, of course, sad about that. But let me make sure that you all know that that does not reflect on the American people.
Right now in Afghanistan there is an Italian lady that has been kidnapped by an Afghan man -- while there are hundreds of Afghan women demonstrating outside in the streets of Kabul demanding the release of that woman, the Italian lady. So the prisoner abuse thing is not at all a thing that we attribute to anybody else but those individuals. The Afghan people are grateful, very, very much to the American people. They recognize that individual acts do not reflect either on governments or on societies. These things happen everywhere. As we are sad, we recognize that the American people, kind as they are to Afghanistan, have nothing to do with that.
And I'm glad to tell you that I was reading today somewhere that one of those persons has been given a sentence of prison for three months and removed from his job, and that's a good thing. We -- I must repeat strongly -- are fully aware of the tremendously good values of the American people and of their kind attitude toward us and others in this world.
...
Q Just to follow up on the treatment of the prisoners. Mr. President, you know, anti-American feeling is running high in the Muslim world. We've seen it in Afghanistan after the alleged disintegration of the Koran in Guantanamo. After meeting with the President, how do you assure the Muslim world and Afghan people that have seen death as a result of the article, that this incident in Bagram and other treatment of prisoners is isolated incident, and it's not systemic?
And if I may ask you, Mr. President, as you know, the casualties of Iraq is again high today -- 50 more people dying. Do you think that insurgence is getting harder now to defeat militarily? Thank you.
PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I don't think so. I think they're being defeated. And that's why they continue to fight. The worst thing for them is to see democracy. The President can speak to that firsthand. The worst problem that an ideologue that uses terror to try to get their way is to see a free society emerge. And I'm confident we're making great progress in Iraq.
And clearly, it's dangerous and we mourn the loss of life. On the other hand, the eight-and-a-half million Iraqis who went to the polls sent a very clear message to the world, that they want to be free.
PRESIDENT KARZAI: Ma'am, yes, we discussed those questions on the -- on the demonstrations, or the so-called demonstrations in part of the -- parts of Afghanistan. You saw that government buildings were burned and private property was damaged, broken. Those demonstrations were, in reality, not related to the Newsweek story. They were more against the elections in Afghanistan; they were more against the progress in Afghanistan; they were more against the strategic partnership with the United States.
We know who did it. We know the guys. We know the people behind those demonstrations. And if -- unfortunately, you don't hear -- follow the Afghan press, but if you listen to the Voice of America, the Radio Liberty, and the BBC, the Afghan population condemned that -- those acts of arson in Afghanistan.
Of course, we are as Muslims very much unhappy with Newsweek bringing a matter so serious in the gossip column. It's really something that one shouldn't do, that responsible journalism shouldn't do at all. But Newsweek story is not America's story. That's what -- that's what we understand in Afghanistan. America has over a thousand mosques. I have gone and prayed in mosques here in America; I've prayed in Virginia; I've gone and prayed in Maryland; I've been to a mosque in Washington. And thousands of Afghans have been to mosques here in town, and as a matter of fact, tens of thousands of Muslims are going on a daily basis to mosques in America and praying.
So -- and this is what was also reflected in Afghanistan. People spoke in the mosques -- the clergy, and said, what the hell are you doing? There is -- there is a respect, there is this freedom in America for religion, and there are Muslims, on a daily basis praying in mosques in America. And there are Korans, Holy Korans all over America in homes and mosques. So it was a political act -- a political act against Afghanistan's stability, which we have condemned, which the Afghan people have condemned.
On the issue of prisoners, I spoke earlier, it does not reflect at all on American people. On the contrary, it's an individual act just like that bad Afghan kidnapped an Italian lady. And it's not the work of the Afghan people -- in the same way, we treat this case.
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Liberal media outlets so desperately want to put a negative spin on the situation in Afghanistan that they are willing to close their eyes to the fact that President Karzai has a hopeful outlook and is pleased with the progress in his country.
I get the feeling the press doesn't like Karzai's attitude toward the Bush administration. Karzai expresses gratitude, where the press wants to find contempt.
They would love to deny the genuine good feelings that exist between the US and Afghanistan.
Watch the video and judge for yourself.
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