Media bias used to be between the lines, then it became the lines, and finally it became the headlines.
When the media feels the need to embed spin in its headlines, that’s pretty bad. Americans, like Chinese, Cubans, and Russians, have long since grown used to media spin for disasters that is blatantly coordinated across the entire media cartel.
Take these headlines about the Taliban’s seizure of Zaranj, the capital of the Nimruz province, and a city of 160,902 people.
Notice if you can spot an odd spin word that keeps recurring despite having no apparent place in the headline.
Taliban Capture Afghan Provincial Capital in a Symbolic Victory – New York Times
Taliban captures first provincial center in Afghanistan, a symbolic victory – CBS News
A symbolic victory in common contemporary usage is one that has no real strategic meaning or substance. Now this is symbolic.
The U.S. general leading the war in Afghanistan, Austin Miller, relinquished command at a ceremony on Monday and quietly left the country, a symbolic end to America’s longest conflict while Taliban insurgents gain momentum.
The Taliban taking a city is not symbolic, it’s all too real.
Notably, the Taliban also took the city without firing a shot.
Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary confirmed that the Taliban now controls Zaranj.
“Zaranj city becomes the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban without a single shot being fired,” Sarwary noted on Twitter.
There are more symbolic victories to come.
Government forces are currently clinging to a cluster of buildings in the center of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, as the Taliban controls the rest of the city. The Taliban is in control of neighborhoods in Kandahar and Herat cities, and is launching frequent assaults in other capitals, such as Taluqan, Kunduz City, Ghazni City, Mitharlam, and Shiberghan.
Zaranj, which is on the border with Iran, is a major trade route and was a source of customs income for the Afghan government. The Taliban now operates four of the six major border crossings, and is collecting millions of dollars in revenue daily.
Don’t worry. It’s all symbolic.
libertyORdeath says
I guess it is pretty symbolic the way that they took control of the city.
I think we can assume that having taken the city “without firing a shot” symbolizes the true desires and loyalty that the people of the city have felt for 20+ years. But I could definitely be wrong.
What a complete and total failure of U.S. and U.N. forces. Yet another “hearts and minds” campaign gone horribly wrong.
Von Clauswitz said “War therefore is an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfil our will.”
Western countries and militaries have long forgotten this basic principle. We have underestimated our opponents and their resolve in nearly every conflict since WWII. This is especially true for any such conflict involving non-European nations. With the imposition of Critical Race Theory on our militaries, I fear that it will become our Achilles heel in any future combat. Without the ability to properly define and dissect our opponent’s true nature, as Mr. Spencer has been heralding for decades regarding the threat from Islamists, then we will always be in a weaker position despite our technological prowess. War is a game of will, not technology or economics.
mortimer says
Not ‘symbolic’, but a political change of power by force of arms. If the Afghan army cannot successfully recover these captured city, all the fallen NATO soldiers and airmen died in vain.
The same area will have to be reconquered by NATO at a later date.
The Taliban will bring backwardness, ignorance, poverty, disease and failure.
It’s back to the 7th century in Arabia.
libertyORdeath says
I agree Wellington, but my point is that maybe the people of the city (the men at least) actually PREFER Taliban control over military occupation. And you’re right, in either case, almost every coalition soldier died in vain.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
The muslim women stand to lose and suffer the most.
mortimer says
Yes, with no female doctors Afghan women will get ZERO medical treatment under the Taliban.
gravenimage says
Yes–that’s pretty much what happened in the 1990s.
Infidel says
I would suggest that we stop worrying about the fate of Afghanistan, and just watch what the various islamic factions in both Afghanistan and Pakistan do. And that would only make sense if it has a salutary effect on us in getting muslims banned from coming to the west. If that doesn’t happen, then just ignore what’s happening there and arm ourselves here, since the FBI is now less of a law enforcement agency and more an US version of Stasi or the KGB
LB says
Agreed. Afghanistan is nearly 100% muslim, so who cares if muslims live under strict sharia law whether under the Taliban or some other muslim leadership; that’s what they want, isn’t it?
And yeah, after it came out that Jan 6th was not only fed infiltrated but fed ORGANIZED and fed PARTICIPATED, if I was a US citizen, I’d be more wary of the three letter agencies rather than some sand people across the planet who are stuck in 7th century.
Keith O says
+1
wpm says
When the Taliban start shooting the locals who work for the Americans, hanging people from lamp posts ,throwing people from rooftops that have been though to be homosexual that will all be “symbolic” to the NYT. When young girls who want to go to school to learn to read and write have acid thrown into their faces, when sex slave are taken by the Taliban all that will be “symbolic” to the NYT.20 years billions of dollars spend, many young good American service personal hurt and or killed for nothing. Now Hell,s playground for terrorist jihadist is open to hid ,house, finance future 911 style attacks in time for the 20 anniversary
Thanks to Joe Biden!
Infidel says
Doesn’t matter: their problem. If we have so much of a guilty conscience, let’s get those people who ‘colluded w/ us’ settled in a country like the Emirates or Oman or some other non-hostile muslim country where they will be protected
wpm says
True
people who work for us should be protected by us by having the chance to immigrate to some other non-hostile Muslim country.
joan_of_ark2005 says
My thoughts exactly! They could live with their own kind of people, and be protected by them, as well.
I wonder why I don’t hear any leader, in ALL of the MANY muslim nations over there, say a word of helping to take them in!!
But Biden wants his friends close to him, thousands of them, so they will vote for him in the next election!
Keith O says
Lets ask the women who are about to be raped, stoned to death, beheaded etc if a taliban victory is “symbolic”?
The betrayal of the Afghan vets who gave their all is sickening and the media is as guilty as the mudslimes who are throwing this nation back into the stone age.
Infidel says
How many years do the Afghan ‘vets’ need to be in a position to defend the order of their nation? If we had, in 2001, resolved to stamp out islam from Afghanistan, do you think they’d have taken it lying down? They’d have been as fierce in their opposition as the Taliban
The women of that country are not our allies either: they tend to be leftists who’re not strongly aligned w/ islam, but won’t forsake it either
libertyORdeath says
We definitely couldn’t have stamped out islam in Afghanistan, but we surely could have completely wiped out the Taliban.
If only we had the will to do it.
gravenimage says
Keith, there was no way we could civilize Afghanistan–it is statistically 100% Muslim. The current government–not the Taliban–has put *stoning* back on the books, and there was no public outcry.
Walter Sieruk says
Joe Biden is, indeed, a feeble minded fool if he fails to understand that any “peace” agreement with Taliban is a “Deal with devil “ in other words a “fools deal.” The very idea of having actual, real, genuine productive “peace talks” with those brutal ,cruel misogynistic Taliban characters is an absurd and fool idea of folly.
One thing is for sure, even if even attempting to engage on “peace talks” with Taliban it would be best not to be naive about them and take at face value anything that they might say or promise. To just “give trust away” to those Islamic characters who compose the Taliban would be foolishness and folly. For when trying to have genuine negotiations with the them ,it need to be kept in mind that there is an Islamic doctrine called TAQIYYA This is the Muslim dogma the lying and deception are good things to do, if and as long as the lies and deceit are done for the advancement of Islam.
For the deceptive and disingenuous Taliban have proven many times over, by their own actions, that they are a ruthless, brutal vicious gang of thugs with no honor. So in any kind of “dialogue” the Taliban will most likely speak the truth only when it happened to suite them. The rest of the time they will be speaking half-truths and also be outright lying. Likewise, the Taliban will keep their word in anything that they may happen to promise only and long as in fits into their agenda and no longer. So before engaging of the foolishness of attempting to have genuine “talks for a peace alliance” with Taliban, the officials of the current government would do well to heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu found in THE ART OF WAR. For it instructs “We cannot enter into an alliance neighboring’s princes, until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more updated and current way, it may be said that “We cannot enter into a peace alliance with the Taliban until we know the actual intentions and real schemes.”
Furthermore, if attempting to engage in “peace talks” with Taliban it would be very naïve to take at face value anything that the Taliban might promise. For example, the Taliban might say that they will respect the rights of women and girls, for they ,many times, employ the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya In those so called “negotiations” with officials of the West .Taaqyia ids the Islamic teaching that lying and deceit.
So it may be nothing but foolishness and folly to even try to have worthwhile constructive peace discussions with lying brutal cruel men who make up the Taliban . For having a genuine practical peace compromise with Taliban might be impossible.
As the former US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had well-spoken when he said “There has never been – there never can be – successful compromise between good and evil.”
gravenimage says
You can’t make peace with warlords. The whole thing is kabuki theater.
gravenimage says
Media Insists Taliban Seizure of Province Capital of 160,000 is ‘Symbolic’
……………..
I guess the Nazis seizing most of western Eupope was “symbolic”, as well, as were the Soviets seizing the Iron Curtain countries…
Just ludicrous whitewash.
Walter Sieruk says
The aggressive vicious and hostile Taliban won’t stop until they take over all of Afghanistan . They will violate the terms of the peace agreement, for they have no honor.
Walter Sieruk says
The brutal, cruel and despicable Taliban are totally evil. They have proven this , time and time again, by own wicked and malicious behavior.
OLD GUY says
I’d sure would like to see the true ownership of most of our news and media companies. I always wonder what percentage is owned by foreign entities.