When a prominent anti-war group changes its position on whether or not American troops should be pulled out of Afghanistan, you would think typically anti-war media outlets would be all over the news.
Apparently not, for a Christian Science Monitor article published Tuesday concerning Code Pink's change of heart on the war in Afghanistan mysteriously generated very little media attention.
Before exploring why that might be, here were the shocking details:
Code Pink, founded in 2002 to oppose the US invasion of Iraq, is one of the more high-profile women's antiwar groups being forced to rethink its position as Afghan women explain theirs: Without international troops, they say, armed groups could return with a vengeance – and that would leave women most vulnerable.
Though Afghans have their grievances against the international troops' presence, chief among them civilian casualties, many fear an abrupt departure would create a dangerous security vacuum to be filled by predatory and rapacious militias. Many women, primary victims of such groups in the past, are adamant that international troops stay until a sufficient number of local forces are trained and the rule of law established. (Read more about Afghan women's concerns here.)
During their weeklong visit here, in which they met with government officials, politicians, ministers, women activists, and civil society groups, the small team of Code Pink members had hoped to gather evidence to bolster their call for US troop withdrawal within two years, and capitalize on growing anxiety back home about the war.
While the group hasn't dropped its call for a pullout, the visit convinced them that setting a deadline isn't in Afghanistan's interests, say Ms. Benjamin and fellow cofounder Jodie Evans.
"We would leave with the same parameters of an exit strategy but we might perhaps be more flexible about a timeline," says Benjamin. "That's where we have opened ourselves, being here, to some other possibilities. We have been feeling a sense of fear of the people of the return of the Taliban. So many people are saying that, 'If the US troops left the country, would collapse. We'd go into civil war.' A palpable sense of fear that is making us start to reconsider that."
Wow. Seems like big news, right?
Not exactly. According to LexisNexis, no other newspaper besides the Monitor published this revelation in print.
As for the Internet, the Los Angeles Times Top of the Ticket blog wrote about it Wednesday.
On television, CNN and Fox News addressed this a number of times Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
And that's it.
Quite a difference from when George W. Bush was President and any time these folks said a word the media would be all over it.
This raises an obvious question: why?
As NewsBusters and the Media Research Center have been writing about for the past few months, anti-war stories have been well under the press's radar since Bush left the White House.
With the new president claiming shortly after his inauguration that Afghanistan is a war of necessity, the Obama-loving media seemed disinterested in giving attention to remaining dissenters.
As such, one would think a prominent anti-war group reversing course and making the case for troops staying would fit the present media template unless the view is that Obama might be reversing course himself.
As a result, Code Pink's change of heart may be bad timing for a president about to change his own.
Whatever the reason, the press's lack of interest on this one is sure to raise some eyebrows.
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.




















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Was there a WH meeting?
October 8, 2009 - 17:37 ET by jeffinsacSo did someone in the Whitehouse contact them like they have the media and tell them to back off? I don't buy this claim that they talked to people who told them there would be civil war so they backed off, because that is what the people of Iraq said before.
They are waiting to see
October 8, 2009 - 17:40 ET by motherbeltThey are waiting to see which way The First One jumps on the Afghan question, befor they decide whether to praise or curse the Code Pink gals.
Bloody-handed hypocrites.
October 8, 2009 - 17:40 ET by mattmBloody-handed hypocrites.
Took the words right out of
October 8, 2009 - 21:04 ET by FeynmanFanTook the words right out of my mouth.
"Reason and persuasion are the only practical instruments against error. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged" - Thomas Jefferson
C'mon, Condi -- kick her butt.
October 8, 2009 - 22:54 ET by konoNo matter how long I look at that picture of Condi being harassed by the obnoxious whackjob with blood-stained hands... and even though I know it's a photo and won't change... I keep hoping that any minute now, Condi will turn and level the moonbat with a forearm to the mouth. The way CodePinksters harassed local Marines made me secretly wish for a Kent-State-style response. The way they tormented our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed medical center made me wish a few would be hauled off by Taliban agents and forced to wear the burka for the rest of their miserable lives.
Got resentment? Yep. CodeStink should get a hefty dose of their own medicine. I doubt even that would get them to shut up and act civilized; but it would deliver a little long-overdue karmic justice...
Code Puke
October 8, 2009 - 17:41 ET by jdlybrandI hear troops are discouraged because we have "no clear mission" in Afghanistan. President NOW is in the meantime sitting on his hands as we lose lives in that God forsaken place. Obama is a coward. A mish-mush, wishy-washy, linguine spined yellow-belly. Where the hell is Code Pink's vitriole against this administration for soldiers lost in Afghanistan?
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
Bret Baier just did a report
October 8, 2009 - 17:41 ET by BKeyserBret Baier just did a report on this. Evil! Evil Foxnews!
Well, I'm confused
October 8, 2009 - 17:44 ET by QueenMumI got a completely different idea from Medea Benjamin's comments on "The O'Reilly Factor" last night:
Impact Segment
Should we withdraw from Afghanistan no matter what?
The Factor
continued on Afghanistan with Medea Benjamin of the anti-war group Code
Pink. "We don't think sending 40,000 new troops is the answer,"
Benjamin stated, "and we don't think there is a military solution. In
fact, we think the presence of U.S. troops is the best recruiting tool
the Taliban has - we'd be a lot better off if we provided financial
incentives for people not to join the Taliban. Let's put our money into
education and health care and raising people out of poverty." The Factor
forcefully challenged Benjamin's prescription: "You feel you know more
about winning a war than General McChrystal! He is certain that more
troops is the answer, so why should I take your expertise over his? And
if the Taliban comes back, they're going to brutalize women to the
worst extent we've ever seen." Source: Bill O'Reilly: The O'Reilly Factor
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke
Let's put our money into
October 8, 2009 - 17:54 ET by motherbeltLet's put our money into education and health care and raising people out of poverty." -Benjamin
Where do idiots like this one get the idea the people become terrorists because they are poor?
If they were angry because they were poor, wouldn't they be committing robberies, or blackmailing for huge sums of money?
They make it plain that they hate our way of life because we are "infidels." They hate our wealth because in their eyes it has both been achieved by means that are immoral, and allow us to live what they consider a decadent lifestyle.
Get a clue, Medea. We can't "foreign aid" our way out of this!!
mb: Benjamin had just
October 8, 2009 - 18:15 ET by QueenMummb: Benjamin had just returned from a visit to Afghanistan. She had video of her entourage visiting with Afghan women, and shared how afraid they are. She made a point of talking about how dangerous it was for her to go there. She really never answered O'Reilly's question re: the result of a full NATO pull-out. She seemed married to the idea that the Taliban are just po'd at us being there and would stop being nasty if we just left. I would have liked to continue the discussion and ask her about what they were po'd about on 9/11.
Edited to add: Besides, what does poverty have to do with treating women the way the Taliban do?
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
- P.J. O'Rourke
mb I'm always amazed at the
October 8, 2009 - 18:26 ET by Radical1979mb I'm always amazed at the ignorance of people when it comes to understanding Muslims and the Taliban. My parents said 9/11 happened because of the U.S.'s support of Israel.
If we would teach history, not the revisionist kind, we would understand that what you say it true. They want to destroy because we are not Muslim and live a different way. This has been true for hundreds of years and will not change if we are nice to them.
I've also observed that more foreign aid we give a country the more they hate us.
Yeah, the whole Isreal
October 8, 2009 - 20:59 ET by BDYeah, the whole Isreal thing is just a canard. If it was actually actions against Islamic supposed values and the Palestinians that offends the Arabic World, the Israelis are at the back of the line behind the Jordanians (Black September) and Syrians (Hama).
THe american left has had so much therapy of the "Ethnocentrism is bad" sort for so long they cannot countenance the truth.
It is just easier for leftists to blame Western Civilization in the form of Isreal than it is to say the truth - the middle East is a tough place where generations slaughter each other for little good logical reason.
Poverty has never been a
October 8, 2009 - 20:56 ET by BDPoverty has never been a reason to join AQ or the Tali's. In fact, when the final accounting of the war is taken in 30 or so years it will be discovered that only those who had the means to travel to the hotzones could make it.
You find few Bangladeshi's strapping on explosive laden vests and taking out US embassy staff, yet their poverty is top of the list.
No, you will find that most of the current bomb vest wearing wackjobs come from comfortable families in Riyad, Dahran etc.
Last decade the Isreali's faced a differnt sort, rich kids using Saddams money to encourage poor kids in Gaza to self detonate so their family could collect. But that seems not to be the case today. Perhaps the poor of Gaza got tired of selling themselves cheapley.
Yeah, it blows ones mind
October 8, 2009 - 20:44 ET by BDYeah, it blows ones mind the level of liberal THERAPY some of these leftists have been able to absorb.
Just the statement of...
...Should give one pause.
The same Taliban that regularly halted soccer games at the half and publicly executed women at the goal line for such infractions as being out in public buying food in the market without a related male is supposedly gaining in recruitment from the mere presence of US troops building hospitals, schools, and killing the odd nutjob on the moutain sides who executed these poor women?
The same Taliban that regularly blows up elementary schools for the infraction of teaching females to read is somehow recruiting members because we are there preventing such?
And Medea Benjamin says she is sympathetic to the women of Afghanistan.
Boy, talk about THERAPY.
I'm shocked, SHOCKED!
October 8, 2009 - 17:52 ET by KerrvillianShocked to find out that Code Pink was yet another unprincipled anti-Bush organization with pretentions of being "about something".
That's the real news here. Those same women were in the same danger in 2007 but Code Pink was going full steam to defeat McCain and bring their messiah to power.
Here's a tip to the NYT Ombudsman in charge of reading places like this. Your paper could do an expose on how many "anti-war" movements are suddenly no longer interested in whether the war is still happening or not. Something like 99% of them.
How about interviewing those Code Pink women to find out how many of them are signing up to go defend the Afghan women they are so concerned about?
Or your paper could just publish another article on how racist the conservatives are. Yeah, that'll probably be your pick.
War Protesters Do Ideology
October 8, 2009 - 18:04 ET by 10ksnookerI bet no one saw this coming ...
Code Pink
October 8, 2009 - 18:11 ET by PeterStone"Let's put our money into education and health care and raising people out of poverty." -Benjamin
The Brits do that now and they have several generations permanently 'on the dole' with no interest in working.
Is that what she wants? Probably - the welfare people ALWAYS vote for Dems.
Four things to Topel America
October 8, 2009 - 21:28 ET by Chattychito1) A president with out of control spending
2) Printing of More US Dollars - which weakens the dollar value
3) Afghan War - un-winnable by all others who dared to war there.
4) Higher Oil prices
These are the same ingredients that brought down The Soviet Union. so it is no wonder these liberal groups are reversing course on the War in Afghanistan. they cannot bring you change you can believe in via congress so they will collapse the US Government with these methods instead and force the change to socialism.
Here's a fact that's worth the knowing, So treasure and mark it well. When the mind is through with growing, the the head begins to swell. Sir Nosmo King
→ Sir, No Smoking
October 8, 2009 - 21:29 ET by Cool ArrowGad! What a bad name.
Oh my you caught it.
October 8, 2009 - 21:54 ET by ChattychitoHee hee hee! I hope you got a laugh out of it.
Google Nosmo King it is hilarious to follow how many remarks there are concerning who it is and what he has said.
Here's a fact that's worth the knowing, So treasure and mark it well. When the mind is through with growing, the the head begins to swell. Sir Nosmo King
This Might Help or Not
October 8, 2009 - 22:06 ET by kilrodFor those that don't know about economic history ... Here is a condensed version:
Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the
summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.
The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer.
These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:
1. Liberals, and 2. Conservatives.
Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so
while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.
Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.
Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's and doing the sewing,
fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.
Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. Those became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication
of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.
Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.
Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu,
and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social
workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to
make the pitcher also bat.
Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud or Miller. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big game hunters, rodeo cowboys,
lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, engineers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and
generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.
Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened
than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed
and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.
Here ends today's lesson in world economic history.
It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it.
A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more
liberals just to tick them off.
And there you have it. Nelsonomics.
(GRINS) kilrod
If an unborn child cannot trust you, why should I,??
I had always
October 9, 2009 - 00:32 ET by general companyWondered about how that happend,
My Gov. thinks I am dangerous, so be careful
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
that is funny
October 9, 2009 - 01:21 ET by Chattychitoit would make a great skit on SNL.
Here's a fact that's worth the knowing, So treasure and mark it well. When the mind is through with growing, the the head begins to swell. Sir Nosmo King
Like Vietnam, it just
October 9, 2009 - 00:07 ET by RR GOPLike Vietnam, it just depends on who's president.
If we're still in Afghanistan four years from now and if The One gets replaced by a Republican, you can bet they'll be demanding we leave.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
Too true, RR
October 9, 2009 - 00:14 ET by BlondeI have become increasingly wrapped around the axle about Afghanistan.
If Obama is going to try to do this on the cheap, it's time to leave. I have a brain freeze every time I realize JOE BIDEN is actually directing our foreign policy. I never, ever, in my lifetime believed we would be in such an insane position as to have such an idiot(s) in charge of our military.
I would truly rather have had Hillary as CIC, than Obama & this bunch of ignorant, hopey-changey unicorn loving maroons.
I hope he fails, too.
→Blonde
October 9, 2009 - 00:28 ET by RR GOPI am in no way a Hillary fan, but I do agree that she would probably would have deferred to the commanders over there. However, what about the various Congress people who are trying to gum up the works like they tried in Iraq?
Also, this notion that some are throwing out there that Al-Qaeda would not have attacked us, nor would the Taliban be in Afghanistan if American troops weren't there to be quite nauseating, as 9-11 and the stunts they were pulling over there happened before NATO/U.S. went in.
They are unashamedly trying to reverse cause and effect, not to mention purely historical fact.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
One word
October 9, 2009 - 00:31 ET by BlondeDelusional.
All of these arm-chair generals in the Congress are...delusional.
Oh, how I despise them for their hubris.
I hope he fails, too.
Winning the War
October 9, 2009 - 05:16 ET by Jeff in Miami BeachThe real way to win this war is to change the country with roads, electricity and communications. That includes education and really dragging them out of the 15th century into 21st century. Only then will Afghanistan be a country and be able to become a modern nation.
It is good to see that the “Far” left finally is waking up to the fact that something is worth fighting for. I am not sure if they ever cared about our troops under Bush or just disliked Bush.
Someone needs to point out Obama renewed the Patriot Act, not rushed the pull out of Iraqi troops, not closed GITMO, continued Rendition and though stalling will probably increase troops in Afghanistan. I guess that Bush wasn’t near as dumb as the Left makes him out to be since all of these were Bush's inventions.
If you think medical care is expensive now wait until it is free!
We can
October 9, 2009 - 09:27 ET by jessieHWe can pull out of Afganistan, but only after we close our borders. Only an idiot would pull out with the borders wide open. But, then again, all we have in washington is idiots.