Afghani leader nearly assassinated, media shrugs

It was a busy week for the mass media; for five days, there was rage-filled, teeth-gnashing sensationalism (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) because a man accepted money from someone who shot up a mosque almost a year later. Perhaps for that reason we should be more understanding of the media's incapacity to cover a different story, like the near-assassination of the American-backed Vice President of Afghanistan.

Fortunately, there is the mighty Trend News Agency of Azerbaijan. The network informs us that the assassination attempt in Afghanistan was carried out by the Taliban. For anyone who was alive twenty years ago, the name "Taliban" should sound quite familiar; the U.S. stopped cooperating with the Taliban after 9/11, amidst allegations that the Taliban was harboring the Al Qaeda terror network alleged to have been responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

To anyone still paying attention to the situation in Afghanistan, the assassination attempt should not come as much of a surprise; the Taliban has been on a murder spree as of late, attacking security forces and killing 126 in January, 23 more in early March and at least 40 more by the end of that month.

Of course, Western media has been completely silent on these developments. The only direction we are given is that Nobel Prize-winning waymen Sima Samar insists the Taliban are just "human beings". By contrast, compare this to the media's pet narrative about how evil a man is because he accepted money from another man who opposed Muslim immigration and eventually shot up a mosque, which is being used to silence critique of Muslim immigration. The goal of the censorship is to presumably prevent the next mass shooting. Note that all this comes within a week of the 2/3rd-Muslim country of Brunei legalizing the stoning to death of homosexuals and adulterers.

Given the rise of Islamic immigration in the West parallel to the antithetical growth and mainstreaming of LGBT culture in the West, this is like watching the perform-storm creation of the ultimate car wreck. I am left with the consolation that, perhaps when I am old and gray and my 2/3 Muslim country adopts the same rules as Brunei, there will at least be a good firework show to keep track of. None of it is likely to end well - but hey, always look on the bright side of life.