Real Clear Truth

Jay Nordlinger of National Review has been journaling from Davos Switzerland. In his most recent report (see here) he shared these stories that struck me as particularly revealing of the real truth of what is happening with the “war on terror” and how our own Western media has distorted that truth so badly…

Time and again, this has happened at Davos: A journalist (usually British or American) will ask a question loaded with anti-American bias. And the leader being questioned will say something defensive about America. I will briefly recapitulate a most memorable instance: Americans had just conducted a strike on a target in Pakistan; the Pakistani leadership had not been told in advance about this strike. Someone asked Pervez Musharraf, “How can you tolerate such arrogance and cowboyism from the Americans?” (Again, I am paraphrasing.) “They did not inform you; they violated your precious Pakistani sovereignty. And you are quite rightly a proud people. How can you stand these Americans?”

Musharraf answered essentially as follows: “Yes, it is true that we would have liked to know about the strike. And it is true that we are a proud people, jealous of our sovereignty. But what about al-Qaeda? They are all foreigners — from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Chechnya, and all over. They have no right to be on our territory. They are violating our sovereignty. How come no one ever mentions that? And the Americans are helping us get rid of these foreigners.”

And then reporting on his meeting with Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, Jay relates these two stories…

A journalist asks why in the world Western countries are bombing innocent people. Karzai answers with perfect composure: Such bombings are happening much less often now; the coalition is making a big effort to be careful. One reason they have bombed from the air is that ground forces have been too few. And mistakes are made all the time, in war. Just last night — as recently as last night — the coalition killed nine members of the Afghan armed forces. (By accident, of course.)

But you know? The coalition has suffered too: Americans, Canadians, others. Men and women from many countries have died in accidents. It’s not just Afghans who are paying a price.

I have seldom seen a leader so cool, so unhistrionic, so un-demagogic — so mature.

Another question arises: Do the Afghan people want Americans off their territory? Karzai smiles. When he was first elected, people would come up to him and say two things. First, they would say, “Congratulations.” Second, they would say, “Can you send international forces to our village?” Not much has changed. Afghans do not feel themselves under occupation, says Karzai. They know that, without the coalition, “we’d go back to the terrible period of six years ago.”

As many mistakes as America has made in our efforts to fight terror, it is good to know that the people who’s lives are most directly at risk appreciate and see the good that we are doing.