Afghanistan, one year after the Taliban's reconquest

Sunshine and showers?

Image by Amber Clay from Pixabay

With less than a week to go before the Taliban mark the one-year anniversary of their reconquest of Afghanistan, one of the most honest and striking reports on the situation has to be from Secunder Kermani of the BBC.

His deeply reported piece acknowledges the tumult of the past year — tens of thousands of Afghans evacuated out of the country, most girls’ secondary schools closed, rising poverty. But it also acknowledges that rare blooming in Afghan soil of something unknown for more than four decades — a season of peace.

The country is “no longer engulfed in violence,” the report notes, and “previously rampant corruption has been significantly reduced”.

Alas, such even-handedness is not always a given with even the exceedingly professional, rigorously regulated giants of the international media often plumping for reflexive commentary and knee-jerk narratives. Sans nuance.

Consider, the BBC correspondent’s visit to the village of Padkhwab in Logar Province,…