I sat down with this story a couple of days ago and underlined every reference derived from Pakistani propaganda. Misinformation: "...the U.S. is still fighting the Taliban, and Al Qaeda operatives are still plotting from Afghanistan." The Actual Truth: Both the Taliban and Al Qaeda do their plotting from inside Pakistan, where they live and receive support from the Pakistani government. Misinformation: "In 2001 there were fears that the war in Afghanistan would destabilize Pakistan. (The Pashtun ethnic group, which makes up a large part of the Taliban insurgency, straddles the border between the two countries.)" Actual Truth: The Taliban was created, funded, supplied, trained and commanded by Pakistan (beginning in 1994) for the specific purposes of destabilizing Afghanistan, suppressing Pashtun separatists on the Pakistani side of the border, avoiding renegotiation of the border, which was arbitrarily drawn by Sir Mortimer Durand in 1893 and maintaining what they consider "strategic depth" in case of invasion by India. ISI supported Gulbaddin Hekmatyar and a few other cutthroats from the 1970s to the early '90s for these same purposes, but his failures gave rise to the creation of the Taliban, with whom he is now allied. Misinformation: "The Administration has signaled that it is now downsizing expectations about what can still be achieved: the principal goal now is to counter terrorism and bring a degree of stability to Afghanistan..." Actual Truth: For the reasons stated above, the Pakistani government would like to see the U.S. and NATO withdraw from Afghanistan and its propaganda machine feeds the notion that peace and prosperity in Afghanistan are impossible. Misinformation: Use of the word "insurgent" to describe combatants in Afghanistan. What really happens is partially described in this article in the following quote from the village leader of Loi Kolay: "'You remember Qadir?' he finally asked, naming his predecessor. 'I don't know if he helped the U.S. or not, but the Taliban thought he did. They shot him coming out of the mosque.' Then they beheaded his corpse in the public square." Incidents such as this are used to intimidate Afghans into cooperating with the Taliban (a/k/a Pakistani invaders). To call such cooperation an "insurgency" is a profound disservice to the victims. There are many more such examples of Aryn Baker taking cues from Pakistani sources in this story, and the sad part is that far too many other American journalists do likewise. We need to get the information from Afghans and Pakistanis directly, but most of them are too terrorized to talk. I have had several experiences in which an Afghan waved wildly at me to turn off my camera after asking a sensitive question. Once they were no longer being recorded, they would state how they can't tell the truth on camera, because it will rain terror on their families. Every time I meet an Afghan I hear the same refrain, "The Taliban is Pakistani. Please tell the truth."