Time magazine’s recent cover image of Bibi Aisha, a female Afghan with a missing nose, succeeded in the magazines intent to shock and awe. What was the purpose of the magazine to run the image however? To bring U.S. soldiers home? To end the war? Hardly. The text alongside the image on the cover states, “What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan” which is posited as a statement of fact, not of question.
That however, is false, not proven. Will women or other people get their noses blown off if the U.S. military leaves Afghanistan? According to radical Islamists, who have claimed responsibility for bombing the U.S. and other targets, the only way they will stop, they state, is if the U.S. exits its military presence in the Middle East, not if it stays. But can we believe so called terrorists that use human civilians as body armor? The fact is, military presence, while it can deter war and attacks in certain instances, can also antagonize it.
The problem is that Time magazine is supposed to deliver the news, which is fact, but instead, Time magazine delivers opinion pieces on its covers, which can be logically construed as propaganda, befitting cheap grocery store rags such as the National Enquirer or News of the World for agendas fueled by sensationalism.
Time magazine, which is not accepted by many college professors as a credible news source for works cited among term papers, should be more responsible in its journalism. According to the New York Times, Thursday August 5th, Priyamvada Gopal of the newspaper The Guardian in Britan states, “Feminists have long argued that involving the condition of women to justify occupation is a cynical ploy.”
One can only wonder how much this poor woman received to be exploited on the cover of this news rag, in attempts to propagandize the insanity of prolonged military engagement, that will undoubtedly lead to more civilian deaths and tragedies, not unlike the casualty splashed across Time magazines front cover.
