The loss of a photo journalist with integrity like Danish Siddiqui is an irreplaceable loss, merely because there really aren't (m)any left.<p>While this situation in Afghanistan was fraught with danger from the start, his reporting in the Delhi riots and UP (a state in India)'s handling of Covid really changed the dynamics of the public intercourse, and also the urgency of the government. He undertook it at personal cost as a muslim.<p>In this way, these photographs were as impactful as the napalm girl photo in My Lai, Vietnam.<p>We like to think of our country as having a free press, but we have one that is completely suborned to a political ideology, etc? Where are the similar photos of the body of the elderly stacked in NJ/NY? Is there a similar level of threat to lives of these reporters?<p>The lack of a properly functioning 4th estate does not bode well for our country.
> The security group [in Reuters] approved the embed plan. “We were talking about the Afghan Special Forces, the elite,” said Rogers [Reuters global pictures editor]. “They had all the hospitals at their disposal, all the equipment needed to evacuate, including air support.” Siddiqui would join their headquarters near Kandahar.<p>On display here are the deep miscalculation and disbelief over it. It's a pattern that has unfortunately played out innumerable times in the last 20 years as organizations outside of Afghanistan tried to figure the place out and failed miserably.
The details in the article don't support the headline.<p>>On Tuesday, July 13, Siddiqui joined a successful mission to rescue a policeman who was surrounded by insurgents<p>>Three days later, on July 16, Siddiqui and two Afghan commandos were killed<p>>In the weeks that followed, the Taliban conquered city after city.
> Major-General Haibatullah Alizai, who was the commander of Afghanistan’s Special Operations Corps when it hosted Siddiqui in Kandahar, told Reuters it was evident now that, in fierce fighting, his soldiers withdrew from Spin Boldak and left behind Siddiqui and two commandos accompanying him, mistakenly thinking they had joined the retreating convoy. His account was corroborated by four soldiers who say they witnessed the attack.<p>The article uses the word abandoned, but it's not clear based on this account that he and the two soldiers with him were. Abandonment would imply knowingly leaving them behind. This could definitely be a fog of war situation in which they were expected to have moved and did not. No one thinks straight getting shot at unless they are an experienced professional.
> “If we don’t go, who will?”<p>I just want to take a moment to honor the courage and sentiments of the man behind these words. RIP, may your family be ever proud.<p>They echo MLK's Ive been to the mountain top [1]<p>> That's the question before you tonight. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to my job. Not, "If I stop to help the sanitation workers what will happen to all of the hours that I usually spend in my office every day and every week as a pastor?" The question is not, "If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?" The question is, "If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?" That's the question.<p>or (attributed) Dietrich Bonhoeffer [2]<p>> First they came for the Communists,... there was no one left<p>May we soberly continue to consider these thoughts as we approach world affairs.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemou...</a><p>[2]: <a href="http://www.knowyourquotes.com/First-They-Came-For-The-Communists-But-I-Was-Not-A-Communist-So-I-Did-Not-Speak-Out-Then-They-Came-For-The-Socialists-And-The-Trade-Unionists-But-I-Was-Neither-So-I-Did-Not-Speak-Out-Then-They-Ca-Dietrich-Bonhoeffer.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.knowyourquotes.com/First-They-Came-For-The-Commun...</a>