David Burchell re-dux, Four Corners, the ABC, Chairman Rupert, and McMansions in Afghanistan

(Above: a mansion in Kabul).

It's not usually considered seemly to return to the scene of a mindless piece of nonsense - it's like a burglar returning to the scene of a crime, or a dog heading back to check a rotting bone or inspect an emesis induced by grass chewing - but surely rules are made to be broken.

Especially when it comes to the ramblings of David Burchell, who on Monday pronounced progress in Afghanistan in Sorry words no excuse for inaction:

These days Obama's boosters in the US press are repeating every old saw from the war in Iraq (in turn recycled out of the collective memory of the Vietnam War), only now transplanted to Afghanistan instead. The government is corrupt. The war is unwinnable. In any case, as we are ceaselessly told, American public opinion is turning further against the war every month.

None of these claims has the ring of conviction or sincerity. Afghanistan's government is less corrupt than it has been for decades. The election, while tainted, was not manufactured, as in neighbouring Iran; and the run-off election will go ahead. The war is certainly more winnable now than it was a year or two ago, if only because additional troops are now able to be transferred from Iraq. And -- as even a cursory inspection of the relevant CBS news polls will show -- the US public is no more pessimistic about Afghanistan, on balance, now than it was a couple of years ago.

Remarkably that very night the ABC's Four Corners showed a documentary on Afghanistan produced by Premieres Lignes, titled Afghanistan, on the Dollar Trail.

Journalist Paul Moreira (you can find his details and blog online easily, but it'll be handy to be able to read French), took the simple path of heading off to Kabul, and looking at what was happening there - using a few obvious indicators, like the presence of new schools and the state of repaired hospitals.

What he found was a festooning of grass castles - McMansions of an exceptional kind - and a distinct absence of reconstruction which might generally benefit the citizenry. It's hard to walk away from the show without feeling a little bit Talibanish about the fat cats, and that of course is Moreira's point.

Well I'm not going to do a re-cap or a synopsis of Moreira's show, but it's truly interesting, and for me it was quite startling. The French tend to be eccentric in their documentaries, but this was observational film-making of a conventional kind, replete with bizarre examples of rip-off merchants at work, including the Italian sub-contractors who'd hired a sub-sub-contractor.

Well everybody has to make a buck, and I dare say running Afghanistan at the moment is a dangerous and difficult business. Nor do I have any problem with the rich getting their just rewards for running things well, but it's a tad hard to see exactly in what way Afghanistan is currently running well, at least for the average punter.

It's all the more poignant seeing how much is said about Afghanistan by armchair advisors, but how remarkably little is shown about the country on Australian television. Where is the ABC you might ask, or the commercial networks, in examining a war in which Australian forces are engaged?

Well at least the ABC can recycle a French documentary.

Now the ABC has already done its free to air repeat of the show, but it's also available on the ABC's iView. This might devour your broadband, and it might not be available to international viewers, but if you head off to this page, here, you can find the link and all the usual paraphernalia associated with the ABC's programs websites.

The ABC's iView interface is now much simplified and effective and user friendly, and allows for small or big screen viewing. It shows the way the intertubes will become an effective delivery mechanism for online and eventually lounge room viewers, and an effective visual resource. You need broadband, but what you then get is a more than acceptable viewing experience.

Now imagine the entire ABC library available online.

The ABC can - while no doubt seeking to maintain some titles as revenue sources from ancillary sales - and there's the rub for Chairman Rupert and his minions.

By getting in early, and by insisting that all content - radio and television - end up at the door of their internet portal, the ABC is well ahead of the commercials in playing the online game. And if you're a Rupert Murdoch in Australia, because of the media ownership laws, you don't have the radio and television content to supplement your print content, so that you can turn your digital world into a one stop shop that services your client base.

Instead the Chairman has the blather of a David Burchell, which can be answered by a link to a program, which will take you out of Chairman Rupert's domain for forty five or so minutes.

And that's why Murdoch and his minions will keep on bashing the ABC and the BBC to anyone within ear shot.

Meantime, the news from Afghanistan resonates with the kind of electoral nonsense eerily reminiscent of the so-called Vietnamization strategy during the Nixon years, now that today the news is in that President Hamid Karzai has been forced into a run-off (here).

Well we're all for fair and balanced news here, so you decide on the state of the state of Afghanistan.

If only we could direct you to a link at a News Corp's website for a documentary offering up insights into Afghanistan as part of your decision-making process ...

(Below: another mansion in Kabul).