In the ensuing months, his analysis of the war and its combatants has been thoroughly shot through with distortion, exaggeration and lies. He went in convinced that a bombing campaign in Afghanistan would accomplish nothing, and he has since clung to that assumption and rejected any and all evidence to the contrary. He believes American military power cannot be used toward humanitarian ends, period. And he goes to great lengths to maintain faith in that belief. Rall is an embarrassment to the state of Ohio, and to all people who speak English or who breath air.

In addition to being utterly immune to the suffering of his countrymen - think Daniel Pearl's widow, Rall is also a self-absorbed, whiny little shit:

In a display of misplaced journalistic trust not seen since ABC News sent Leo DeCaprio to interview President Bill Clinton, KFI Radio in Los Angeles and the Village Voice sent Rall into the shit to get the low-down. And Rall delivered. Thanks to his brave reportage from the region — think Robert Fisk during his recent beat-down mixed with the insightful analysis of Geraldo — we now know that people who don't know "jack" about this part of the world go to Pakistan to get into Afghanistan (he mentions this from his stopover in Tajikistan so we know who knows "jack"); that a "50ish lady from Seattle" all but offered him sex in a Dushanbe elevator; that war correspondents often employ gallows humor; that Afghan men and boys followed him in Taloqan as though he were Mick Jagger; that Northern Alliance fighters can be unruly and violent; that Americans are self-interested where Afghans help their countrymen whenever possible; that Afghanistan is culturally diverse — "a truly blended nation" — whereas "Americans live in strictly segregated, monochromatic cities and neighborhoods and can't even stand to hear each other's music"; that it's hard to get food in Afghanistan during the daytime in Ramadan; that neither the Northern Alliance or U.S. troops were responsible for the safety of the thousands of journalists roaming and reporting around Afghanistan; that Afghan fighters often look older than their age; that he was forced to sleep on "stinky" mats and often woke up with rashes; that ducks keep the gutter water in Taloqan clean; that the benzene lamps Afghans use for heat burned his sensitive eyes and throat; and that he got cold at night. Really cold. Taken together, Rall's reports don't deal with the war nearly as much as they do with the inconveniences suffered by travelers and Western reporters. Frommer's for the ideologically blind.