B-BBC contributor Alan writes…
” We serve nored-coats here.”
The BBC no longer bother to provide links to most of its output on the Todayprogramme…..however they seem to find the energy and time to link to storiesthey themselves ‘connect with’ intellectually and emotionally….here SarahMontague interviews Dr Margaret Evison whose son died in Afghanistan and who isall for withdrawing the troops from there.
The BBC has been relentless in the past few days since the death of 6 Britishsoldiers in pressing the case for the troops to be withdrawn. It has dragged inevery known opponent of the war and limited the voices of those who say weshould finish the job as best we can.
The BBC is essentially using the bodies of the dead soldiers as politicalfootballs, props in their war against the War. Coffins used as soapboxes topush a political agenda. I don’t think that the dangers and struggles of theaverage squaddie in Afghanistan ever crosses the mind of the well paid staff ofthe BBC…except when they make a mistake…then suddenly the BBC is onto them,hounding them and condemning them from their comfortable studio with its coffeeand croissants and the Guardian for the quiet moments.
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‘Yes, makin’ mock o’uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap.’
Yesterday we had the Today presenters drew on the spirit of the old BBC ’68ers’manning the barricades and fulminating against the war….one on the TodayProgramme actually came up with the old Vietnam call to surrender…’ becausehow do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?’ updated forAfghanistan.
Today Sarah Montague plumbed new depths inferring that Margaret Evison’s son’slife was wasted on a lie…she asked at the end ‘Do you think his life wasthrown away?’
An insensitive question to ask a mother whatever the mother might think….butespecially because you might have the suspicion that Sarah Montague has not asingle concern about the death of any soldier what so ever.
Such suspicions might be why most soldiers have the profoundest disregard forthe BBC and their coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan, that being expresslyagainst the wars and the way they have been conducted by the troops.
An ‘Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!
The BBC’s coverage has scared politicians away from making the essentialdecisions and prevented them sending in the necessary amount of troops andequipment to complete the job quickly.
Far from preventing casualties that coverage has increased deaths and injuriesand turned the war into an endless stalemate as politicians are pressured intonot making an all out push to finish the job.
Dr Margaret Evison might want to ask why her son did not have the resources orthe troops to support him in sufficient numbers? The answer is media pressurenot to escalate the war.
In other words the likes of Sarah Montague, as with the US media duringVietnam, are intent on producing defeat out of victory.
After we left Afghanistan to its own devices when the Soviets withdrew the samemedia filled the airwaves and the pages of the Guardian and New York Times withtales pointing the finger of blame for the Taliban takeover at the West forhaving ‘abandoned’ Afghanistan.
Today the same media demand we ‘abandon’ Afghanistan….and quickly.
‘How little the world would look moral without forgetfulness. A poet might saythat God made forgetfulness the guard he placed at the threshold of humandignity.’
In the BBC world where terrorists are freedom fighters and British troopsmurderers, where locking someone up in Guantanamo bay is a human rights crimebut cutting off Ken Bigley’s head is an act of self defence against Westernaggression, where burning the Koran justifies multiple murders but the Biblecan be thrown in the bin and Christianity mocked and derided…..forgetfulnessis a convenient tool to maintain the pretence of common decency and humanitytempered by rationality and reason….when the reality is the BBC have slumpedinto a morass of immoral judgements and self debasement based on the newcultural ‘relativity’ combined with the malignant guilt about being white andWestern.
It would be fascinating to see a study on the detrimental effects of the BBC’scoverage on the war and any resultant casualties that could be attributed tothat coverage just as we might like a similar study done to cover the conflictin the Middle East and the resultant anti-Jewish sentiments that arise becauseof the enormous negative reporting about Israel from the BBC….ah, yes, we’vehad that haven’t we…it’s called the ‘Balen Report’….only for some reasonthe BBC don’t want you to see it.
So how many Troops and how many Jews have died because of BBC News?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9703000/9703995.stm
‘Dr Evison said she saw the cultural and social pressures as well as “therevenge culture” in Afghanistan and “realised what British Army areup against”.
She said that her son “died for his soldiers” but “the largerpolitical picture is more complex”
“A soldier’s death should be for a just cause”, she said, “andpeople are doubting whether there is a just cause”.’
‘Tommy’ 2009 version, which acknowledges Rudyard Kipling, ends:
O then we’re just like ‘eroes from the army’s glorious past.
Yes, it’s “God go with you, Tommy,” when the trip might be your last.
They pays us skivvy wages, never mind we’re sitting ducks,
When clerks what’s pushing pens at ‘ome don’t know their flippin’ luck.
“Ah, yes” sez they “but think of all the travel to be ‘ad.”
Pull the other one. Does Cooks do ‘olidays in Baghdad?
It’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, know your place,”
But it’s “Tommy, take the front seat,” when there’s terrorists tochase
. An’ the town is full of maniacs who’d like you dead toot sweet.
Yes, it’s “Thank you, Mr Atkins,” when they find you in the street.
There’s s’pposed to be a covenant to treat us fair an’ square
But I ‘ad to buy me army boots, an’ me combats is threadbare.
An’ ‘alf the bloody ‘elicopters can’t get in the air,
An’ me pistol jammed when snipers fired. That’s why I’m laid up ‘ere.
Yes, it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, “We ‘ave to watch the pence”;
Bold as brass the P.M. sez, “We spare them no expense.
But I’ll tell you when they do us proud an’ pull out all the stops,
It’s when Tommy lands at Lyneham in a bloomin’ wooden box!.
The BBC has been over stepping the mark in so many areas lately, it’s as if they are testing the boundrys to the point where they openly ignore any pretence of impartiality.
The UK lost 6 more of her majesties finest on Tuesday, following orders regardless of their own political opinions. 6 more heros off to that great squaddie bar in the sky.
I thought that too – it’s as if they are pushing their luck more and more, inch by inch, to establish new bridgeheads of bias and ideology, and waving aside the murmours and protests of rational thought.
I would like to konw how it was that the media managed to get all their ducks in a rown regarding the relatives of the soldiers killed.
To get all those people all ready with their quotes for the 6pm news last night bothered me…and to get their leaders family on tonight only adds to the cynicism.
Did the MOD put them up for this…the men aren`t even home yet?
Or is it the likes of the BBC who manage to get access to grieving relatives so uickly and easily?
Just seems too easy to emote on behalf of the BBC at such an awful time…surely these families must see what the BBC are up to…
I caught the BBC’s Defence Correspondent interview Philip Hammond on the unsuccessful hostage rescue in Nigeria on News24 today. An utter disgrace. He adopted a very prosecutorial tone, trying to whip up scandal.
Jonathan Beale was the BBC Defence Corresponddent if memory serves.
It Is The Soldier…
It is the Soldier, not the minister who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the Soldier, not the reporter who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the Soldier, not the poet who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the Soldier, not the campus organizer who has given us freedom to protest.
It is the Soldier, not the lawyer who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the Soldier, not the politician who has given us the right to vote.
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.
Original poem by Charles Michael Province.
Well said, Alan. The Beeboids simply can’t understand what’s happened. Even the odious Will Self realizes that the initial invasion accomplished something.
Not quite sure who “Alan” is, or why David Vance is so in thrall to his opinions.
But he should know that, while the inclusion of individual items on the Today website is being dropped, the @bbcR4today Twitter account regularly links to such extracts posted on audio hosting website Audioboo.
I’m not sure why the facility’s been withdrawn on the BBC website but is still being done on third party sites. It’s immensely frustrating. But I think some Biased BBC contirbutors, including “Alan”, would appreciate the links.
“Not quite sure who “Alan” is, or why David Vance is so in thrall to his opinions”
Mr Vance has the mind of a politician. He’s very careful what he says in public and frequently hides his true opinions behind the words of ‘others’.
Not that I’m suspicious about the true identity of “B-BBC contributor Alan” of course.
You’ll have to be careful, Dez – after all, we both know that people like hippiepooter find it really easy to claim that two separate people are one and the same. Do something like that without evidence, and like hippiepooter, you’ll end up looking like a prize prat.
But that said, there *is* something odd about Alan. Someone as outspoken as he is would surely be a regular commenter. So either he’s one of the pseudonymous ones – in which case I would have thought David would acknowledge him by name – or “Alan” is outspoken only in private communications with David Vance.
Or there’s a third option, of course…
“The BBC’s coverage has scared politicians away from making the essential decisions and prevented them sending in the necessary amount of troops and equipment to complete the job quickly”
The number of western troops in Afghanistan in 2009 was 64,500.
The number of western troops in Afghanistan in 2011 was 132,500.
British troops (9,500) account for 7% of the total force.
Your belief that; ‘if only we sent enough troops we would complete the job quickly’, is quite obviously born of ignorance.
Your suggestion that Western armies are failing in Afghanistan because of the BBC is a whole new level of idiocy currently unspecified in the latest edition of DSM Codes.
I congratulate you Alan, or is it David…?
The BBC tell me this morning that the Taliban will be seeking revenge for the deaths of the innocent civilians killed by the US soldier…for these people are now martyrs to be avenged.
How does the BBC know…who told them?
Or is it a case of the BBC fetching the typical response that THEY themselves would carry out if only they had knives instead of fluffy microphones.
The BBC make me sick-tragic and terrible though this case is, we at least know that the soldier will be brought to justice.
Now what excuse will the BBC be putting into the mouths of their TellyTallies for their next atrocities by way of excuse…looking at a Koran with lascivious eyes maybe?…staring at an opium den without due honour to Osama flip flop?
Revenge then?…what reason then for all the other beheadings, hangings, tortures, amputations and IEDs on the 364 days of the year when a US soldier does NOT go postal in Helmand hellhole Number 665.5