Once again the shame of the British Army is writ large. This time the front page of The News of the World heralds further examples of behaviour that should be unacceptable in any vision of a civilised society.
But, it’s okay… They are just a few bad apples among a bunch of superbly disciplined young men doing a “fantastic” job in the new Iraqi democracy.
So why does the bullshit detector hit ten as soon as such sentiments are expressed? Could it be a history that quite simply says otherwise?
The history of the British Army is not – as we are so often told – one of fantastic fair play and good sport. Indeed it has a positive catalogue of previous form when it comes to behaviour so barbaric as to be comparable to any other army in the world.
If you need proof of this (and you may because you ain’t gonna read about it in the mainstream press) then check out our African adventures of the 1960’s and read about eyes being poked out, ritualised starvation and general mutilation…
But, that’s in the past and I am prepared to accept that we have moved on… except that the evidence seems to point in an altogether different direction.
I ask you to consider only one thing. If we have a certain amount of evidence of abuse and general misbehaviour among our troops from video and photographic releases then how many examples go unrecorded?
One would have to assume that the majority of such events pass without the handycam being a feature or that most tapes and photos remain in the hands of the original people involved.
It is hardly unreasonable to conclude that the few bad apples argument is as transparent as the lies that led to Iraq in the first place.
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- 2006-02-14 @ 07:44:54
Speaking as someone who is not, nor never has been a serving soldier but who works closely with army personnel at all levels of seniority up to Colonel, this post seems to be as anti-soldier as some of the others are complacent of abuse. The reality as I see it is that combat does have a significant impact on the mental health and attitudes of all involved. My experience is that the aspirations of the military hierarchy for honourable behaviour is sincere but that this is sometimes lost when troops are deployed to combat areas. In some instances this may be "bad apples" but a more likely reason is the inhuman and dehumanising impact of the soldiers experience in that situation. I have spoken to several soldiers who have returned from Iraq who remain traumatised by their experiences long after their deployment is finished. This 'war' was entirely avoidable and as such it is Blair (in the British case) and his cronies who are the culprits and who should really be the subject of public opprobrium..