http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/article2312015.eceAs a student and researcher of media propaganda this is one of the most interesting articles The Currant Bun has ever published. Even by the newspaper’s usual extreme standards, it’s almost unbelievably biased. I’m not even going to draw your attention to the type of language used, the employment of the words “brave”, “fanatics” etc.
Actually I completely agree that some of the protesters’ slogans and banners were reprehensible. It is unfair to brand a complete stranger as a “baby-killer” just because they’re in the Army, These men and women have just returned from a long deployment during which the majority will have committed no harm at all. And what’s more any military action in the War on Terror may be carried out by the Forces, but those Forces are paid for by our taxes. I find it unlikely that these protesters are all tax-rebels; therefore they are hypocrites. Everyone involved in the war has to share in the blame, whether you fight it or fund it.
But the truth is: war crimes involving British troops have taken place. These protesters have a legitimate gripe, if only they’d pursue their gripe in a more productive way, not giving so much smearing ammunition to their opponents.
What disturbs me most about this article is that it never even considers that the allegations made by the protesters could be true. The whole idea is beyond the acceptability of the author’s paradigm. This is what I mean I talk about how respect for the military has become its own brand of fanaticism, a kind of religion. See these articles for background: http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2008/07/our-brave-boys.html and http://hpanwo.blogspot.com/2008/11/remembrance-poppies.html
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