Betraying their country for a story

Dear Sir/Madam

The British media are falling over themselves, reporting and showing pictures and video of British soldiers brutally beating up Iraqi civilians in southern Iraq. A consequence is almost certain to be a hardening of Muslim attitudes and reprisals against British troops, probably resulting in deaths (Army fears backlash over video).

I am angry and ashamed at what I saw and heard in that video, because it undermines the good reputation, credibility and safety of other British troops, who, whatever the reasons for them being there, are now responsible for maintaining order until Iraqi's own forces are in a position to take over.

The behaviour of the soldiers shown in the video and the accompanying commentary provided by the person taking it, is disgusting and needs to be severely punished, both for its own sake and in order to deter similar behaviour. But surely the way to do that, without endangering the lives of other service men and the whole mission they have been sent (at huge human and financial cost) to accomplish, would have been to pass it on to the Ministry of Defence and allow them to deal with it, quietly but effectively, thus avoiding the highly damaging (and for some soldiers probably fatal) publicity. If the Defence Ministry had refused to act and bring the offending soldiers to justice, then it would have been the newspaper's responsibility, first to threaten, and if that didn't work, to actually publish.

But what was it Lenin said about a capitalist being prepared to sell you the nails to hammer into his own coffin? When the media have a story that will sell papers or get viewers' attention they have to go with it (while for the BBC, which tends to follow the commercial rabble anyway, its an opportunity to revenge itself on the government). They are just doing their business, which they pursue with the same ruthlessness (they would say, "determination") as the tobacco industry pursues its deadly business (when not stopped by legislation), and if it costs the lives of British service men and wrecks the worthy cause of helping Iraq towards democracy, too bad.

The behaviour of the offending soldiers disgusts me - but they are just lowly, badly educated and probably not very intelligent squadies in need of better discipline. I'm far more disgusted by those in the media, who have the intelligence and the education to eloquently defend and justify their despicable behaviour.

To: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk Re: Betraying their country for a story Date: Monday 13 February 06

Dear Sir/Madam The British media are falling over themselves, reporting and showing pictures and video of British soldiers brutally beating up Iraqi civilians in southern Iraq. A consequence is almost certain to be a hardening of Muslim attitudes and reprisals against British troops, probably resulting in deaths (Army fears backlash over video). I am angry and ashamed at what I saw and heard in that video, because it undermines the good reputation, credibility and safety of other British troops, who, whatever the reasons for them being there, are now responsible for maintaining order until Iraqi's own forces are in a position to take over. The behaviour of the soldiers shown in the video and the accompanying commentary provided by the person taking it, is disgusting and needs to be severely punished, both for its own sake and in order to deter similar behaviour. But surely the way to do that, without endangering the lives of other service men and the whole mission they have been sent (at huge human and financial cost) to accomplish, would have been to pass it on to the Ministry of Defence and allow them to deal with it, quietly but effectively, thus avoiding the highly damaging (and for some soldiers probably fatal) publicity. If the Defence Ministry had refused to act and bring the offending soldiers to justice, then it would have been the newspaper's responsibility, first to threaten, and if that didn't work, to actually publish. But what was it Lenin said about a capitalist being prepared to sell you the nails to hammer into his own coffin? When the media have a story that will sell papers or get viewers' attention they have to go with it (while for the BBC, which tends to follow the commercial rabble anyway, its an opportunity to revenge itself on the government). They are just doing their business, which they pursue with the same ruthlessness (they would say, "determination") as the tobacco industry pursues its deadly business (when not stopped by legislation), and if it costs the lives of British service men and wrecks the worthy cause of helping Iraq towards democracy, too bad. The behaviour of the offending soldiers disgusts me - but they are just lowly, badly educated and probably not very intelligent squadies in need of better discipline. I'm far more disgusted by those in the media, who have the intelligence and the education to eloquently defend and justify their despicable behaviour. www.spaceship-earth.org