DescentBB

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/f ... 562938.stm

Dear mrs/miss Guerin, when you left university after completing your journalistic courses i'm sure you expected better when you joined that most eminent of british establishments, the bbc. To be held up by a combatent force whilst filming under extremly difficult conditions, thus ruining your promotion prospects to anchor in the future is nothing short of criminal.

Shame on the BBC. I ask myself why couldn't your superiors have contacted the officer in charge of the operation (that you unknowingly stumbled upon) to delay the order t advance a few hours so you could have completed your work. Why couldn't the BBC make sure that if such an event occurs then the soldiers involved could have some sort of refreshments at hand, or wet wipes to clense oneself. It really is too much.

Miss/Mrs Guerin you are at the front line, fighting for our right to know, and as such deserve much better. If i was in your place i'd catch the next plane to Najaf where i've heard theres a bit of a rucus that we need to know about. The BBC have an excellent relationship with our American cousins, and if this sort of thing happens there i've heard they carry Hershy bars and palm pilots to play tetris on till the operation is completed. Maybe Basra would be better, thats where the Brits are with their milky tea and warm beer.

I will be sending a scathing letter to auntie beeb forthwith, in the hope that you recieve some sort of apology.

Yours sincerely
A Taxpayer.

Wow, that story is so slanted I'm surprised it hasn't fallen off my monitor.

I dont get it.

Maybe it was written by a moron of such epidemic proportions that I would become stupider by comprehending and thus my brain has activated an internal safety instinct preventing me from comprehending that lunatics jibberish

So the way to endear yourself to a subjugated population is to hold an old lady captive in a room without water and taunt her with comments about children she does not have while shooting children that are throwing rocks at you. Oh. I didn't know that was what worked best.

Ford!!! Cherub! It's a war. Forget who, when and why for one second. Substitute your views for abstracts.

Do you think journalist "a" should be complaining that soldier "b" held her for a few hours because of a high risk situation in which soldier "a" could get his ass blown off. Soldier "b" being a 19 year old kid full of adrenalin that forgot his manners. Come on sunshine wake up and smell the sweat.

"a" is a parasite.
"b" is the meat from which it feeds.
....and we are "c"


sorry for being in a bad mood.... it's been a crappy week

I understand that it is a war FC and I don't want the soldiers to put themselves at any more risk but the jounalist's complaint was not that she was held by the military it was that the old lady recieved such shabby treatment when she had done no wrong at all.
Why did the soldiers taunt her?
Why did they not give her water, allow her some minimal comfort and allow the doctor to treat her?
Just because she is a Palestian does that make her less than human?
The dehumnanizing of your enemy is an evil thing and allows for atrocities (not this minor incident) to be commited as the other side is seen as non-human. And when you treat the innocent (or at least harmless) elderly like this it breeds a reciprical attitude.

Hope your week improves. How was your sister's visit?

The point was (and i know you know what it was) it dosn't matter what your nationality is. If you're in a very high pressure situation, where lives are at risk you cannot afford to take time to make sure civlilians are comfortable. Journalists prey upon this and use it for sound bytes back at home, it's an easy story when there's no blood on the ground. I was making a comment about the media, not about the middle east.

Maybe if i chose a conflict, or a situation closer to home i'd be understood a bit different.


FC

They let the doctor in which makes me think the opportunity for treatment wasn't lost.
Maybe she wasn't allowed to go to the hospital, or serve tea and crumpets, but somehow I get the idea she wasn't qued up for a beheading at the hands of israeli whacko's....

Okay, sure, no one shot her or burned her with cigarettes to get her to tell them who lived next door but the soldiers were not under fire, they were just using the house as a sniper post. This was not really a combat situation, the soldiers weren't even sure there was a gun being passed around byt the kids they shot at.
The Isralies cannot eliminate all the Palestinians from the West Bank, or even from Israel itself. The Palestinians are the cheap labour without whom Israel would have a difficult economic time. Since they cannot be eliminated there must eventually be some kind of accomadation made with those Palestinians that are willing to live in some kind of peace with Israel. Treating uninvolved civilians like dirt will only turn more of them into the active opponents of Israel. Attitudes like those displayed by the soldiers will only ensure more years of conflict.

At least that is how it looks to me from 5,000 miles away in a quiet suburban Canadian neighbourhood.

Ford Prefect wrote: Since they cannot be eliminated there must eventually be some kind of accomadation made with those Palestinians that are willing to live in some kind of peace with Israel.

In that one sentence lies the ultimate solution to the conflict.
Problem is protecting the moderates from those who stand to gain by keeping the pot on boil.
Therin lies the rub!
Nice job F.C., of giving sobre and balanced picture of an unpleasant and unfortunate situation.