"..we are forced to rely on statements by Defence Secretary
Geoff Hoon, the
U.S. Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, President
Bush, Prime
Minister Blair, a U.S. Air Force spokesman, the Taliban
ambassador to
Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef and Arab TV stations. But in all of
these parties
to the war have cases to make. History teaches us that we have
no reason to
trust any of them. Where, oh where, is the voice of the
informed, objective
war correspondent?"
"The lies, manipulation, news management, distortion, and the
gullibility of
the coverage of Kosovo, so soon after the debacle in the Gulf
(where the
military showed just how effectively it could manage the media)
had brought
traditional war correspondents to crisis point in their short
history."
"No matter how you "spin" it, the spectacle of two of the most
powerful,
industrialised nations on Earth bombing a Third World
agricultural country in
the middle of a famine can only cause humanitarian concern."
"Geoff Hoon [UK Defence Secretary] has insisted that Allied
strikes have
specifically targeted Taliban military installations, airfield
and air
defence sites - and added that civilian populations have been
deliberately
avoided. He said: 'Neither the Afghan civilian population nor
their homes or
property have been targeted.' They may not have been targeted,
but were any
hit?"
"...both Bush and Blair realised that all it would take to
shatter this
support would be one image - TV or photograph - of an Afghan
woman cradling
in her arms the body of a baby killed by an air strike...For
this reason, the
greater the secrecy surrounding the air war the better, so far
as the British
and American governments are concerned."
"Secrecy surrounding any ground war in Afghanistan will be even
greater
because of the involvement of the SAS and American special
forces. The last
thing they want is a pack of war correspondents following their
every move
and filing stories as troublesome as those surrounding the SAS
killings of
IRA terrorists on Gibraltar turned out to be."
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