The Sick Hidden Cost of War
Not many people realize that not only do our enemies employ propaganda, but our very own red, white and blue does so too. War is dirty. War is also costly, as an official estimate may peg it to end up in the two trillion dollars range. To get the public buy-off on war, we keep several details out, like images of gore from the media, or the number of friendly fires that occur. The propaganda being mounted on us is not only the romantic overtures that the Iraqi War is just, but an attempt to self censor to certain details so that we may still maintain a rosy picture of war.
Well, it seems like the whole debacle surrounding the truth behind how Pat Tillman died in Iraq did not teach the Pentagon and the Bush Administration any lesson. It turned out today that the United States and the United Kingdom seemed to have attempted to cover up the truth surrounding the death of L/Cpl Matty Hull, who died almost four years ago.
Granted, L/Cpl Matty Hull is not a celebrity like Pat Tillman. But still, don't you think that Hull's family deserved the truth? Apparently the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence told the family little information, despite having received a video from the Pentagon that chronicled the whole costly screw up. And to make matters worse, this piece of video was deemed classified information, even though there wasn't much to indicate any top secret or sensitive information.
It took a British tabloid to obtain the leaked video to blow the whole thing open. Can you imagine, if you're a member of Hull's family, to finally learn the truth nearly four years later from the tabloid, of all sources? This is infuriating! It turned out that two United States pilots accidentally attacked on a British convoy in Iraq, resulting in L/Cpl Hull's death!
Don't get me wrong, as I am not faulting our Air Force pilots, because accidents do happen in war. But what really upsets me the most is the frequency with which our government perform the classic under rug swept move. How dare they do something like this, when a family in mourning deserves to know the truth? The Pentagon, as clearly well as the Ministry of Defence, should have done the right thing from the start. And now they have this public relations nightmare to deal with.
You can read more about this incident on New York Times' The Lede blog on the subject. You can also watch the leaked video, in two parts, below, along with the full transcript.
Well, it seems like the whole debacle surrounding the truth behind how Pat Tillman died in Iraq did not teach the Pentagon and the Bush Administration any lesson. It turned out today that the United States and the United Kingdom seemed to have attempted to cover up the truth surrounding the death of L/Cpl Matty Hull, who died almost four years ago.
Granted, L/Cpl Matty Hull is not a celebrity like Pat Tillman. But still, don't you think that Hull's family deserved the truth? Apparently the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence told the family little information, despite having received a video from the Pentagon that chronicled the whole costly screw up. And to make matters worse, this piece of video was deemed classified information, even though there wasn't much to indicate any top secret or sensitive information.
It took a British tabloid to obtain the leaked video to blow the whole thing open. Can you imagine, if you're a member of Hull's family, to finally learn the truth nearly four years later from the tabloid, of all sources? This is infuriating! It turned out that two United States pilots accidentally attacked on a British convoy in Iraq, resulting in L/Cpl Hull's death!
Don't get me wrong, as I am not faulting our Air Force pilots, because accidents do happen in war. But what really upsets me the most is the frequency with which our government perform the classic under rug swept move. How dare they do something like this, when a family in mourning deserves to know the truth? The Pentagon, as clearly well as the Ministry of Defence, should have done the right thing from the start. And now they have this public relations nightmare to deal with.
You can read more about this incident on New York Times' The Lede blog on the subject. You can also watch the leaked video, in two parts, below, along with the full transcript.
posted by StHalcyon at
22:28
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