Worrying Propaganda from BBC
politic-critic | 21.04.2001 14:01
On friday evening, BBC2 broadcast a propaganda documentary on the role of British troops in the Korean War.
Entitled "Forgotten Heroes", it left us in no doubt that the BBC and other elements of the establishment want to revive the idea of military intervention in the Far East.
Based on the 50th anniversary of the events of a battle on the river Imjin, north of Seoul, and timed to co-incide with a royal troop memorial parade there, it is the latest attempt to smuggle post- imperial invasions into the public consciousness under the guise of the Churchillian "wartime spirit".
Surviving British troops (none from the opposing Korean and Chinese side) from the debacle were interviewed, and the predominantly Cold War, McCarthyite tone was palpable: remarks like "Finest Hour", "Legendary", "heroes", "anti-communist forces", even "Goddam Chinks, lots and lots and lots of 'em" abounded, from people who jokingly admitted that they couldnt find Korea on a map. Not one critical remark, no question of why British troops should even be meddling in political wars overseas, sent by a Labour government, we should add (the documentary didnt refer to it). All very worrying in terms of the current climate, you might think...
Two years after the NATO Kosovo adventure left the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in ruins, just weeks after the USA killed a Chinese pilot and had its spy-plane captured by the PRC and is still considering whether to sell massive amounts of weaponry to Taiwan, and where the truly "heroic" Vietnam is currently undergoing some political uncertainty, it seems a little uncomfortable to contemplate the smug British establishment dusting down its archives and hinting that such unwarranted intrusions may be justifiable in the future. The role of the USA in Vietnam is generally discredited, but it was noticeable that our british military stalwarts repeated the kind of stuff that was out of fashion by the time of John Wayne's notorious "Green Berets" (1965). And unlike the USA, they never, ever, question the concept of fighting overseas, and nor alas, do most of the population.
There is much debate about whether Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" (about the battle of Balaclava) was elegiac or parodic. But the lines
"Not though the soldier knew
someone had blundered.
theirs not to question why,
theirs but to do and die,
into the mouth of hell
rode the six hundred"
do rather suggest that these events occur too often in British military history to avoid the matter of whether the whole thing might have been deliberate. Isnt it about time that the British people (and soldiers working for NATO) began to question why ? Quickly.
Based on the 50th anniversary of the events of a battle on the river Imjin, north of Seoul, and timed to co-incide with a royal troop memorial parade there, it is the latest attempt to smuggle post- imperial invasions into the public consciousness under the guise of the Churchillian "wartime spirit".
Surviving British troops (none from the opposing Korean and Chinese side) from the debacle were interviewed, and the predominantly Cold War, McCarthyite tone was palpable: remarks like "Finest Hour", "Legendary", "heroes", "anti-communist forces", even "Goddam Chinks, lots and lots and lots of 'em" abounded, from people who jokingly admitted that they couldnt find Korea on a map. Not one critical remark, no question of why British troops should even be meddling in political wars overseas, sent by a Labour government, we should add (the documentary didnt refer to it). All very worrying in terms of the current climate, you might think...
Two years after the NATO Kosovo adventure left the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in ruins, just weeks after the USA killed a Chinese pilot and had its spy-plane captured by the PRC and is still considering whether to sell massive amounts of weaponry to Taiwan, and where the truly "heroic" Vietnam is currently undergoing some political uncertainty, it seems a little uncomfortable to contemplate the smug British establishment dusting down its archives and hinting that such unwarranted intrusions may be justifiable in the future. The role of the USA in Vietnam is generally discredited, but it was noticeable that our british military stalwarts repeated the kind of stuff that was out of fashion by the time of John Wayne's notorious "Green Berets" (1965). And unlike the USA, they never, ever, question the concept of fighting overseas, and nor alas, do most of the population.
There is much debate about whether Tennyson's "Charge of the Light Brigade" (about the battle of Balaclava) was elegiac or parodic. But the lines
"Not though the soldier knew
someone had blundered.
theirs not to question why,
theirs but to do and die,
into the mouth of hell
rode the six hundred"
do rather suggest that these events occur too often in British military history to avoid the matter of whether the whole thing might have been deliberate. Isnt it about time that the British people (and soldiers working for NATO) began to question why ? Quickly.
politic-critic