Comments on: A Test for French Will in Afghanistan http://asecondhandconjecture.com/index.php/2008/09/06/a-test-for-french-will-in-afghanistan/ Questions through the veil of ignorance Thu, 17 May 2012 04:17:26 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: synova http://asecondhandconjecture.com/index.php/2008/09/06/a-test-for-french-will-in-afghanistan/comment-page-1/#comment-225425 synova Sun, 07 Sep 2008 03:53:04 +0000 http://asecondhandconjecture.com/?p=5293#comment-225425 Though not publishing them is problematic, too, if the goal is to keep the French as passive as possible. I'm pretty uniformly disgusted with the role of journalism in this war and the attitude of journalists about what it is they are actually supposed to be doing. I would like, very much, to see our allies (and certainly the French among them) stop playing at war... offering troops, but only out of harm's way.   (I have a guilty suspicion that those sending troops to either Afghanistan or Iraq in a capacity  that actually involves shooting or getting shot at are motivated more by their own pressing need for combat experienced troops than anything else... which isn't *bad* exactly...)   If it takes a scummy journalist releasing "triumphant" photos or video to illustrate that there really *are* good guys and bad guys in this fight...  that might be a good thing. Though not publishing them is problematic, too, if the goal is to keep the French as passive as possible.

I’m pretty uniformly disgusted with the role of journalism in this war and the attitude of journalists about what it is they are actually supposed to be doing.

I would like, very much, to see our allies (and certainly the French among them) stop playing at war… offering troops, but only out of harm’s way.   (I have a guilty suspicion that those sending troops to either Afghanistan or Iraq in a capacity  that actually involves shooting or getting shot at are motivated more by their own pressing need for combat experienced troops than anything else… which isn’t *bad* exactly…)   If it takes a scummy journalist releasing “triumphant” photos or video to illustrate that there really *are* good guys and bad guys in this fight…  that might be a good thing.

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