SWJED
04-09-2007, 06:53 AM
From wretchard at The Belmont Club blog - Dangerous Memories (http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/2007/04/dangerous-memories.html).
The BBC has refused to air a show dramatizatizing how Private Johnson Beharry won the Victoria Cross in Iraq because "it was too positive" and "feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq", according to the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/08/wiraq308.xml)...
But the BBC is not unique in its sensibilities. In Littleton, Colorado a group of parents are opposing "a soldier memorial located near three schools and two playgrounds should be relocated because the design showing a Navy SEAL clutching an automatic rifle glorifies violence," according to CBS (http://wcbstv.com/national/topstories_story_096130631.html)...
The book Stolen Valor (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/096670360X/wwwfallbackbe-20) may provide the key to understanding this peculiar sensibility. Military researcher B.G. Burkett showed how the story of Vietnam veterans was not only distorted -- the second chapter of his book was entitled "Welcome home, baby killers" -- but how fake veterans, conforming to the media stereotype were produced in place of the real thing. Not only was the collective memory of veterans effaced, a counterfeit was produced in its stead. Nor has the process stopped. Many readers will probably recall the star of the Pepperspray Productions video special, Jessie Macbeth: Former Army Ranger and Iraq War Veteran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Macbeth). In place of the real Johnson Beharry, the public is served up the recollections of the fake Ranger Jesse Macbeth...
The BBC has refused to air a show dramatizatizing how Private Johnson Beharry won the Victoria Cross in Iraq because "it was too positive" and "feared it would alienate members of the audience opposed to the war in Iraq", according to the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/08/wiraq308.xml)...
But the BBC is not unique in its sensibilities. In Littleton, Colorado a group of parents are opposing "a soldier memorial located near three schools and two playgrounds should be relocated because the design showing a Navy SEAL clutching an automatic rifle glorifies violence," according to CBS (http://wcbstv.com/national/topstories_story_096130631.html)...
The book Stolen Valor (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/096670360X/wwwfallbackbe-20) may provide the key to understanding this peculiar sensibility. Military researcher B.G. Burkett showed how the story of Vietnam veterans was not only distorted -- the second chapter of his book was entitled "Welcome home, baby killers" -- but how fake veterans, conforming to the media stereotype were produced in place of the real thing. Not only was the collective memory of veterans effaced, a counterfeit was produced in its stead. Nor has the process stopped. Many readers will probably recall the star of the Pepperspray Productions video special, Jessie Macbeth: Former Army Ranger and Iraq War Veteran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Macbeth). In place of the real Johnson Beharry, the public is served up the recollections of the fake Ranger Jesse Macbeth...