Sunday, March 25, 2012

Burden of Proof

The world press will print or broadcast any accusation of brutality by American forces and give it credibility. Without that preparation of the media battlespace, the atrocity that was carried out in Afghanistan recently wouldn't be as much of a problem given all the violence the Taliban inflict as a matter of standard operating procedures.

So it is good to have the tools to shut them down:

U.S. and Afghan troops recently tracked down and arrested a corrupt government official who had stolen a lot of cash and goods. ... The culprit was arrested, but as soon as he got within earshot of journalists he began claiming that the American and Afghan troops had stolen gold from him and roughed up the women of his household. But the American Special Forces troops had worn small cameras on their helmets during the operation, and gladly showed the videos to the journalists.

That ended the story line that was surely being written.

At least this is a positive aspect of the problem of pervasive battlefield video. But the fact that the journalists require proof from our side rather than from the enemy shows you how much the world media is biased (from sympathy, corruption, or simply threats) against America.