The Daily Telegraph has run a story on the apparent secrecy around wounded ADF members returning from operations overseas. The thrust of the story is that Defence is trying to keep quiet the wounds that are being received over there. The story leads in with this line:
With opinion polls indicating Australians are divided over our involvement in Afghanistan, the Australian Defence Force's handling of casualties has come under scrutiny.
It has come under scrutiny from whom, the DT? The people getting upset at the lack of blood and gore horror stories coming from Afghanistan are the salivating media. The stories will come out, but rushing that through so that the Australian media scrum can onanate over the tragic circumstances of a wounded digger is not high on the list of priorities.
Wounded Australian soldiers, some having faced amputations and long-term suffering, are recuperating in facilities around the country, but the public seldom hears their stories.
Very true, the primary concern is the treatment and rehabilitation of the wounded. In order to achieve that, Defence go to significant lengths to make sure they are left alone by anyone not from their intimate circle of family and friends, or involved in their administration or their treatment. That includes nosy reporters having a slow news day.
The stories of the wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan will come out. Some already have. The rest will happen when the wounded themselves are ready to tell their stories. Defence won't throw them in the deep end and feed them to the press, no matter how much that infuriates them.
1 comment:
From the article,
"horrific injuries"
Ah. It's a war. They aren't playing tiddley winks over there.
The objective of the enemy is to kill. (Not only to maim, this is not a civilised war.)
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