What happens when a compliant corporate journalist simply reprints what a military man tells him? Welcome the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hartcher, repeating pro Afghan war propaganda with no contrary views. This is what embedding “journalism” is all about:
The Australian officer in charge of the Afghanistan deployment has told Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott “it’s not the time to get the wobbles”.
General John Cantwell said that the Australian forces had paid a huge cost to create some advantages which they were only now ready to exploit.
“Now’s not the time, as I said to the Prime Minister and I said the same to Mr Abbott today, it’s not the time to get the wobbles,” he told reporters at the Tarin Kowt base in Afghanistan.
“It’s not the time to lose faith, it’s not the time to forsake the loss and the sacrifice and expense and the heartache that’s gone into this.”
Twenty-one Australian soldiers have died in Afghanistan. “We can’t let Afghanistan become a seat for transnational terrorism,” he said.