Equality campaigners said that the level of racism and extremism expressed underlined the need for the army to take immediate action.Ooh, strong stuff!
"These comments show quite clearly that racism still exists within the army," said Mohammed Shafiq, chief executive of the Ramadan Foundation, a Muslim youth group. "There has undoubtedly been a huge change in attitude among senior ranks and ministers but this shows that has simply not trickled down to the rank and file ... If the army truly wants to start recruiting more people from an ethnic minority background this has got to be addressed as a matter of urgency."
What's happened? Has a regiment of soldiers been arrested for racial violence? Has Prince Harry made another home movie?
No. Some people claiming to be soldiers have made racist comments on Facebook...
Naturally enough, instead of pointing out that anyone can claim to be anything on the Internet, and telling the usual suspects to take a hike until they have actual evidence of soldiers or serving members of any of the forces actually doing something, the Army top brass is in 'placate the complainant!' mode:
A senior military source told the Guardian that anyone found to "hold the views" expressed by those Facebook correspondents would be "hunted down and dealt with most severely" if it was clear they had not met the army's "required high standards of behaviour".And if it turns out that they aren't even in the Army, but are just the usual bunch of cretins behind a keyboard revelling in their anonymity?
Going to look more than a bit silly then, aren't you...?
7 comments:
The only way our Muslim youth are going to take the battlefield is on the other side anyway....
Didn't I say a few days ago that some similar synthetic outrage (was it about Prince Harry?) might mark the start of a Political Class attack on the army?
This is another straw in the wind.
Next up, "institutional racism", do you think?
Followed, perhaps, by the appointment of a Labour Party crony straight to a senior rank?
Perhaps it's significant that Trevor Phillips today claimed to no longer believe there is racism in the police ranks?
He fancies setting his sights a bit higher, instead!
Oh for the love of taco sauce. Didn't we win wars before by letting our soldiers reference the enemy as Nips, Gooks, Tojo, Krauts, Gerrys, Frogs etc? If you are going to shoot a man, you have to dehumanize him slightly. That's the nature of war. It sucks, but it is what it is.
Nowadays we have ragheads and "pakis" and a variety of names best left unprinted.
Leave the bloody military alone, and when you (the Ramadamadingdongs) are willing to fight something a little scarier and more evil than a facebook battle, you get to have an opinion. Till then, shut up.
RG
I cannot beleieve the Army is racist. Linda Bellos was 'advising' it not so long ago on ethnic minority recruitment. YES!!!!! Linda Bellos! Remember her?
As we learned from the case of Mark Steyn versus the Gestapo, sorry, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a great many of the 'racist' commentators on the interweb are in fact government agents of 'anti-racist' agencies trying to drum up some racism to ban.
Brian, follower of Deornoth
"As we learned from the case of Mark Steyn versus the Gestapo, sorry, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, a great many of the 'racist' commentators on the interweb are in fact government agents of 'anti-racist' agencies trying to drum up some racism to ban."
Indeed. I wouldn't put it past them...
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