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UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

aoav.org.uk

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Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#141
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs like Russia, or diplomacy through violence. In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. So no, it is in fact the defense sector. What countries have a defense sector, if the UK doesn't?

> In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. Claiming that the UK doesn't support diplomacy through violence then transitioning into this gem has to be one of the wildest juxtapositions I've seen this year. Do you classify the US strikes on Iran as uniformly offensive or defensive in nature? Or do you think there i…

The UK has only allowed the US to use their air bases to strike Iranian offensive capability and intercept missiles launched towards middle eastern cities. Iran bombed an airport in Kuwait yesterday, for example.

It's pretty obvious how the the UK's actions vs. Iran's, or even the US's, are different.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#142
TL;DR

Military Experts Named:

Nick Carter Chris Deverell James Everard Nick Houghton Mark Carleton-Smith Rupert Jones Richard Kemp Stuart Peach David Richards Patrick Sanders Richard Shirreff Sir Peter Wall Ben Wallace Alan West Penny Mordaunt Greg Bagwell Richard Barrons Tim Collins Richard Dannatt

Media Outlets Named:

The Telegraph Daily Mail Express The Independent iPaper The Sun LBC Sky News Times Radio Channel 4 News

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#143
post #136

[flagged]

Special shout-out to the BBC who just embellish and release ahistorical nonsense, brainwashing kids https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M-qsVS8zeU On top of ton of social programming with an overrepresentation of eg mixed race couples in shows

What has your comment (and the GP comment) got to do with the featured articles?

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs like Russia, or diplomacy through violence. In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. So no, it is in fact the defense sector. What countries have a defense sector, if the UK doesn't?

> In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability If Iran struck all of the UK's missile factories and military bases, would it be considered a defensive or offensive action?

Context matters. Did the UK start a war with Iran? Or did the UK decide to hit surrounding countries (France, Norway, Netherlands, etc.) to destabilise the region and target an Iranian airbase in Spain?

I would assume there's a bunch of countries around Iran that appreciate UK's help in intercepting missiles.

I would assume there's a bunch of countries around Iran that don't appreciate the US starting a war of choice.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#145
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Iraq and Afghanistan might disagree with your first point. Last time I looked Iran and the UK are quite some distance from each other, and Iran has inexplicably neither been launching missiles at the UK, nor threatening to, and is apparently not even capable of it. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm120x4lzxo So the justification for these "defensive" bombing runs on Iranian mountain sites from Fairford remains mys…

Iran attacked the British base in Cyprus with drones so has directly attacked British territory. Iran has also been sponsoring terrorism in the UK. Iran has also attacked an American base on British territory. > one of the most corrupt countries in the world A ridiculous exaggeration given what a lot of other countries are like.

Helping the aggressor with its offense or defense during the aggressive acts is taking part in the aggression. States have international obligation to not engage in or promote aggression and to not take part in it. UK voluntarily took this obligation on itself.

I guess it's debatable whether the drone attack was proportional. I'd say that attack on clearly military installation of active ally is proportionate. Bombing bases in Britain would be more appropriate I think, since that's where the bombers that attacked Iran flew from and were loaded with weapons.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#146
post #139
post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quoted as saying that there should be some sort of budget or spending increase, which is the sort of evidence being presented in this report, but merely some historical context statement about how the armed forces had been 'right-sized for the era'; and with his political ties also mentioned. That said, I wouldn't be surprised if AOAV had a blind spot with respect to The Guardian . However, that doesn't show one;…

I'm sorry, that's a real stretch. It's apparent to anyone reading what his comment implies. And this is far from an isolated case, if you think the Guardian is an exception. We're all technical here, easy to use Google search and look up the names in the report and see how often the Guardian and the other "better" papers disclose the arms industry links. (Oh and the political party he's affiliated to isn't what's und…

No, You're the one stretching things. If you want to provide an example from The Guardian that actually works, and it is as easy to do so as you say, go ahead. As I said, I wouldn't be surprised if they had a blind spot, given who is on the staff and the byline of this very piece. But you haven't here.

Rather, you've showed an article where the primary complaint of the headlined report, that the potential biases of a commentator or a source are not made apparent, does not apply because the bias of the person quoted, that xe is politically connected to the government whose actions are being scrutinized in the piece, is very much given as context.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs like Russia, or diplomacy through violence. In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. So no, it is in fact the defense sector. What countries have a defense sector, if the UK doesn't?

They still own Falkland Islands.

Who "owned" it before? There were no people on that land before it was settled.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#149
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK doesn't have some imperialist policy of land grabs like Russia, or diplomacy through violence. In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. So no, it is in fact the defense sector. What countries have a defense sector, if the UK doesn't?

Defensive missions? Was the UK under attack?

The UK has allies in the region. Kuwait was bombed just yesterday. And a UK airbase was targeted.

Are you arguing that the entire world should never provide aid to other countries? Surely you're just calling for imperialist powers to gobble up the planet piece by piece.

Re: UK media fails to disclose defence sector links in nearly 60% of cases

#150
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the current Iranian war the UK is only allowing it's bases to launch defensive missions, i.e. strike offensive capability or incoming missiles. Claiming that the UK doesn't support diplomacy through violence then transitioning into this gem has to be one of the wildest juxtapositions I've seen this year. Do you classify the US strikes on Iran as uniformly offensive or defensive in nature? Or do you think there i…

The UK has only allowed the US to use their air bases to strike Iranian offensive capability and intercept missiles launched towards middle eastern cities. Iran bombed an airport in Kuwait yesterday, for example. It's pretty obvious how the the UK's actions vs. Iran's, or even the US's, are different.

Yeah, "striking offensive capability" of a country is aggression and the country that strikes, and it's helpers are all aggressors and in the wrong as far as intl. law goes. You need to work on understanding how causality works. What happened yesterday has no bearing on what happened 2 months ago.

If UK/US wanted to be in the in the clear they could have asked UNSC to authorize use of force against Iran.

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