The Justified State
The article starts with, "For 101 days, Royal Marines have been engaged in a farcical operation as mercenaries of the United States whose lawlessness now qualifies it as the world's leading rogue state." Mr, Pilger, sir, mercenaries are by definition paid professional soldiers. The Ghurkas may be called mercenaries, but soldiers serving their nation faithfully and according to the laws and rules of military service are not. You do that organization a great disservice to use the pejorative term "mercenary."
I could go on, but you get the message. Unfortunately, writers like Pilger today and Burchett earlier tend to get air time. Equally unfortunately, our media outlets do not do enough research to counter what Pilger and his ilk have written and will say.
Side Bar - Wilfred Burchett
Wilfred Burchett started out his "journalism" career in the Korean War. There is absolutely no doubt that during the Korean war Burchett actively participated in the interrogation of Australian, US and UK POWs and forced them into falsely confessing to war crimes. During a libel trial held in Australia, Burchett adamantly denied that he was or had ever been a communist agent or that he had collaborated with North Korean interrogators in their 'questioning' of allied POWs. However, Brigadier Phillip Greville, an Australian Army general, stated that he had been captured and tortured by North Koreans. While on the stand Greville emphatically stated that Burchett had participated in the interrogations.
The assertion that Burchett was a long-time Soviet agent was given credence when Yuri Krotkov, a KGB defector, gave evidence to a US Senate sub-committee in 1970. Krotkov stated that Burchett had supplied information to the KGB and that he worked for Hanoi and Beijing as an agent. Krotkov's testimony was confirmed in part by Bui Cong Tuong and Ming Trung, North Vietnamese defectors, who told an Australian court that Burchett was a North Vietnam agent. Both of these men later disappeared, believed murdered.
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