September 15, 2009 / by emptywheel

 

The Sexing-Up Sickness

One of the British flacks who helped us lie our way through the Iraq war is now trying to claim disability from the stress of telling those lies. (h/t Tom Ricks)

A Ministry of Defence press officer has claimed that being forced to tell lies about the war in Iraq has left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

John Salisbury-Baker, 62, who spoke for the Armed Forces in the North East, said that he had struggled to cope with a stress-related condition for the past two years. He is based at the Imphal Barracks in York.

He is pursuing a claim for disability discrimination on the grounds that the stress of the job has effectively left him physically disabled.

Mr Salisbury-Baker is expected to tell a tribunal panel later this year that he had to defend the “morally indefensible” when telling the media that army vehicles such as Snatch Land Rovers were capable of withstanding roadside bombs.

I’m sure this guy feels terrible. He should. But he has a really bizarre sense of obligation. I’m sure he was ordered to lie. But that’s slightly different from "having to." It’s just a pretty way of saying "choosing to avoid the repercussions of a moral act." 

A moral act that would have left him far healthier, mentally, I’m guessing.

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Originally Posted @ https://www.emptywheel.net/2009/09/15/the-sexing-up-sickness/