The trouble with this argument is the fact that these brave soldiers aren't fighting other brave soldiers! These people are horrible excuses for human beings! If they had captured one of our soldiers does anyone on here think they would have even wasted a bullet? No they'd have hacked the poor mans head off and paraded it on tv! That's the people they're dealing with! I'm not saying the soldier was right for shooting him but sometimes you have take into consideration what kind off mind set this war has given some of our soldiers! And the fact that it was only because of the video evidence that he was caught! How do know this hasn't happened more times and it has turned our own men like this?
British troops have come under attack from snipers and suicide bombers and have faced the daily threat of IEDs. They face an enemy they often can’t engage. Combat is vicious. Those men we remember every year at the Cenotaph weren’t collecting flowers. Do you think every German soldier killed in World War II died by the book? Sgt Blackmore put his life on the line for us. We should stand by him now.
As I understand it, the Geneva Convention doesn't apply to the Taliban as they're a militia, therefore they're not Prisoners of War. Could be out of date though. http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/olc/taliban.pdf As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn't mind knowing how this footage ended up on a dodgy prat's laptop. I wonder what the other stuff was that gave the laptop repair man cause to call the Police? I wonder if the laptop owner's been done for them?
All soldiers have to think about future soldiers who will have to cope with the consequences of their actions. We already have vastly superior fire power and resources than them so adding the fact that we can murder them without punishment would further ratchet up the willingness to commit atrocities against any of the enemy they can lay their hands on. We are in a war which statistics show we are unlikely to win.They will continue to fight unconventionally against our massively superior forces.This will include filmed beheadings and suicide missions. By expecting our troops to follow the Geneva convention we actually weaken the opposition
Many of those engaged in jihad activities in Afghanistan and elsewhere actively despise what we think of fairness and democracy. They see our values as anti Islam and its teachings and our societies as being deeply corrupt because they put man made values and ideas above those of Allah. I don't believe the pan Islamist forces have a codebook of values and combat etiquette when fighting the Infidel forces, and as such won't make as much as this incident as our own media have done. How many attacks have been made by jihadists on Serbia following that country's treatment of Bosnian Muslims? Answer: not many. It's all about the world order, Western values against Islamist values.
I still don't see how it's murder. It's war, the insurgent was attacking our troops, so they shot him. Twice for good measure. Isn't that what happens in a war? Would it still have been murder if the helicopter gunman had finished him?
If it is murder, wouldn't it be a crime in the Country it was committed? If the Taliban aren't covered by the Geneva Convention, then isn't every engagement they're in a crime rather than an Act of war? (I have no idea, I guess it isn't, but I've no idea why not) I think the charge is a military one, something related to the rules of engagement?
If you believe that then you have zero understanding of the issues and precedents at stake should any other course of action have been taken. To infer that we live in a society that would turn a blind eye to murder truly amazes me.
sometimes there has to be war. unfortunate but inescapable. i didn't make the rules. go argue the toss with uno or nato or whoever did. both side mistreating prisoners is only going to make it worse. you know what those ******s are like about revenge.
Taliban do have a form of RoE, whether they adhere to it is another issue - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...de-of-Conduct-to-fighters-in-Afghanistan.html Sure, a lot of Afghans fighting ISAF forces might feel that way, but so what? We're the invading force. In fact, it's really the fault of Blair's Kantian notions of universal rationality and the whole "inside every third worlder there's a Western trying to get out" ethos. If we had just bombed Tora Bora and cleared out we'd have only lost a few soldiers. Instead we try to impose our values of "democracy" and state bureaucracy on a tribal society run on patronage. It's only about the 'clash of civilisations' because our leaders were too stuck up their own arse to understand that it's not our business as a declining power to try and sort everyone else's **** out.
No he didn't. No-one fighting in Afghanistan is fighting for 'us', that's just demonstrably bollocks. No disrespect intended to you personally, but the idea that Afghanistan is about our national survival like WWII is ludicrous. It's a war of choice fought to maintain our privileged status with the Americans and because the brass got their arses handed to them in Basra.
What you say is true, but he has a point. It's really only the perception of the crime that matters. If there'd been no recording, there'd be no evidence, it wouldn't have gotten out, the MoD wouldn't feel the pressure to respond. The Afghan would just be a statistic.
What? I'm not saying Afghanistan isn't a war, just that the idea its about keeping civvie street safe is a nonsense. I'm friends with many soldiers and marines from several countries, I respect them for what they do. But I'd wager it would be a particularly naive or dim-witted Afghan vet who would think that Afghanistan is primarily about our national security. Particularly since the vast majority of plots are planned or carried out by home-grown UK nationals, and 95% of all foreign plots against the UK originate in Pakistan.
The simple fact is that if the lad with the camera hadn't recorded this then nothing would have happened. The fact that he did then put it onto the computer and then later sold the computer is what the problem was. **** happens in war and to be fair, if you havnt served in conditions such as those that these men served in then you havnt got a clue about the pressure and mental anguish they were under.
