Interesting stories which illustrate the whole point: Your grandfather was a humane guy who refused to murder his prisoner. That's just it. Marine A and his buddies had no such qualms. All power to your grandfather. Probably find that his prisoner went on to live a perfectly useful post-war life and didn't want to be there anyway.
OK lads............have we got a f*****g Rupert on our hands here?............or just some green slime? WO2 at a guess......:wink:
The point in the original video was that the guy was seriously injured to the point where he may or may not have been dead yet. I'm fully in agreement that you can't just shoot prisoners, and everyone has a right to life. Equally I think everyone should have a right to a humane and quick end rather than a prolonged period of pain with no hope of recovery. (I'm taking hours, not months.) I've seen what a hellfire up the arse does to someone and trust me it isn't pretty. When you have a man with shattered arms and skin that looks like burned BBQ chicken trying to push away a doctor who has to perform a tracheotomy to try and save his life then you have seen suffering. Guess what? He died any way. After 2 hours of pointless treatment, breathing through a straw. The poor sod was in pain and all we did was try to keep him alive when death would have been a sweet release. That's the reality of warfare folks. You have to just be grateful it isn't someone you know and get on with it.
Point well made Tom I have signed this petition, I don't suppose it will make the slightest bit of difference. Petition: leniency for Marine A - Telegraph
I admit that I haven't seen the video or followed the entire debate. If the soldiers had said they were putting him out of his misery because it was a more humane thing to do and his chances of survival were almost nil, then that puts a different spin on the matter. What I understood him to say was none of this, but that he was contravening the Geneva Convention and that the bloke was essentially getting his just deserts. Where's the humanity in that? Then other evidence seemed to imply that the other soldiers misunderstood Soldier A and didn't think he was going to shoot him. If the defence was a mercy killing, that certainly failed to come out on the news. And why, if it was a grim event which the soldiers were sad about, did they film the whole thing and keep it for.. what? Future enjoyment? I am thankful that I don't have to deal with war. But no one makes anyone sign up to deal with it. There are those that positively want to get out there and shoot people - certainly after they've been trained how to do it. I am fairly ambivalent about people's motives for wanting to be in the armed forces. If you want the excitement of dealing with extreme situations and disasters, there are other things you can do, like joining Medecins sans Frontières or a disaster relief agency.
What soldiers say out loud and what they feel inside are very often entirely different. What one says doesn't always convey what one means. It's not surprising the media portray it in a way that will sell stories and generate advertising. When have they ever been interested in anything else? Also, it must be remembered that soldiers are not always capable of articulating the emotions they may be dealing with. Hence why everything bad is always described as just 'shit' instead of reasons provided to justify why. The bubble a soldier exists in is very far removed from reality and without first hand experience it's not right for anyone to pass judgement. There's no argument from me that this guy should not go to prison, rather that a situation like this always requires context and understanding and there is always much more to a story than what is portrayed in the media. The man killed somebody but he is not a murderer in the commonly understood meaning. To put this in to context, as I write this there are men firing mortars 40m away from my bed. It's bloody loud and I can't sleep. Those bombs will probably kill someone but that doesn't make then men firing them murderers either and the damage they will cause upon human flesh is beyond comprehension for most people. A person who doesn't 'know' first hand will never 'know' and be grateful that you don't.
This is way beyond stupidity. The sentence is required by law to be life imprisonment. The Court Martial judge and board will decide how lenient or how severe to be when setting the tariff (i.e. how long before parole becomes possible). They will definitely not be influenced in the slightest by any petition. And it would, of course, be monstrous and unconscionable if any sentencing process were ever influenced by any petition.
As i understand it the video was found on one of the groups laptop in a diary of his time in Afghan. It was found by Mp's investigating another event. Whilst i know stuff happens in war and it's easy to be an armchair critic, it did come across as a trophy video, kept as a momento of the event. That surely suggested to the jury that it was more of an execution than an act of mercy or anything else. If it was something you weren't proud of and killing a wounded person in mercy or not shouldn't be in my book. Then why keep it ? Coming from a military family and having had many relatives who were involved in conflicts, i don't ever remember one of them being proud of shooting anyone. Proud to serve yes and having to kill because it's war but the memories that make nightmares not something to discuss or even want to remember.
Fuckin hell Pete I've just snapped the head off a pepperami cause it was a bit of an animal I hope nobody filmed it or I'm screwed for sure in your world, in fact I doubt I'd ever see the light of day again. Jeez.
As I said, I don't think it will make the slightest bit of difference. You have said nothing that I didn't expect you to say. But there is no need to be rude about it.
from what I have read .....thats what they told command afterwards to justify what they had done. they probably moved him into the trees so they were not visible from the overhead cameras the brit forces watch their troops/battlefield with.
He must have been pretty injured to have been caught by them in the first place. The insurgents are often high on all kinds of drugs and the Afghan people are strong people with a very high tolerance of pain. I'm positive if he had the chance to get away he would have. I don't know why blokes carry these helmet cams, I was always worried I would just end up filming my own death.
Perhaps they moved in to the tree line so as to avoid getting shot stood on the open ground. I'm getting so angry at people's lack of understanding. The world isn't black and white and it's very easy to criticise something over which you have no experience. Nobody is proud of killing, no sane individual at least,despite what a soldier might say to his friends.
