Thankfully, I appreciate those who are brave enough to defend me and my freedoms. Ones you take for granted. And show no love for. Freedoms that is.
He shot someone who had been hit by cannon fire from an Apache gunship and whose injuries were not consistent with life.
This is a pic taken by Al Blackman, maybe if some of you on here went through what Al and the rest of these lads did it would give you the right to gob off.
Any other laws you think members of HM forces should be allowed to ignore? I was in for 9 years but didn't get shot at. I did have some mates mortared by PIRA though, does that mean I can get off speeding?
I saw on news today that two former soldiers are being charged with unlawful killing/murder relating back to a death in Belfast in the early/mid 70's? Apparently they are the only two that can be charged as they are the only two involved in the incident still living? Has the world of political correctness and witch hunting gone totally mad??? Does every brave soldier who served his country to the best of his ability in very difficult,stressful and life threatening situations have to worry about a knock at his door?Gerry Adams and Martin Mc Guinness strut around portraying themselves as politicians conveniently forgetting about their terrorist past and our guys get hauled before a kangaroo court and called murderers! I hate to say it but I am ashamed to be British
Anyway,moderator will probably pull my post in this world of political correctness.All this PC shit is gonna come back and bite us in the arse
Given the circumstances do you not at least have some sympathy for Sgt Blackman and think he may have been dealt with just a bit harshly ? I hope he is released.
It's an awful thing and I never thought I would say it.I remember my old Dad (bless him) telling me that when he was demobbed FROM RAF in 1945 there was a section of the press and public that vilified Bomber command aircrews who took part in the Dresden raids - even Churchill turned his back on Harris after VE Day.Like our boys in N Ireland,Iraq and Afghanistan they did a nasty shitty job to the best of their ability and training.
given that his is such an isolated incident and that no one else from his unit shot anyone illegally on film then I think any special treatment is an insult to all the soldiers and Royal Marines that acted in a professional manner. Killing unarmed and injured people is one of the many things we rightly criticise ISIS and the Taliban for, if we start doing the same things thing we lose all moral authority. If we are as bad as "them" then our case for being there and fighting "them" looks pretty thin. So in short I hope he is treated acccording to the law as it applies.
Makes me think how the American soldiers (a lot of them still kids) felt when they returned home from Vietnam? No heroes welcome or flag waving,just recriminations and accusations from people who weren't there and didn't have a clue about what those boys went through every day.Shamefull and shabby treatment
If you read the real history of WW2 you will soon learn that it wasn't only the German SS who carried out shootings of prisoners and injured soldiers.When you are moving through enemy held territory it's not always possible to control prisoners or treat their injured.Indeed there is little point in leaving enemy forces unguarded as they are very likely to pick up weapons and rejoin the fight - this time from behind your position
I agree that he should be treated according to the law, as we all should, but as leniently as possible under that law taking the stress he was under at the time into consideration. I don't condone what he did, but I can't condemn it either.
Is it murder to dispatch someone who has been blown apart by cannon fire ? Or would you call in a medevac for an enemy combatant with injuries inconsistent with survival and put additional lives at risk ? I cannot condemn this guy. I really don't think you can compare Sgt Blackman with the perpetrators of the My Lai Massacre (not that I am suggesting you did).
Or indeed water boarding and other humiliating tactics on suspected opposition forces that many, incl British soldiers, may have done.
I don't know the facts of this case. I suspect that the deeper I delve into it, the more I'll believe my gut feeling. Mainly because there will not be an answer that is intrinsically, unequivocally correct. All the "facts" will do will reinforce personal prejudice. I have to say this though. As a society - if we cannot cope with the results of sending soldiers into conflicts, with the things soldiers can and must do under the most stressful conditions imaginable, we should not be sending them into these conflicts. It's a variety of "can't do the time, don't do the crime" except that in this case, "the crime" is expecting our soldiers to always behave the way we think we want them to, and "the time" is being disappointed that they turn out to be human beings with human frailties. We cannot, as a society, have this both ways.
You're missing the point. They are fighting for a retrial because there was mitigating evidence that was not presented to the jury so the verdict of manslaughter rather than murder was not available to them.
