Originally Posted by Pink_Smurf:
“Just to add, it was the Taliban that this soldier was fighting rather than ISIS or al Qaida, my mistake but they're just as bad. I agree with you that they're sub human scum though.”
And yet, when Blackman shot the prisoner, one of the things he was caught on cam saying was "It's nothing he wouldn't do to one of us." This is likely very true but rather than justifying his action it actually serves to blacken him further still.
If the Taliban murder British prisoners and that makes them "Sub human scum", then is not Blackman, by doing the same thing, also "sub human scum"..?
If you become what you behold, you are no better than they.
I'm often disappointed by the mentality of some in our society, that everybody in our armed forces, by no other virtue than that they have put on a uniform, are immediately and automatically elevated to the status of "Hero". The campaign to free Blackman repeatedly calls him a "Hero" and is playing the heroism card for all its worth.
My definition of a Hero is somebody who does something actually.....er.... heroic in the face of personal danger..... who puts himself at great personal risk to either to bring about a successful conclusion to a mission, or save another person (not necessarily a comrade, it could be an adult civilian or child) from injury or death or to prevent another person from committing a heinous act.
Sergeant Blackman did none of those things. He knowingly and with clearly malicious intent, summarily executed a wounded enemy prisoner in a callous and cowardly manner, and then attempted to recruit fellow soldiers to help him cover up the act.
There's nothing heroic about that. He disgraced himself, his regiment and his country. He is a war criminal, nothing less.
And yet, because he's "One Of Ours", we find ways to justify his action. Would we entertain the argument that an enemy insurgent who did the same thing, was under combat stress..? I don't think so. We would call him "sub human scum".... and yet, we find all sorts of faux justification when the person who commits the crime is "One Of Ours" and is therefore automatically a "Hero".
I'll put the posters on this thread to a simple test. Imagine exactly the same incident, perpetrated by the enemy, that is, a wounded British soldier being summarily executed by a Taliban insurgent.
How many people here would call for that insurgent to be exonerated..? How many would accept that he did what he did due to "Combat stress"....? How many would sign a petition to have him released from prison...?