Marine Guilty of killing - do you agree?

Afghani shooting at you and trying to kill you and other troops.

Helicopter sent in to sort him out - riddles him with bullets.

Marines sent in to check out they had got him.

Three marines find him shot to pieces - but still alive.

One of them finishes him off.

Is this war or murder?

Marine sergeant now faces mandatory life sentence.

Is this right or wrong?

The marines lost seven dead on that tour and many more maimed for life.

The Afghani was found with a loaded gun.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24870699

What a load of bollocks, all he needs to say is he thought the afghani had a loaded gun and was about to point it at me/ end of.

Is the guy that put a bullet between bin-Laden's eyes going to get a life sentence?

scottjames30 wrote:What a load of bollocks, all he needs to say is he thought the afghani had a loaded gun and was about to point it at me/ end of.

Is the guy that put a bullet between bin-Laden's eyes going to get a life sentence?

Killing Bin Laden was more murder wasn't it?

I don't agree with the marine getting a mandatory life sentence, it's pathetic if that is the final verdict.

Another way people can look at it is if the Afghan was so injured he would suffer a long and painful death then to kill him put him out of this?

He took joy in finishing someones life, he deserves the sentence

I feel that being in the armed forces, a lot of the folk end up with psychological effects from war etc.

There has been countless articles and documentaries on this.

Boggersbelief wrote:He took joy in finishing someones life, he deserves the sentence

I'd probably take joy if he killed 6 of my mates too.

How can you do something illegal if you are in the middle of a war? if you get me.

Sounds bonkers

ooooooh 69, my fave number!  

It comes under the Geneva Convention but if the guy used a gun to try and kill you, he'd use it again so its the right decision in my eyes.

scottjames30 wrote:What a load of bollocks, all he needs to say is he thought the afghani had a loaded gun and was about to point it at me/ end of.

He couldn't, one of his mates accidentally recorded it on his head camera.

For some reason he downloaded it on to his laptop, then took it in for repairs.

If you were the repairer would you have 'accidentally' pressed the delete button by mistake?

Or maybe the repairman was a muslim?

Sluffy wrote:

scottjames30 wrote:What a load of bollocks, all he needs to say is he thought the afghani had a loaded gun and was about to point it at me/ end of.

He couldn't, one of his mates accidentally recorded it on his head camera.

For some reason he downloaded it on to his laptop, then took it in for repairs.

If you were the repairer would you have 'accidentally' pressed the delete button by mistake?

Or maybe the repairman was a muslim?

They have killed too many of our people and got away with it, so I say fuck em.

Sluffy wrote:

scottjames30 wrote:What a load of bollocks, all he needs to say is he thought the afghani had a loaded gun and was about to point it at me/ end of.

He couldn't, one of his mates accidentally recorded it on his head camera.

For some reason he downloaded it on to his laptop, then took it in for repairs.

If you were the repairer would you have 'accidentally' pressed the delete button by mistake?

Or maybe the repairman was a muslim?

Two ways of looking at it, he could of accidentally smashed it into a million pieces.

Hard to judge them as its impossible to relate to such a brutal environment without first hand experience. But they broke the Geneva convention and should be punished accordingly - its there for a reason.

Im not overly critical because as I say i can't relate to the situation, but I certainly don't regard soldiers today as hero's I don't think there's anything heroic about our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, to me its just another profession. So I don't think they deserve any special treatment in that regard.

bwfc1874 wrote:Im not overly critical because as I say i can't relate to the situation, but I certainly don't regard soldiers today as hero's I don't think there's anything heroic about our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, to me its just another profession. So I don't think they deserve any special treatment in that regard.

So you don't think someone getting shot at for a living in order to protect your freedom is more of a hero than, say, a lawyer or an accountant?

They say that all's fair in love and war but the courts don't see it that way. On the one hand it's easy to see how one can easily become dehumanised when working in such a hostile and dangerous environment. Especially if you have lost colleagues to the enemy.

Unfortunately, the murdered Taliban was seriously wounded when the marines found him and as such they were duty bound to render first aid. Had they saved his life he would have been detained and interviewed ( tortured ) for intelligence purposes.

Let's not forget that if a wounded marine was captured by the Taliban then they would probably behead him. The Taliban are certainly no followers of the Geneva convention.

Unfortunately for the marine in this case the court found him guilty of cold blooded murder because his victim no longer posed a threat to him or his colleagues.

Mind how you go.

See my other cynical topic to define my stance on this matter!
Too many Neville Chamberlains these days. If you were in a trench with some of these knobheads you'd have to shoot them first before the enemy. You couldn't rely on them covering your back!!!

Natasha Whittam wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:Im not overly critical because as I say i can't relate to the situation, but I certainly don't regard soldiers today as hero's I don't think there's anything heroic about our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, to me its just another profession. So I don't think they deserve any special treatment in that regard.

So you don't think someone getting shot at for a living in order to protect your freedom is more of a hero than, say, a lawyer or an accountant?

Protect my freedom from what? Non existent WMD's? Or do you mean the Taliban who are of course about to invade us from their mountain caves?

This isn't fighting the Nazis or protecting the Falklands, it's just politics now. I've got friends in the army, they enjoy it so fair play to them but do I regard them as a hero for that, no? They're only in these countries because of US politics, there's nothing gloriously heroic about it.

The Falklands were politics, despite the folk that wanted to be linked to Britain that lived there.

I'd agree with that SK it was political. But at least there was more of a basis to it ie protecting Britons' freedom than the Afghan or Iraq.

Thanx for that I'm overwhelmed!

bwfc1874 wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:

bwfc1874 wrote:Im not overly critical because as I say i can't relate to the situation, but I certainly don't regard soldiers today as hero's I don't think there's anything heroic about our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, to me its just another profession. So I don't think they deserve any special treatment in that regard.

So you don't think someone getting shot at for a living in order to protect your freedom is more of a hero than, say, a lawyer or an accountant?

Protect my freedom from what? Non existent WMD's? Or do you mean the Taliban

of course they're protecting you from the Taliban, they're over there fighting them pushing them back.

so you can sleep at night, did you not know?