Friday 8 November 2013

Jakes on Royal Marine Guilty

It saddens me to have to break this news so close to Remembrance Sunday but a Royal Marine has been found guilty of murdering a wounded Afghan insurgent fighter. The soldier shot the wounded, unarmed Afghan in the chest telling the dying man: "There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil, you ****. It's nothing you wouldn't do to us." Before turning to comrades and telling them: "Obviously this doesn't go anywhere, fellas. I just broke the Geneva Convention."
Even more depressing is we are getting people commentating under online news supporting the Marine. Wise up people! This soldier is a disgrace to those who serve the Crown with honour. There is no honour or courage in killing a captured, wounded man in cold blood. This my dear readers is murder, pure and simple. I am no pacifist, and as horrid as it is, soldiers kill each other in times of war. Its the nature of warfare. But when you have soldiers murdering captured enemy combatants, its not right. It cannot ever be right. Its psychopathic and cowardly. And yes, there are Afghan Taliban soldiers doing the exact same thing to troops but I thought our Army was better than that. Evidently some are not. There is a Geneva Convention for a reason, and if we are going to ignore it, we might as well toss it out the window. This Marine knew he was doing wrong too because he instructed his comrades to keep quiet. He knew he had just committed murder. I support our Armed Forces but I cannot defend killing a wounded man. Only cowards and those with questionable morals ever would.
I shouldn't be so surprised when crimes like this are uncovered because operating in lands where bloodshed is plenty is bound to have negative effects on any normal man. Killing, under any circumstance, isn't natural. It is bound to 'breed' the odd psycho. Violence builds on violence. The rule of the gun is never ending. But I doubt Mankind will ever learn.