War Is Murder

                                                                Sergeant Blackman

    

Scenario 1) A Royal Marine patrol are sent out to look for enemy casualties from an assault on their base. As they move through a cornfield they see an apparently wounded Taliban fighter. Taking no chances they give him a dozen rounds before reporting the kill.

Result: a pat on the back and a mug of coffee back at base.

Scenario 2) A Royal Marine patrol are sent out to look for enemy casualties from an assault on their base. As they move through a cornfield they see an apparently wounded Taliban fighter. They don’t finish him off then, but discuss what to do and take some steps to avoid observation. They then call in to report a dead insurgent and one of them, Sergeant Blackman, takes his side arm and kills the prisoner with the complicity of the other patrol members.

Result: life in prison.

The above two scenarios illustrate that in war there is a very thin dividing line between necessary military practice and what is known as murder when it happens in a civilian context. 

Soldiers are trained to overcome their natural inhibitions to kill. Their job is to kill the enemy as efficiently and effectively as possible. And rather than the "Live and let live" ethos of civilian life the immutable reality of war is "Kill or be killed". Because of this there will always be incidents that strike us squeamish civilians as horrific and wrong. In a phrase, WAR IS MURDER. For this reason alone soldiers should be cut a bit of slack when they make a mistake.

But the nature of the job is far from the only reason for leniency for Sergeant Blackman.

Mitigation of Stress

Last week a woman, Natasha Sultan, who killed her baby was spared jail, because according to the judge she was in “a maelstrom of fatigue and mental disorder”.

Now I don’t want to underrate the torment this poor woman suffered at the hands of a six-week-old baby, but I do think that if the court system recognizes post natal depression as grounds for leniency that they might do the same thing for a soldier who has lived under the incomparably greater stress of a war zone for months.

Mitigation of the Nature of the Enemy

It matters whether or not the enemy wears a uniform or poses as a civilian till he’s within range. All our senior soldiers in their comments on the case of Sergeant Blackman pretend that there is no difference between fighting uniformed soldiers who adhere to the Geneva Convention and savages who only take prisoners in order to torture them to death. This pretence originates in the multicultural taboo on discriminating between cultures.

In war soldiers very quickly shed such dangerous rubbish and quite naturally they will be less inclined to take prisoners if the enemy doesn’t. This was clearly on Sergeant Blackman's mind when he said after he shot the Taliban: “There you are. Shuffle off this mortal coil, you cunt. It’s nothing you wouldn’t do to us!”

This is war. War is murder.

The Second World War was the “good” war. The war that even most panty-waist liberals accept was a regrettable necessity. It was a war fought by mass civilian armies not cynical professionals. But as Max Hastings details in his excellent Overlord,  “Both sides habitually shot snipers who were taken prisoner”. This was because sniping seemed somehow unfair and snipers themselves took no prisoners. But it wasn’t just the snipers. As Hastings goes on to say: “Among scores of Allied witnesses interviewed for this narrative, almost every one had direct knowledge or even experience of the shooting of German prisoners”. And the prisoners most likely to be shot were those who were thought to be doing the same, so: “Many British and American units shot SS prisoners routinely”.

Killing a Taliban prisoner is less blameworthy than killing a soldier from an army that adheres to the Geneva Convention.

 Mitigation of Being Ours

In addition to the rational reasons for leniency there is the sentimental one that Sergeant Blackman is one of ours. He joined up to fight for us and for 15 years he has done just that in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan. If such a sentiment plays no part in the treatment of our soldiers, then we civilians no longer have the right to benefit from the patriotic sentiments of the soldiers who fight for us.

This sentiment incidentally was the main reason that soldiers who killed prisoners in past wars didn’t use to come before a court martial. Our leaders used to differentiate between ours and theirs, friends and enemies.

These days sadly, it is the generals themselves who have been the most enthusiastic for prosecuting their own and for showing no mercy whatsoever to those convicted. In the words of head of Armed Forces, General Sir Nick Houghton, “murder is murder” and that showing clemency would “erode the moral ascendancy over our enemies”.

                  

As regards his precious “moral ascendancy,” which is supposed to be the pre-requisite to winning wars, he’s got it the wrong way round. All your average Afghan cares about is not, “Which side do I like?” but, “Who is going to win?”. And when the locals see western armies pussying around with their enemies, working out who is going to win is pretty simple. 
                                             

Also, I haven’t noticed that the reputation of the Taliban has suffered much from endless news reports of their atrocities. And that is particularly true when you consider the “noble Pashtun warrior” shtick that flows like diarrhea from liberal keyboards.     

                                       

Mitigation of Self Interest

In the end though if you are indifferent to every other appeal to reason and sentiment, you might finally consider your own self interest.

When Sergeant Blackman is hung out to dry on 6^th December, what effect do you think such treatment will have on the future recruitment of gung ho young men to fight for us?

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If like me you can’t bear to listen to the cant from our head of Armed Forces about a “heinous crime” and our “moral ascendancy” as he calls for one of ours to be imprisoned with the scum of the earth for the next 20 years then make yourself heard.

If you think as I do that Sergeant Blackman should at the very least be shown the same clemency as a mother who kills her own baby, then “Like” this post and spread the word around.

Sergeant Blackman fought for us and it is now our duty to fight for him.