This is something I simply cannot fathom out, my thoughts, feelings, and sense of right, and wrong, are so muddled up, and intertwined, that I find myself sympathetic to all points of view.
Never have I been so confused, and unable to form a definitive opinion once all the arguments, and debates go around in my head.
The badly wounded Taliban insurgent was by all accounts murdered/executed by a Royal Marine.
There is also little doubt that if the boot was on the other foot, the Marine in question would have suffered a more grotesque, painful, and drawn out death by the Taliban.
Indeed, the Taliban routinely string up the body parts of our dead soldiers on trees to emphasise these horrendous barbaric acts.
Our Armed Forces like to be seen to maintain a high standard of discipline, and we rightly adhere to the codes and rules of the Geneva convention.
The Taliban however, do not.
So, on the one hand we have a side that acts with propriety, and one side that does not.
Now, we have a soldier who has served with distinction in Afghanistan on several occasions. One can only wonder at his mindset, when every day he will wake up knowing that if he falls into the hands of the Taliban, he will suuffer the most horrendous brutish torture, and eventual killing imagineable, from his skin being peeled from his body while still alive, to dismembering.
Yet, he did debase himself almost to their level while serving in the Royal Marines.
It was an execution.
I feel repulsed by his wanton act, ...... and yet I cannot help feel sadness, and sympathy for this Marine.
Compare his 10 year sentence to the sentence of baby P's mother who only served a few years.
Bin Laden was shot in his own bedroom, no investigation there.
As for naming him, I have definite views on this subject.
His Family can now live in fear of retaliation for the foreseeable future, is there anyone who thinks otherwise?
I think not.
His Family must now be fearful for their lives.
What a terrible and badly thought out decision by this Judge.
