Gurkha ordered back to UK after beheading dead Taliban fighter

[PapaLazaru]

It's kinda the sad the lad will have to be punished for this. It looks like it was a bit of ill-considered quick-thinking. Gotta id him? No time to take the body? Hmm... Thwack? Will this do?

But we can't have our soldiers behaving like that.

Well I am sorry but I totally disagree.

They were instructed to prove the Taliban leader was dead.

They were under heavy fire. The usual thing would have been to drag the body away but they decided it was too dangerous. They made that decision not because they are lazy, because it was no doubt the correct decision to preserve their own lives. So they took his head.

So what?

 

[Dugganator]

Picture it from the point of view of an everyday Afghan civilian, on one side you've got the Taliban, pushing you around, telling you what to do, but they've been around for years so you know how things work with them.

Then you get a bunch of foreigners coming along, stiring up trouble, but promising things will be better with them because they take a more responisble caring angle and arent as brutal as the Taliban.

But then you hear they've beheaded someone, and actually they're no different to the brutal thugs you've had before. Who are you gonna side with after that?

PK!

If the local people truly hated the Taliban surely they wouldnt care. It all depends if they still support them or not I guess.

You should watch a documentary about how the Taliban controlled people in most cases they hardly pushed people around or told you what to do they did horrible things to people. But I understand sort of what your getting at.

 

[scorza]

Picture it from the point of view of an everyday Afghan civilian, on one side you've got the Taliban, pushing you around, telling you what to do, but they've been around for years so you know how things work with them.

Then you get a bunch of foreigners coming along, stiring up trouble, but promising things will be better with them because they take a more responisble caring angle and arent as brutal as the Taliban.

But then you hear they've beheaded someone, and actually they're no different to the brutal thugs you've had before. Who are you gonna side with after that?

PK!

Given the strong support for the Taliban in Afghanistan from the people perhaps it's time for a change of tack - the convenient, politically correct hearts and minds approach doesn't appear to be working. As Osama bin Laden has said, show a boy a strong horse and a weak, sickly horse and he will naturally move towards the stronger beast.

 

["andy"]

''he was like that when i found him guv''

 

[d_brennen]

Just a shame the politically correct baying mob will want this Gurkas head on a plate tbh

My gut is feeling "good on him" where as I really wish he'd just taken a phone camera snap of the dead guy

 

[Allnamestaken]

Wow there going to make this guy a scapegoat for doing a bloody fine job.......


I would have done no different imo... I say the politicians who are making this a big hoopla need to be shot..



This should not be released to the public many will support but a lot of idiots will jump on the band wagon and if they release his name his life will turn to **** all for a bit of good publicity to show there doing the "RIGHT" thing.


Got to love the government telling our soldiers how to act against these bluddy ******** in afganistan and turning them into scapegoats when they do there job.


Funny thing is most of our country would support what he did lol.

 

[chrisd]

I don't have a problem with British troops grossly insulting the Taliban

You clearly understand the situation well then.

 

[Mr Jack]

They were instructed to prove the Taliban leader was dead.

They were under heavy fire. The usual thing would have been to drag the body away but they decided it was too dangerous. They made that decision not because they are lazy, because it was no doubt the correct decision to preserve their own lives. So they took his head.

I would hope they were also instructed not to desecrate the corpses of the dead. And no-one suggested they were lazy.

 

[nikebee]

It's a war....

 

[rypt]

personally dont see the problem, bosses demand proof the man is dead, i'm sure dumping his head on their desk would prove this about time these barbarians got a taste of their own medicine so well done that man

+1

 

[shadow_boxer]

It's kinda the sad the lad will have to be punished for this. It looks like it was a bit of ill-considered quick-thinking. Gotta id him? No time to take the body? Hmm... Thwack? Will this do?

But we can't have our soldiers behaving like that.

Yeah agreed. Lad in his twenties, under heavy fire and the pressures of war. It is wrong and yeah its insulting and barbaric but at the end of the day, its a war and he had to ID the target correctly.

 

[platypus]

Do the Taliban follow the rules of the Geneva convention then?

Not really sure how that is relevant.

 

[teaboy5]

Think is, if this wasn't in the news would anyone ever know?

One would think he got his head blown off and its now missing.

But now that its all over the BBC the taliban will now use it to get people on their side.

 

[Dugganator]

Not really sure how that is relevant.

The point I was making was that I dont really see why we should follow that rule if the people we are fighting dont follow it.

 

[Mr Jack]

The point I was making was that I dont really see why we should follow that rule if the people we are fighting dont follow it.

Because we're better than them.
Because acting like barbarian thugs doesn't help what we're actually trying to achieve.
Because we signed up to the rules and are legally bound by them.

 

[meghatronic]

Because we're better than them.
Because acting like barbarian thugs doesn't help what we're actually trying to achieve.
Because we signed up to the rules and are legally bound by them.

Indeed, and I don't disagree with it (insert Nietzsche/abyss quote).

However, it holds us back. And it is why we'll lose in the long-run.

 

[edscdk]

If the local people truly hated the Taliban surely they wouldnt care. It all depends if they still support them or not I guess.

I was thinking the same thing.. however I suspect they hate us but have no clue weather they then support the taliban or hate them too...

 

[Dugganator]

Indeed, and I don't disagree with it (insert Nietzsche/abyss quote).

However, it holds us back. And it is why we'll lose in the long-run.

Same here. I'm not saying we shouldnt I just find it hard to see the point in following it when other dont its that simple. 99.9% of our forces follow these rules and do any amazing job. I just feel it holds them back in someways.

 

[meghatronic]

Same here. I'm not saying we shouldnt I just find it hard to see the point in following it when other dont its that simple. 99.9% of our forces follow these rules and do any amazing job. I just feel it holds them back in someways.

It always does, or has.

Rules of engagement (or whatever they're called) are also debilitating. E.g. IRA sniper just shoots your commander, but then drops his rifle and his kid picks it up, and together they walk off. You can't do anything.

 

[edscdk]

Because we're better than them.
Because acting like barbarian thugs doesn't help what we're actually trying to achieve.
Because we signed up to the rules and are legally bound by them.

We are not better than them, they are fighting for what they believe in, we are fighting and killing people and we dont really know why.. what sort of ****** up war is this.