Still image from Helmet Camera footage. Photo Source: Ministry Of Defence/PA
The trial of the three Royal Marines accused of executing a
member of the Taliban has come to a close with two of them being acquitted and
a third known as “Marine A” being found guilty. This has lead to an interesting
debate involving a number of serving and former officers from various services
relating to the sentence “Marine A” should receive. These range from a call for leniency through
to no leniency and “Marine A” facing the full sentence possible as “murder is
still murder”. This Article strikes a good balance in discussing such an emotive issue.
Warfare is never clear cut and the taking of prisoners is always a very dangerous time for all parties involved. There is always the worry that perhaps the enemy combatant is not sincere in their surrender, that perhaps at the first opportunity will seek to harm his captors when there attention is elsewhere.
This case however is one of the more clear cut ones as the enemy combatant in this case was severely wounded and posed no direct threat to the Marines involved. Indeed it seems that this was carried out with malice and with revenge for the casualties suffered by the Marines unit and the displaying of body parts as trophies.
While it has to be remembered that the serving soldiers are under a huge pressure and strain, this does not give them a free card in how they behave. It was an exceptionally foolish thing to do and one that brings the British armed forces and the wider forces that are part of ISAF into disrepute.
Many soldiers,sailors and airmen serve as part of ISAF and this incident involves a very minor percentage, let us hope that it remains this way and cases of this nature will still shock us when they do occur.
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