Sgt Alexander Blackman (lately of HM Royal Marines) who was convicted in November of last year for the murder of an injured Taliban insurgent in 2011 by a court martial has began an appeal against his murder conviction.

Had that simply been the case, I doubt if I would have paid more than passing interest in this sad case, but some of the writing in the "pop"press after Blackman was convicted REALLY got my goat.

Whenever one of "Our Boys" is found with his hand firmly in the moral cookie jar, we get a dose of special pleading blather about the unique horrors of combat and about the need to be "understanding"(usually from pundits and papers such as the Daily Mail otherwise given to excoriating bleeding heart liberalism on malefactors who usually do not wear the uniform of Her Majesty's Forces).

Do you know what I think of this claim? The whole Blackman(who despite his name is white incidentally) business contains enough BALONEY to open several chains of delicatessens.

Firstly by his own admission, Blackman was captured on tape admitting "We've just broken the Geneva Convention, lads!"

The Geneva Convention of course protects ALL combatants in a conflict(and to argue that the Taliban either did NOT recognize the Geneva Convention or most likely did not even know of its existence and that it was not a conventional army anyway as some commentators argue is besides the point).

More to the point- Sgt Blackman committed(albeit on a mercifully smaller scale) the same crime as several German and Japanese officers who were tried and executed in several cases for the murder or ill treatment of Anglo-American POWs during WWII- see Wikipedia entries for "Le Paradis/Malmedy/Stalag Luft III murders") Fortunately it seems that the Court is likely to reject his appeal-lest it legitimize what can only be termed "war crimes".

In short the Taliban/Al Qaeda may not recognize or be bound by the Geneva Conventions but the United Kingdom and the United States most definitely DO( and by extension so do their respective armed forces- or they should)!

Anybody think as I do???

Terry