Paracelsus

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War criminal has sentence cut but conviction upheld

Yes, you saw correctly. I used the phrase "war criminal" to describe Royal Marine sergeant Alexander Blackman, convicted of murdering a wounded Taliban insurgent in 2011 who had his 10 year sentence cut to eight by the Court Martial Appeals Court (due to alleged post traumatic stress disorder that led to him murdering said unnamed insurgent) but had his conviction rightly upheld along with his dismissal from the Royal Marines in disgrace. I am fully aware of the gravity of this phrase but given that Sgt Blackman committed the very same offence- the wilful murder of a POW( for which both the UK and US tried and in several cases-executed Germans and Japanese officersfor after WWII albeit in their cases on a very much wider scale see Wikpedia entries for "Le Paradis massacre" "Malmedy massacre" "Stalag Luft III massacre"), allowing his appeal would have effectively have legitimized such (mis)behaviour in future conflicts- with the risk of retaliation by the enemy( be they insurgents like the Taliban or conventional military forces) against caputred British servicemen.

Now it may be argued that the Taliban does not observe or regard itself being as bound by theGeneva Convention( had the circumstances been reversed, the insurgent would have killed Sgt Blackman or any other British soldier or Royal Marine as casually as you or I would swat a fly), so why should we?

This argument is specious- just because our enemies do not subscribe to the rules of war, that is NO excuse for us to do the same! The Taliban may not acknowledge the Geneva Convention but Her Majesty's Forces(which obviously includes the Royal Marines) most certainly do and woe betide anyone who seeks to break them- pace Sgt Alexander Blackman!

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