[Closed] Naming Marine Blackman

Well if he's going to be tried in a civilian court for murder he's no more entitled to anonymity than you or I would be IMO. That said, I don't think it's going to really benefit anyone having his name, photo and career published.

That said "Taliban recruitment" is a lazy reason for keeping it secret. They don't need to be recruited through outrage at a single killing, money, tribalism, all the other killings and the long time foreigners have been in their country supply plenty of reasons.

Disgusted by this myself. What benefit is there to naming him? Other than the ability to now hound his family and friends, this achieves nothing.

atlaz - Member
Well if he's going to be tried in a civilian court for murder he's no more entitled to anonymity than you or I would be IMO. That said, I don't think it's going to really benefit anyone having his name, photo and career published.

this ^^

as sad as the situation is he obviously knew he was doing something wrong, hence the geneva convention quote, hes now got to deal with the consequences

He should have thought about the consequences [b][i]before[/i][/b] committing murder then.

Disgusted by this myself. What benefit is there to naming him? Other than the ability to now hound his family and friends, this achieves nothing.

Are you also disgusted on behalf of all the other criminals whose names are public knowledge?

Other than the ability to now hound his family and friends

Public interest? Dunno, civilians don't get anonymity for their friends and family, is there any reason why this suspected murderer should get special treatment?

Well without this thread I still wouldn;t know who he was so the OP has rather defeated his whole 'keep him anonymous' argument?

i think its hard to pass judgements on the guy considering what they had gone through on that particular posting and in light of the attrocities being committed by the Taliban against the Marines I cant see any Taliban court giving a rats ass about the mutilations executions etc.

I think the guy needs more support than punishment, and in the end the guy was as good as dead anyway, just a waste of a bullet.

I cant see any Taliban court giving a rats ass about the mutilations executions etc.

Why would anyone , except for the victims of crime, think anonymous trials by the state is a good thing?

I though we all opposed the secret trials of "terrorists" for example

Wow i never expected him to be middle aged or this experienced as a soldier

I imagined some youngish yoof full of rage not a middle aged father with 20 ish years service.

I wonder how common what he did is ?

Sancho - Member
i think its hard to pass judgements on the guy considering what they had gone through on that particular posting and in light of the attrocities being committed by the Taliban against the Marines I cant see any Taliban court giving a rats ass about the mutilations executions etc.

sancho, do you not think that our soldiers ought to be held to the highest possible standard ie 'better than the taliban'

although the whole situation reminds me of captain Willards....

It's a way we had over here for living with ourselves. We cut 'em in half with a machine gun and give 'em a Band-Aid. It was a lie. And the more I saw them, the more I hated lies.

kimbers

I do believe our soldiers should be held to account and to maintain a standard and discipline that matches our standards of society.

But one of our guys cracked after immense pressure and de-humanization and simply putting him up for a murder charge for finishing off a Taliban insurgent is harsh, if they had just left him to die in agony then he would have done nothing wrong.
its a terrible war and the soldiers are having to deal with far more than our society can handle

Sancho - Member
i think its hard to pass judgements on the guy considering what they had gone through on that particular posting and in light of the attrocities being committed by the Taliban against the Marines I cant see any Taliban court giving a rats ass about the mutilations executions etc.

+1

But one of our guys cracked after immense pressure and de-humanization and simply putting him up for a murder charge for finishing off a Taliban insurgent is harsh, if they had just left him to die in agony then he would have done nothing wrong.
its a terrible war and the soldiers are having to deal with far more than our society can handle

+1

He should have thought about the consequences before committing murder then.

The fella was dying.

Pointless arguing though. So many emotionally damaged young men are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan facing a life of a small pension, JRA and psychological issues. But we don't care as soldiering is about Right and Wrong, Black and white.

I guess it will all be forgotten about in a week or so, but I was just thinking about his wife and children, and the impact on them - but then as someone else pointed out, the children of all other criminals whose names are public knowledge have dealt with it.

Also, I still dont see how it is public interest. When the case was first in the press when he was just known as 'Marine A', my first thought wasn't..'I need to know who this man is'..it doesn't make him any more or less of an example by publishing his name.

Well without this thread I still wouldn;t know who he was so the OP has rather defeated his whole 'keep him anonymous' argument?

Its on the front page of the Guardian, Times and Independent websites, so pretty hard to miss it IMO.