Once again
we are conflicted with an issue that draws acutely differing opinion,
dividing society into the Idealist and the Pragmatist.
The case is
the murder of the injured Taliban fighter by his captor, the British
Marine soldier. Clearly the soldier was guilty of murder and the
argument has been on whether he should be granted anonymity to guard his
family from retaliation.
As an aside.
I find it difficult to
reconcile the idea that when the State orders you to kill its
acceptable, even if the conflict is born of the filmiest political
reason and yet deeply held animosity based on genuine ills between
people have the full weight of the States Law brought down on them, but I
digress.
There are a number of issues which arise. The first
is the context. Whether we fully understand the distortion that war
brings to a persons understanding of what is right or wrong ?
1. The
Idealist would say that there are no conditions which condone violence
particularly the killing of an unarmed man and we often use the term in
"cold blood" to differentiate a crime of passion whereby the act of
killing is deemed to be due to a person who has become unbalanced and
therefore they are not in control of themselves.
2. The Pragmatist
would point to the battlefield condition, particularly when the war is
fought against unidentifiable contestants where every man and women in
the street is a potential foe. They would suggest that the soldier
through combat is pushed into a mentally unbalanced state, especially if
he has just witnessed the killing of a friend or colleague or seen the
dismemberment of other troops as warning. When life or death is all
around, when the civilised world has become grotesque, who will be the
first to throw a stone ?
The second issue is the danger the
family it is claimed, are under by supporters of the Taliban in this
country. What a sad state we are in when we have to acknowledge that the
danger lies within as much as without and that our national concept of
homeland and the intrinsic security that being at home should bring, has
been demolished by our obsession of being all things to all people.
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