Marine A
The photo shows my Green Beret from my time serving with the Royal Marines as a Navy doctor from 1980 to 1983. Proud times for me. I have been thinking of writing this blog for some time, but have delayed because of nervousness about "getting it right". The fact that Al Blackman (Marine A) should not be in prison is simple - there is no way this should have happened to him. Discussing the issue in a reasoned way is more complex and wide reaching. He has been betrayed by the Government and thereby his country and many should hang their heads in shame.
Al Blackman was (is) a highly regarded Royal Marine Senior NCO. Towards the end of a very difficult, stressful tour in Afghanistan he disarmed and then shot a Taliban, who had already been mortally wounded by an Apache helicopter. I was clearly not there, but by all accounts 42 Commando had endured an incredibly stressful time prior to the incident. Many marines had been killed, or seriously wounded, there had been torture by the Taliban, who had also hung body part(s) of marine(s) from trees in sight of their enemy. The Taliban were not fighting under the rules of the Geneva Convention. Daily the marines on patrol had the genuine fear that the day would be their last, or the last lived without serious wounds. The stress must have been phenomenal and I am sure it was taking a significant toll. This conflict was not a war in the true sense of the word. Our servicemen were fighting in a foreign land thousands of miles away, against an enemy who considered any means of killing and terror appropriate.
Can there be rules in this environment? Our forces are obliged to fight to a code and justify every action, despite fighting an enemy with no such constraints. War is barbaric and unnecessary under any circumstances. If not pursued by those involved, wars would not take place. The motive is usually greed and the lust for power, money and other possessions by the minority, into which the majority are dragged. Or the latter can decide to standby and see their lives and families destroyed. To attach rules to such events is bizarre in the extreme. For example, is killing another person by one means better than another? Gas or bomb; dum-dum bullet or conventional round; lots of small bombs or one nuclear missile. The rules are fluid. I was thinking about this the other day in connection to the humanitarian disaster, as it is being called, in Aleppo. The civilian population is caught up in a war and are suffering terribly. In the Second World War we flattened Dresden with our bombs and the Germans had a good go at London, Coventry and the rest. At that time it was acceptable it seems to kill civilians in order to degrade the countries will. Is it more acceptable for servicemen to die in a war than civilians? In the First World War it was fine to shoot soldiers who deserted to avoid the horror of the trenches and going "over the top again". If this punishment had not been dished-out desertion would have been the best option for all. Ironically, if all the British and German soldiers had done the sensible thing and run away the war would have ended. I believe that more than in any other war the High Command and Governments of the Allies and Germans are guilty of mass murder. How could anyone in their right minds' continue a war for four years without significant progress either way, and continue to commit young men to their deaths.
So we make rules to make us feel better about the ridiculous nature of war. Wars, which generally these days come about because one fundamental issue is in place. That is that a very small proportion of the world's population live in comfort, and are happy to watch the rest starve and live in squalor. We worry about what new app we can get for our phone, many hope they might find some water (probably dirty) to drink that day. Within a group of people who have nothing to lose, there is more likely to be people who are happy to fight to try to change the injustice they see.
Lets get back to Al Blackman. Why was he in Afghanistan at all? He was there because the Government had decided that defeating the Taliban was necessary to suppress worldwide terrorism, and particularly terrorist acts in our country. In fact, our presence, I believe increased our chance of being a target. I also suspect that any suppression of terrorism achieved cost the lives of more servicemen than the said suppression of terrorism would have saved civilians from it! That was a mouthful so I hope you get my drift. By the way we supported the same Taliban to achieve the killing of Russian soldiers during that countries ill-fated war in Afghanistan. How fickle, hypocritical and down right dishonest governments are. Why had there been a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan? I suspect because the UK and USA had successfully destabilised the Middle East by deposing Saddam Hussein on as we know now (and probably knew then) dubious grounds. It is one thing to fight to directly protect your homeland, another to fight thousands of miles away, but of course we started that game a long time ago with the Crusades, and before no doubt.
The point is that a "root cause analysis" of Al Blackman's predicament goes back to at least the era of Blair and Bush in Iraq. Where should and does the blame lie? Anyway, should Al Blackman have done what he did? No in my opinion, I can conveniently suggest, whilst sitting safely at home! I would expect he will have thought the same after the event. Should he have been court-martialed? Probably yes, or at least I think it became inevitable. For murder? Definitely NO. He should have been put on trial for a lesser crime; possibly manslaughter, or perhaps unlawful killing. If found guilty, should he have gone to prison. Absolutely NO. A suspended sentence would have been more than enough. Would he not have suffered enough by then?
With regard to murder there is definitely murder and murder. Someone might randomly kill another person for no reason. Clearly awful. A person might kill another in revenge. I have recently watched the film "The Railway Man". In it Colin Firth plays a soldier tortured in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. A long time later he discovers that a Japanese soldier involved in his torture is alive and working as a tour guide on the River Kwai. He travels to Thailand for revenge and plans to kill him. In the end he does not, but I would not have blamed him if he had. A person might hit someone in a brawl, and that person might fall, bang their head, have a cerebral bleed and die. The individuals were trying to hurt each other, but intent to kill is not there ( I suppose it might be, but not by that method!). Such cases have resulted in murder charges - wrongly in my opinion. A person might kill their partner in self defense, and a fit of rage, following repeated abuse and domestic violence. Is that murder?
Where does Al Blackman fit into this; nowhere (although perhaps in some ways the closest example is that of domestic violence and I can't imagine that individual being put on trial for murder). He was fighting a war at the behest of his government against a cruel, vicious and murderous enemy, who would happily kill any one of us at "the drop of a hat".
Why do we put people in prison? To punish them, to protect society of their evil ways, to teach them how to behave differently and rehabilitate them. Are any of those reasons applicable to Al Blackman?They are not. If he ever deserved punishment he had suffered enough by the time his trial was over, he was no danger to society, in fact quite the opposite, his behaviour was 99% exemplary I understand, and the only rehabilitation he needed was treatment for the stress he had suffered. His stay in prison is clearly doing the opposite of the last.
So my message is release him now. I do not care what it requires; a Royal Pardon, an act of Parliament or more sensibly just open the door of his cell and let him go. The statement that some have made that he has to be punished to curry favour with brutal murderers in a far off land is one of the most absurd and obscene things I have ever heard.
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