Excellent news. Sgt Alexander Blackman has his sentence reduced.

I have to say I'm in total agreement with Rigby46 Wed 29-Mar-17 18:33:10 post.

Must add though I don't support your consequent remarks and glad you have apologised for these.

I watched an interview with Sgt Blackman's wife in which she said he wishes he could go back and change what he did and how he is truly sorry for and regrets his actions. I think what happened was done on the spur of the moment after having witnessed things which, I hope, none of us ever have or ever will.

She would say that sunseeker

Oh * nellie* that's so gracious of you. Bless

If you read my post of what happened and watch rage video, it was not spur of the moment. It was a very deliberate act - spur of the moment would be if the injured Afghan moved and his hand might have been going to a gun.

Rage = the. I was so overcome by how lovely nellie was being that I forgot to preview

There is another point to consider isn't there? Many many soldiers saw dreadful things in Iraq and Afghanistan and they did not go on and break the Geneva Convention. Instead they often internalised what they saw, had little or no help in dealing with it and it had long term effects. Some of them are the homeless, the poor and the mentally ill now. Let's think about them and the help they need

As he is teaching prisoners to do English and maths he seems to be very much in control,

AB So you don't accept that someone can do something in anger and then regret it? Sgt. Blackman had seen his friends and colleagues killed, witnessed their body parts being hung in trees as a taunt, during what many soldiers referred to as the tour from hell. I wouldn't mind betting there were a lot more similar incidents which went unreported.

He didn't do it in anger < sighs> it was because of combat related stress. If you read the accounts and watch the video you will see and hear how incredibly cool and calm he was - it was truly chilling. That was not an angry man but one who had lost all sense of morality and decency because of his mental health condition. Let's try and be accurate.

I don't know the man sunseeker , I do know several who were in the conflict. He may be sorry he killed an injured man or he may be sorry he got caught . I do question why there has never been photographs of bodies hanging from trees, or clips shown on utube, beheadings hsve been shown.

I am sure there were many more of the same not reported

I think some of us have followed this case closely and seen the video from the helmet cam or have family members who have and no-one seems to dispute the fact that it was against the Geneva Convention as Sgt Blackman himself said. However, I think the correct verdict has been reached now.

It does seem strange, though, in the same week that a known terrorist was buried with praise and eulogies and remembering that IRA murderers were given amnesties in the pursuit of peace. I'm not saying that was wrong, just food for thought.
I realise that our Forces have to uphold the rule of law even in wartime and I'm sure they do most of the time, far more than some foreign forces do if the reports of the actions of even peacekeeping forces are to be believed.

Comparing MM with SB is not particularly pertinent in this context, neither is it relevant what other countries' armed forces do. SB was judged against our standards at this point in time and found wanting. Mitigating issues were taken into account quite rightly but I don't think they included what MM did or other soldiers in other parts of the world. Moral relativism is a very slippery slope

Rigby46 - I am not condoning what he did but I have from experience seen a man get very angry and then appear to become very calm and cold and attack someone - he later said that he felt emotionally dead and yes he regretted his actions. Sgt. Blackman has never denied that what he did was wrong. It is very easy in the safety of our homes to pass judgement on a man who was in a situation we cannot begin to imagine.

Of course you are right Rigby

MM was the Taliban equivalent of course so the Geneva Convention would not apply.

Rigby. Your post wed 18.33

'I've poster this to remind some of you what actually happened.'

I take it you did not watch the Panorama programme as it shows the whole incident for all to clearly see 'what actually happened '. The link you put up was presumably to Wikipedia and I am not arguing with what Sgt Blackman said or did, it is a fact.

I am totally bewildered by your comment that "At the time of the shooting no soldiers life was in danger".

Do you think NAD - E- ALI / Helmand was a picnic area?

As for your comment ' he was not a poor innocent' I don't think that has been said by any posters.

The courts passed judgement - Fwiw I think it's the right outcome. What I have commented on on this thread is a rather OTT response to the case and tried to put it in a wider context which includes other soldiers who haven't committed manslsughter but who are neglected and forgotten about by our society in general. Anger was not part of the defence. None of the footage or accounts speaks to an angry man who then became calm and cold but one who had completely lost any moral compass because of the stree of combat - they are two different defences.

I'm not going to be derailed Jalima. I think the discussion on here and the appalling and hypocritical way we talk about 'our boys' and the collectively in general ignore them deserves more respect than bringing in faux comparisons with the NI situation.

I'll give you an example from leafy Surrey - Headly Court is located here ( rehab centre for armed services - soldiers with terrible injuries). Some of the good people of Surrey complained to the local council when the men were taken to use the local pool - apparently it was terribly upsetting seeing 'amputees'. ( maybe almost as upsetting as having an amputation?). Then there was the property in a leafy avenue that went for planning permission to house family members of those in long term rehab. Local residents said it would make their road a terrorist target ( of course what they really were worried about was a fall in house prices because well, you know, Headley Court wasn't just, you know, for officers). We don't want to engage with the 'dirty' side of armed conflict do we? Does anyone else remember the treatment of ex soldiers after the Falklands War and their fight for help?

At the time of the shooting neither SB or his men were in imminent danger- of course the danger is always there but for it to be a defence it would have to be clear and present not just in general. Anyway, I'm not sure what the point of that is now - does anyone disagree with the verdict? Does anyone think he should have been acquitted or that the murder conviction should stand? It wasn't my impression

Rigby wed 18.35

" And Jalima we are not trained soldiers so what we would do in the circumstances you outline is completely irrelevant".

I'm not a fisherman but my common sense tells me I wouldn't want to be in a fishing boat in a Force 10 Gale.

Are you really incapable of comprehending what a tour of duty in a God forsaken hole like NAD - E - ALI / Helmand would be like because you are not a trained soldier?

Rigby wed 20.40

" Some posters, and you were one of them, were misrepresenting the truth about what happened and I thought it was necessary to put the record straight."

Can you tell me who has misrepresented the truth about what happened.

Was this man a marine ?

Yes.

Thank you Daphne.

Yes, 42 Commando

Was he Jalima, so the elite of the British Army, thank you