Soldiers Beating up teenagers in Iraq...

[MrsBigD]

News of the World

Sky News

Just saw this on Sky News and am once again slightly amazed at the general population...

I can possibly understand the attitudes that the News of the World shouldn't have published the video footage due to maybe putting other soldiers in Iraq under thread of attack - though I don't agree.

However when they showed the result of the opinion poll whether soldiers accused of abuse should be prosecuted I just was amazed... a high percentage said 'NO'... I was just flabbergasted ... so if one is a soldier and happily goes along abusing the people of the country who they are supposed to protect it's ok to abuse them???? surely not.

here here MB, Saltine and Shark.

i'm with JARM on this one. however as a signallers wife (the lowest of the low ) I must say i'm v offended by comments that he's thick and won't amount to anything cos he's the lowest rank.

thank you sat.

And Rhubarb, as has been said before, the NOTW has blood on its hands too. Why hold onto these tapes for so long? Why release now, if not to jump on the 'is the west anti muslim' furore currently raging? And most importantly, why not hand the tape straight to the MOD?

I agree, they should face serious charges!
Now is the time to draw up some new laws for the media, because currently they seem to think they are above it.

satine "our soldiers in Iraq are being shot at, mortared, stoned, spat at and blown up every single day"

what do you expect satine, when you have bombed someone else's home and killed and maimed someone else's relatives and friends?

sorry haven't read the thread but imo I think our soldiers are doing a brilliant job - the pressure on them must be immense. Ok those pictures are not nice to look at and the matter should indeed be investigated.

Let's not forget though they haven't dragged Mr Benign out from his front room watching telly - they are ringleaders in mob rule - what are soldiers supposed to say 'oh please stop throwing stones and step this way sir' and Mr mobster goes 'oh its fair cop ok guv'

It's all very well judging from the comfort of dear old Blighty and tut-tutting but please Let's get real!

at the end of the day i blame Tony Blair. I still can't understand how he managed to get away with an illegal war. i agree the pressure on the soldiers must be immense, but so must the pressure on Iraqi civilians. Both are put in situations they should not be in.

Peacedove - didn't they get that under Saddams regime too? Not saying this current regime is any better (Ooooh, let's all sing the Stars and Stripes! Vomit!) but at least they are trying to establish some kind of democracy there. We might not agree with their methods, we might not agree with the timing, but less people are being killed now than under Saddams regime. So get your head out of your arse! Yuh!

so is any country now entitled to install its type of democracy onto another country by invading and bombing the hell out of the poor undemocratic one?

and why only democracy? What is so sacrosanct about democracy that nations can be invaded for that alone?

Perhaps the USSR was right in invading Afghnaistan, after all. It wanted to install socialism there.

And maybe those who want to install the Shariah by violence have a right too?

Or is it only the White Man's Burden?

as for less people being killed!

How many was Saddam killing, and what is the kill rate now?

How was the economy doing, and what is it now?

I have but one suggestion. Let us have the next war in the Western countries. Let them reap the benefit of having their cities and roads and infrastructure bombed, thier citizens killed and maimed, their children made orphans, their water and land polluted with DU dust, their women made widows.

Let us all share in this great benefactor called war in one's own land.

Bosnia?

last time I looked that was in Europe?

Good. Let us spread it a little.

I mean spread not the word, but the benefits of having a war in your city, in your country, in your place.

and MT you haven't answered my questions about:

1. why should democracy be so sacrosanct that people should be bombed into it, that too with DU shells.

2. and why does the White Man feel the burden of civilising the uncivilised by killing them.

Peace Dove you really are a misnomer. Saddam is guilty of genocide against his own people. To me that alone is enough to get rid of him. We don't have wars (apart from Bosnia at 10ish years ago) in the West because democracies tend to be stable.

Those in the East think your wars have been and are fought for money, for controlling the resources of the world, and for markets.

In the old days it was because the East was uncivilised. Today it is still so, as it is not democratic.

Why haven't you invaded North Korea?

May I know if there is an agreed mechanism by which dictators are determined to be genocidal, and because of which the people of their countries can be invaded, and bases set up in them.

Of course only if they have oil.

sorry MT my post 2:39:31 PM is for MB

Off to school and haven't yet had time to read it,but just to say I am ashamed of our soldiers.
It's a bloody disgrace.
No wonder we 'Westerners' are despised by so many in the ME.

Animals,the lot of them.

I'll be back later.

i have to agree with you PD. It is not only in the East that there are people who think wars are fought for money and for controlling the resources in the world. The Iraq war is an illegal one. It never had the support of the United Nations. Blair told lies to parliament, saying that Saddam had WMD capable of attacking British targets within 45 minutes, therefore he was a threat to British people and British interests.

I have already had my fingers burned on this thread so am not going to get involved in another potentially 'heated' discussion.

Suffice to say that I wish we were more involved in many places around the world in particular Zimbabwe, Somalia, Rwanda etc etc where there seems to be no such thing as basic human rights let alone hope for a democratically elected government. Obviously financial interests play a part in all of our overseas involvment and we have to back up our allies (and this does not mean I agree with this statement, just that it seems to be the way of the world). I don't think anyone here has suggested that the East is uncivilised but to say that democracy is wrong and it is wrong to try and bring democracy to a people living in an undemocratic regime is just incredibly narrow minded.

Obviously this is my humble view and I hope I haven't offended anyone by stating it(esp anyone with even the most tenuous link to the British Forces ).

Peacedove, you don't half take things the wrong way and then you get all uppity about it!

I was out there parading against the war, in London and in my home town. I don't believe it was a just war. But neither do I believe that they have any right to kill our soldiers just as we have no right to bomb their homes.

Stop jumping down peoples throats and presuming will you?

PD I'M not going to invade North Korea, because I'm about to get in the car to pick up the kids, OK?

Not aware that I have ever touted the need to carry out the White Man's burden.

I think you have mistaken me for someone of a different political ilk.

Just because I don't like the thought of sharia law, it doesn't make me a jack boot wearing neocolonialist.

We will never agree on many issues, and I rather think that we are better off discussion biology, but there you go.

"an agreed mechanism by which dictators are determined to be genocidal" - Yes when they kill thousands of people and bury them in unmarked mass graves.

MB yes, we are better off discussing Bio. And I do know that the majority here did not and does not support the war on Iraq.

But it was how good it is for the Iraqis that the US and UK troops are there, that I find insulting.

That is why I metioned that if it is so good to have war in your own land, let us spread this good wider, and let us all share in the benefits.