Letting the pirates (ala Eddie Gallagher) run the ship is never acceptable. Good thing there’s plenty of precedence for this sort of passive toleration to get swept under the rug. Cue “war is hell” “let god sort them out” comments from the brain dead morally bereft Trumpers.
Edit: and yes this is UK and UK SOF but the supporters of such behavior are all the same ilk whether it’s US, UK, AUS etc.
Yeah, unfortunately I’m not surprised, just disappointed.
Is there any military as yet where we’ve trained professional killers that haven’t gone beyond killing actual combatants?
This is a great question. I think the straight answer is No. But as with anything else, I’m sure there are more detailed answers within different disciplines that study the law of armed conflict (LOAC).
There are absolutely substantial differences between unit cultures at echelon and proportion / prevalence of extrajudicial killings. I would hypothesize that once you reach a certain level / echelon / proportion of acceptance or toleration of LOAC violations, these activities exponentially increase as the pirates take over. US Navy SEALs have been fighting this culture war for years.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BBC Panorama can reveal that Gen Gwyn Jenkins, who is now the second most senior officer in the British armed forces, received accounts of conversations in which members of the SAS described extrajudicial killings.
He would go on to become the director of UK Special Forces and then vice chief of the defence staff, the second most senior position in the military - a promotion that saw him jump from a two-star to a four-star general.
Allegations of extrajudicial killings by British special forces in Afghanistan are currently the subject of a judge-led public inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice, following reporting by the BBC and others into night raids conducted by the SAS.
That month, an officer under his command reported a conversation in which a member of the SAS had allegedly confessed to him that units from the elite army regiment were unlawfully killing unarmed people and detainees during aggressive, fast-moving night raids.
Official UK Special Forces paperwork said the purpose of the compartment was to “provide an additional level of control over the handling and briefing of the more sensitive aspects of this matter”.
Under the Armed Forces Act 2006, commanding officers are legally obliged to inform the military police if they have any reason to suspect a war crime may have been carried out by their troops and can be prosecuted for failing to make a referral.
The original article contains 1,502 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 85%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
