British soldiers arrested for a murder in Afghanistan

[Martin Ward]

I agree with you Martin in regards to the laws. The Geneva Convention is there for the the protection of POW prisoners and is supposed to be adhered to by the armies , Nato forces and ISAF forces but unfortunatly terrorists live by a different law. I'm sure if american or british troops were captured by the taliban or british troops captured by the IRA they would be under no illusion that they would ever see the inside of a POW camp. They know they would be tortured and executed and that is why they would rather shoot to kill instead of trying to take prisoners.

I think the problem there are two problems with this approach.

Firstly, you are able to paint terrorists as scum because they act in the manner you suggest. As soon as you drop to that level you lose any moral high ground, and you are going to lose support at home, and you will radicalise the people who oppose you (but may not think it's right to take up arms)

Secondly, there is no way in hell you can have a go at someone like Assad for letting lose his armed forces and doing mass executions, when on your own battlegrounds you are doing the same thing. The argument that he considers his opponents as terrorists who you should just shoot is one you couldn't really argue against.

We will be out of Afghanistan in 2014 with our tails between our legs. It's almost impossible to conquer that country, especially when the government you have installed is as corrupt as hell. Prepare to welcome back the Taliban in 2015.