Gurkha ordered back to UK after beheading dead Taliban fighter

I'm sure that all of you who disagree, or think that this is morally wrong, or sick or whatever have, and will never be in a combat situation, so actually your opinions don't really count at all here unless you've been under fire, sucking wind while returning fire. NOT FUN, AND WOULD NEVER WANT TO BE IN THAT SITUATION AGAIN MYSELF. YA FOLLOW? Personally, this troop did what had to be done, and thought he was doing right by his orders. Ten bucks says all you lilly livers would freeze up like wax figures under fire...... Leave the soldier alone!!! Unless you've been in a situation like this. It irratates me to hear all you cowards say,"well this is how I would do it" OR, "he should have done it this way" The man is lucky to be breathing right now. I don't care how imoral this sounds but war is hell, and if you havent been thru the hell you have no room to speak on this. It was probably his brass that told him that he broke the ROE, and stated that there would be consequences for this. I wonder how many of his fellow ground pounders agree with the way this is being handled. I'll tell you all this, once rounds start buzzing past you, politics are thrown right out the window, and it comes down to survival.

what was he supposed to do, spend 5 minutes frisking this guys body for some other proof. Sorry but thats one less person not fighting, and you cant wait for things like this in the heat of it. 5 minutes will get you killed.......

reply to post by Hawkwind.


The Ghurka's are some incredible fighters and I'm damn glad they fight on our side!

Their goddess Kali is one wicked lady!

So he cut the dudes head off? He was already dead. No one on the scene cared. This just happened to make its way back to B-gram and the FOBetts went ape-s*** cooking this up into something it wasn't because they have nothing else to do but play armchair quarterback and cover their next award/promotion.

I was in Iraq and the tiny village outside our compound had a family of 12 beheaded one night. It was hardly an issue in the press so why now? Didn't some Taliban infiltrators just kill some Gurkhas? How come that is not in the equation?

I think it has something to do with the visceral nature of chopping a head off. Look, people die in A-stan everyday. When you go to war, ugly happens in bulk. To focus on one ridiculous incident denigrates the sacrifice made by US/NATO forces, Afgan forces, and Afgan civilians.

This two word term I keep hearing seems to eff alot of things up. Political correctness is a lame fad that just will not go away. You know I do see quite a few mullets around these parts.

Woh. Alot of violent people on ATS.

How can you possibly support cutting someones head off? That's insane.

reply to post by Hawkwind.


It is the fear of loosing, the occupiers are already loosing, it may get worse, it is already getting worse, do you know how many people die everyday ??

Very amazing.

reply to post by spy66


But it wasn't to make a statement. They needed to identify him as dead, and they couldn't take the whole body.

My grandad, fought for the Royal Marine 40 Commando, around the world. He was at Dunkirk, and returned for the D-DAY Landings, in Normandy. In between, he was sent on Special Op's, to North Africa, Sicily, and Italy.
He caught a bullet in one leg, and shrapnel, in BOTH. He returned home, having spent 6 months, in Vichy country, France, to find his wife had died from Tuberculosis, and to see my mum, for the VERY first time! He worked down Coalmines, and fought because it was his HONOUR!
He told me, shortly before his death, that he feared TWO people in his LIFE!!
"Women, & Gurkha's, mate!" he said, "They are THE VERY BEST on earth...as your BEST FRIEND... or KILLING YOU as you sleep!"
The Gurkha's are masters at their art. They would use their blade to silently slice open the tent, at feet level, in which you slept, and gently run their finger down your bootlace. If it was contorted, or tied in ANY other way to the allies, even mistakenly, the next cut in the tent would be at throat level... the rest, as they say, is history.
This boy did what his superiors had asked of him, no more, no less. If it was even slightly, retaliatory for the Afghan 'policeman' who slaughtered his comrades whilst they slept, fair play to him. He has continued a very much more congenial tradition on which his regiment are based and feared.
The taliban unwanted anywhere on earth... including Afghanistan... should pray that the Gurkha's get similar orders to leave the area. They MAY get to sleep a little safer at night? I doubt it though.

Originally posted by spy66
reply to post by Magic Bullet

 

That is not the issue here. Its the soldiers morality that is the issue.

The Taliban has been doing this beheading business all along, Today its the main reason we are in Afghanistan. To prevent this from happening. We are not there to inherit their traditions and ways of brutality.

[edit on 27.06.08 by spy66]

please don't circumvent the automatic censors
Thanks

[edit on 18-7-2010 by gallopinghordes]

I understand your position and sympathize. He was not a british so;dier but a gurkha. Gurkhas have a long military tradition and their rules are a bit more slack about such things. I think he is being wrongfully punished all the same.

Originally posted by HeavenlyDivine
Woh. Alot of violent people on ATS.

How can you possibly support cutting someones head off? That's insane.

he was already dead. Do you think he cared where his head went?

why dont we just nuke Afganistan? solves the war and makes CND happy

What a joke, if it was me I'd have awarded the man for his bravery and cunning.

So the Taliban are getting a taste of their own medicine.

Some fanatical Taliban fighter got his head chopped off by a Gurkha after he was killed in a firefight - it's not like he was beheaded whilst he was still alive is it?

reply to post by Asktheanimals


The Gurkha's are a very loyal and proud part of The British Army and have earned an immense amount of respect and admiration from the Britsh people.

They can regularly be seen around the town centre where I live and always conduct themselves with the utmost dignity.

reply to post by Hawkwind.


I agree. How stupid. We can go in and kill civilians for nothing, but God forbid someone take a body part off a corpse. Screw the living, but protect the dead?

Our values are ridiculous.

Maybe a more educated person then me in the matter of Islamic theology can answer the following question to me as this situation throws up a number of questions I am unsure of.

When a Muslim suicide bomber detonates his charger and he is obliterated into countless pieces, is that not a crime against his own religion? Is that not a desecration of his own corpse by his own hand?

it would appear that a great deal of you have'nt a clue about being under fire , or who or what the gurkha regiments are . would be recruits will walk for days through the jungle just to get to the recruitment centers. these recruits become some of the most proffesional and feared soldiers in the british army . in 1982 the argentinians deserted one of the hills in the falklands when they realised the gurkhas had been tasked to take the hill. the soldier in question used he's innitiative in the heat of the moment ! these are people who catch and kill there own food ! stop being so squeamish and wake up!

Originally posted by BSG75
why dont we just nuke Afganistan? solves the war and makes CND happy

What a childish, odious comment. Please don't clutter these threads unless you have something constructive to add. There are many good, decent people in Afghanistan who are victims of their circumstance. Would you like to seem them dead too?

reply to post by Extreme Pilgrim


Besides, if we nuke Afghanistan, we might mess up something much more precious than innocent people........those resources! And the infrastructure needed to process them for a handy profit! Plus, you cant go in mining with all that radiation laying about. Pfffft. Nuke Afghanistan. What a silly idea. Whats the matter with him.