SAS soldier quits in protest of American activities in Iraq

[Clutch Munny]

Telegraph story about an SAS soldier who quit in protest of what he called the illegal activities of American armed forces in Iraq.

Here

[viscousmemories]

"I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy," he said. He expected to be labelled a coward and to face a court martial and imprisonment after making what "the most difficult decision of my life" last March.

Instead, he was discharged with a testimonial describing him as a "balanced, honest, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions".

That's very cool, though I can't help but wonder when the smearing will start.

[godfry n. glad]

That man does have the courage of his convictions.

He also has the post-war (as in World War II) moral sensibilities. We, being the British, French, Russians, and mostly Americans, oversaw the war crimes trials at Nuremburg. What was the outcome of that?

Oh, yeah... It supports everything this honorable man has decided.

And condemns it everything the United States has actually been doing on the ground in Iraq, rather than in reassurring sound bites in Washington.

[California Tanker]

As you can imagine, there are two threads on this over at ARRSE (British Army unofficial site). The argument over there right now seems to be not over whether or not the trooper is right (Most people taking the very sensible position that (a) they were not there, and (b) they only have limited information from the media), and are really arguing over whether or not the trooper acted correctly. There is also a fair bit of cynicism over the fact that he waited so long to do this (Over a year), much speculation over trying to do a McNab and join the Special Authors Service.

I'll keep you appraised of any developments.

NTM

[California Tanker]

You can get a clip of a radio interview with him here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/li...in/index.shtml

According to the ARRSErs, he was very specific that his objection was to the 'illegal war', and refused to be lead by the interviewer into saying that there were any specific US actions that he objected to.

If that's his only objection, he will probably suffer the same fate as the RAF officer currently up for court martial for the same objection.

NTM

[California Tanker]

In related news, the other chap refusing to go back to Iraq has just had his motion to dismiss rejected. Or completely shot down in blazing flames, more accurately, with the presiding judge saying that he had a 'greatly inflated sense of his own position'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...098978,00.html

The case moves on to court-martial.

NTM