listened to Ivan Lewis on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning in respect of allegations of Britain being complicit in torture.
Now then let us agree that a soldier signs up to serve their Queen and Country, that they do not believe in Harry and his 'we do bad things to bad people' the cap legend which Harry had when he secretly served in Afghanistan, and which was the subject of a media cover-up. So, they also sign an oath of allegiance and that they will follow all legal orders, without complaint and do as they are told by their superiors, and that there is accordingly a chain of command, and that because actually we are the good guys in all this that the officers, right to the very top will always give legal orders.
But what if you are in an occupying force where some of the officers are not like your officers. That they do extra-ordinary rendition, and that they use enhanced interrogation techniques, and that this other country uses regimes to do their torture for them, and they treat prisoners with contempt and inhumanely, and that some of these prisoners are sent to Guantanamo Bay, for reasons of our safety and national security.
So, my point, surely a British soldier will do his bit whilst he is out there, he will not let down his mates, his pals, his friends, the regiment. But what if he knows that by following his orders he is acting against his own moral beliefs, that it is not that he is refusing orders from a British officer, but that he will not take any longer orders from this officer of another country. I think that that soldier is right, that we as a nation are diminished by the activities of our so called allies in the war against terror.
Hutton has agreed in parliament that we have detained people who have then been handed over to a third party where we do not know what has been to them, I think you will find it in Hansard. He said, and I paraphrase, previous ministers who denied this were not aware at the time that they had been incorrect in the answers which they gave to parliament, other holders of the post include Geoff Hoon.
There must be an independent inquiry, and please do not give me the rotten apple apology for the action of some of our soldiers, the ends do not justify the means, by our actions we are judged, and I think that in due course millions will have to paid in compensation, only that will not salve my conscience. Parliament, this abject parliament has allowed this to reach the stage where we have lost hearts and minds throughout the world, we are just as guilty by not naming names as those that do the deeds, in our name. The ends justify the means is the mantra. Would our soldiers in 1945 have taken orders from a Nazi officer in the army when they saw the concentration camps, of course not. However, did our soldiers respect the German soldiers in WWI, well the evidence from two of our true veterans would say that they did. We are not at war in Afghanistan, we are an occupying force, just like the Nazis were in France in WWII, it is not the war which is the problem, it is the occupation. The French in 1945 treated those who colluded with the Germans as collaborators, how are the Afghans any different, it is their 'country' we are the invaders like so many in the past. How would you treat somebody who was trained by a foreign army to protect your country so that the soldiers of the occupying force could leave you to the 'new model army', the collaborators of today.
Afghanistan
listened to Ivan Lewis on the Radio 4 Today programme this morning in respect of allegations of Britain being complicit in torture.
Now then let us agree that a soldier signs up to serve their Queen and Country, that they do not believe in Harry and his 'we do bad things to bad people' the cap legend which Harry had when he secretly served in Afghanistan, and which was the subject of a media cover-up. So, they also sign an oath of allegiance and that they will follow all legal orders, without complaint and do as they are told by their superiors, and that there is accordingly a chain of command, and that because actually we are the good guys in all this that the officers, right to the very top will always give legal orders.
But what if you are in an occupying force where some of the officers are not like your officers. That they do extra-ordinary rendition, and that they use enhanced interrogation techniques, and that this other country uses regimes to do their torture for them, and they treat prisoners with contempt and inhumanely, and that some of these prisoners are sent to Guantanamo Bay, for reasons of our safety and national security.
So, my point, surely a British soldier will do his bit whilst he is out there, he will not let down his mates, his pals, his friends, the regiment. But what if he knows that by following his orders he is acting against his own moral beliefs, that it is not that he is refusing orders from a British officer, but that he will not take any longer orders from this officer of another country. I think that that soldier is right, that we as a nation are diminished by the activities of our so called allies in the war against terror.
Hutton has agreed in parliament that we have detained people who have then been handed over to a third party where we do not know what has been to them, I think you will find it in Hansard. He said, and I paraphrase, previous ministers who denied this were not aware at the time that they had been incorrect in the answers which they gave to parliament, other holders of the post include Geoff Hoon.
There must be an independent inquiry, and please do not give me the rotten apple apology for the action of some of our soldiers, the ends do not justify the means, by our actions we are judged, and I think that in due course millions will have to paid in compensation, only that will not salve my conscience. Parliament, this abject parliament has allowed this to reach the stage where we have lost hearts and minds throughout the world, we are just as guilty by not naming names as those that do the deeds, in our name. The ends justify the means is the mantra. Would our soldiers in 1945 have taken orders from a Nazi officer in the army when they saw the concentration camps, of course not. However, did our soldiers respect the German soldiers in WWI, well the evidence from two of our true veterans would say that they did. We are not at war in Afghanistan, we are an occupying force, just like the Nazis were in France in WWII, it is not the war which is the problem, it is the occupation. The French in 1945 treated those who colluded with the Germans as collaborators, how are the Afghans any different, it is their 'country' we are the invaders like so many in the past. How would you treat somebody who was trained by a foreign army to protect your country so that the soldiers of the occupying force could leave you to the 'new model army', the collaborators of today.