Gurkha ordered back to UK after beheading dead Taliban fighter

[Nixt]

Not special recognition, but not punishment either. That is my opinion and of course you will not agree as you have little respect for soldiers...

This is war and war is gruesome at the end of the day. Terrible acts are committed all around. At least this guy was dead.

Yes but the point is, we are fighting a war against those who behave in this way. Why would we stoop to their level? It's ridiculous. In basic training soldiers are rigorously trained not only in the military skills you might imagine but the mechanics and legalities of war itself. Part of that training entails respecting your enemy in combat and respecting a fallen soldier be it of an enemy or allied force. Removing the head of a dead Taliban soldier is not an appropriate way for a soldier to behave. The British Army is the best in the world because of it's disciplined soldiers - such behaviour shows no discipline whatsoever.

[Hitman]

Yes but the point is, we are fighting a war against those who behave in this way. Why would we stoop to their level? It's ridiculous. In basic training soldiers are rigorously trained not only in the military skills you might imagine but the mechanics and legalities of war itself. Part of that training entails respecting your enemy in combat and respecting a fallen soldier be it of an enemy or allied force. Removing the head of a dead Taliban soldier is not an appropriate way for a soldier to behave. The British Army is the best in the world because of it's disciplined soldiers - such behaviour shows no discipline whatsoever.

You've made me post again! :@

OK fair point, but you are making it sound like he just did it for fun or something. You have to look at the circumstances... they were under heavy fire, I assume he didn't have any other equipment (otherwise he'd of used it) and it was in the heat of the moment. Stupid things happen in the heat of the moment, I'm sure nearly everyone has experienced it at some point. Maybe he should have left it, but then he may have got into more trouble?

What would happen if you were in a warzone and you were facing the enemy... and you both only had knives? Would you get into trouble for bad conduct or whatever then? Or would you be able to say self defence or something? That's a sincere question.

[Nixt]

You've made me post again! :@

OK fair point, but you are making it sound like he just did it for fun or something. You have to look at the circumstances... they were under heavy fire, I assume he didn't have any other equipment (otherwise he'd of used it) and it was in the heat of the moment. Stupid things happen in the heat of the moment, I'm sure nearly everyone has experienced it at some point. Maybe he should have left it, but then he may have got into more trouble?

What would happen if you were in a warzone and you were facing the enemy... and you both only had knives? Would you get into trouble for bad conduct or whatever then? Or would you be able to say self defence or something? That's a sincere question.

The fact of the matter is that removing someone's head, even with a Kukri, is quite a feat! If the body is recently deceased there will be significant blood loss, there is severing through some tough arteries and the spinal cord as well as the muscle itself. It's not easy to remove someone's head and as such, I don't think he can claim it was a "heat of the battle" kind of situation. It might be easy to jump to that decision if you find yourself in that situation, but actually doing it is another thing. It would require effort that would have been better used fighting off the enemy that were attacking the soldiers. It's a very calculated decision I think, the soldier should have known better. If part of their mission mandate was to confirm the identity of the Taliban soldier, they would have been outfitted with the relevant equipment to successfully complete that and how to appropriately ensure identification would have been part of the operation briefing if it was that significant.

If you were facing the enemy and you both only had knives, it is of course permissible to disable them with that knife. Bayonets are still used in CQB situations. Bayonet training is a significant (and damn intense) part of basic training for all soldiers of the British army.

[Hitman]

I've never attempted to decapitate somebody so I'm not going to comment on how hard it'd be... we don't know what was going through his head either. And mistakes do happen, although he didn't kill anybody (and if he did it was with a gun).

Yeah I've got a picture of my dad on the back of a truck with a bayonet, it looks like a pretty cool weapon.

[Swastika]

Can't believe some people are blaming the British soldier in this.
He was asked to get evidence that they had killed the Taliban commander, and this is what he did. Under very heavy fire, unbelievably hot conditions and carrying all your equipment - i don't think he had much time to think and just did it because it was the first thought into his head.
My grandad had a Gurkha knife, the Kukri knife is a very very sharp and useful knife, believe me it wouldn't have taken long to hack somebody's head off with one of those, judging by my grandads knife of course.

[-:Undertaker:-]

I have enormous respect for the Gurkhas who have been a part of our military forces for many decades, if not over a hundred years - they are proud of the Empire and all that makes this country great. I am in support of the soldier, I very much doubt he did this in a bloodthirsty manner and was most likely under awful conditions when committing this act.

As usual it begs the question, what the hell are we doing there?

[Nixt]

Can't believe some people are blaming the British soldier in this.
He was asked to get evidence that they had killed the Taliban commander, and this is what he did. Under very heavy fire, unbelievably hot conditions and carrying all your equipment - i don't think he had much time to think and just did it because it was the first thought into his head.
My grandad had a Gurkha knife, the Kukri knife is a very very sharp and useful knife, believe me it wouldn't have taken long to hack somebody's head off with one of those, judging by my grandads knife of course.

Soldiers of the British army are trained vigorously to cope with the conditions presented to them on operations. The heat and weight of operational equipment is irrelevant to the act itself, as is to an extent the heavy fire they are under as again they are trained to deal with situations such as those. The Kukri is very sharp but decapitating someone with it is still quite a feat to achieve. It's a wonder than no fellow soldiers attempted to stop him but I would assume they were too busy returning fire and didn't think that he'd be attempting to remove the head of a fallen soldier. It would have been much faster to take a photo or remove a smaller part of the body such as hair, skin or even a finger in order to secure later DNA confirmation.

I have enormous respect for the Gurkhas who have been a part of our military forces for many decades, if not over a hundred years - they are proud of the Empire and all that makes this country great. I am in support of the soldier, I very much doubt he did this in a bloodthirsty manner and was most likely under awful conditions when committing this act.

As usual it begs the question, what the hell are we doing there?

And so do I. They are an excellent infantry regiment who have done us proud on a number of operations. Nevertheless this does not excuse what is a wholly inappropriate act that should not have been committed by a member of the British army. Frankly the conditions have little to do with it. I recognise he was under heavy fire etc etc but that is what he is trained to do. That is what he is there for. I can say with virtual certainty that other soldiers have been in similar situations and not resorted to such ridiculous and unnecessary tactics.

I know, first hand, that this is not how a British army soldier should behave or is expected to behave.

[Hitman]

Soldiers of the British army are trained vigorously to cope with the conditions presented to them on operations. The heat and weight of operational equipment is irrelevant to the act itself, as is to an extent the heavy fire they are under as again they are trained to deal with situations such as those. The Kukri is very sharp but decapitating someone with it is still quite a feat to achieve. It's a wonder than no fellow soldiers attempted to stop him but I would assume they were too busy returning fire and didn't think that he'd be attempting to remove the head of a fallen soldier. It would have been much faster to take a photo or remove a smaller part of the body such as hair, skin or even a finger in order to secure later DNA confirmation.



And so do I. They are an excellent infantry regiment who have done us proud on a number of operations. Nevertheless this does not excuse what is a wholly inappropriate act that should not have been committed by a member of the British army. Frankly the conditions have little to do with it. I recognise he was under heavy fire etc etc but that is what he is trained to do. That is what he is there for. I can say with virtual certainty that other soldiers have been in similar situations and not resorted to such ridiculous and unnecessary tactics.

I know, first hand, that this is not how a British army soldier should behave or is expected to behave.

Regarding the DNA thing, surely it wouldn't have been possible? I mean, forgive me if I'm wrong, I'm not very hot on the subject of DNA, but wouldn't they need some of this Taliban leader's DNA originally to compare it to? I doubt they'd have any to compare it to... or is there some other way DNA works?

[MrPinkPanther]

I am of course immensely proud of the Gurkhas but equally we need to respect the culture of the country that we are invading. We cannot expect to win over the population of Afghanistan when we completely disregard their laws and customs, we can only withdraw from Afghanistan when we have mutual respect with their people and this cannot happen while events such as these continue. I accept that this was not a malicious incident but that doesn't mean it should go unpunished, it will have provided lasting damage to the British operation in the area and soldiers should know that hacking the head off a dead soldier is completely wrong.

[Nixt]

Regarding the DNA thing, surely it wouldn't have been possible? I mean, forgive me if I'm wrong, I'm not very hot on the subject of DNA, but wouldn't they need some of this Taliban leader's DNA originally to compare it to? I doubt they'd have any to compare it to... or is there some other way DNA works?

I am referring to this part of the article: "But later the Taliban fighter was mutilated so his identity could be verified for DNA tests". Removing the head was totally unnecessary. Hair, skin... or if it really was necessary to remove part of the body, a finger would have done.

Oh and you'd be surprised at how much information Military Intelligence has on (senior) Taliban fighters and soldiers.