Gurkha ordered back to UK after beheading dead Taliban fighter

[-:Undertaker:-]

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.

We will never win in Afghanistan, we failed when we were able to rule a quarter of the world and we will fail again just as the Soviets did.

Our soldiers are dying, and for what?

[-:Undertaker:-]

Note to moderation (the post above did not show and gave me the impression that I had not posted on this topic).

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.

We cannot expect (ever) to win anything in Afghanistan, they are giving us a bloody good hiding over there and with reason to - I heard that the Americans apparently have just 'stumbled' across massive Lithium deposits in Afghanistan and now American companies are moving in for the kill - at least the United States is making something of this hopeless conquest. The people of Afghanistan hate foreign invaders and will fight on and on to push foreigners out - in some ways it has to be admired. The sad part of this battle though is concerning the soldiers, they are dying for nothing and yet none of our mainsteam politicians are prepared to stand up and shout out the truth - that this war is unwinnable.

We failed when we had a quarter of the world under our thumb, and we shall fail again just as the Soviets did.

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.

Well lets hope its a great deal better than the 'intelligence' they had on the Iraqi nuclear weapons.. which didnt exist. I am not fairly deep with Gurkha culture but I am sure that bringing back the head of your prey is a sign of honour amongst the Gurkha culture(?), maybe in a war sitution the soldier simply forgot the rules and regulations.

[Swastika]

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.

If he'd have removed the Taliban fighters finger, then surely the Afghans would still be offended because they still wouldn't have had the full body for a funeral/burial ceremony? Why are we even trying not to offend the Afghans? Political correctness before safety? I think so.
The majority of Afghans probably don't even like the BA being in Afghanistan, not to mention the ANA soldiers turning on British soldiers lately?
We are at war, i don''t know why you seem so sure that you wouldn't have chopped the fighters head off in a heated situation where grenades were probably going off all around you, automatic fire raining down on you and perhaps a Taliban sniper in the area. Like i said before it's probably the first thing that came into his head - and unless you've fought in Afghanistan i don't believe you have a right to say what he did was right or wrong.

We will never win in Afghanistan, we failed when we were able to rule a quarter of the world and we will fail again just as the Soviets did.

Our soldiers are dying, and for what?

I believe it's a black, thick substance that they keep "stumbling" across.

[Accipiter]

Well I think it might take while to hack off somebodys head and I can't imagine somebody didn't have a camera. Seriously not a normal thing to do.

Im guessing if he was a taliban leader his "ceremonial knife" will basically have been a machete, but i do agree, it takes what ever to do in war, but that was quite an demented move by the soldier. I could safely say i'd have to be pretty bent in the mind to chop anyones head off.

[Nixt]

Well lets hope its a great deal better than the 'intelligence' they had on the Iraqi nuclear weapons.. which didnt exist. I am not fairly deep with Gurkha culture but I am sure that bringing back the head of your prey is a sign of honour amongst the Gurkha culture(?), maybe in a war sitution the soldier simply forgot the rules and regulations.

"the head of your prey"? This is a war, not a hunting trip. Soldiers are trained to follow the "rules and regulations" you cite in a combat situation - that is the whole point of learning them.

If he'd have removed the Taliban fighters finger, then surely the Afghans would still be offended because they still wouldn't have had the full body for a funeral/burial ceremony? Why are we even trying not to offend the Afghans? Political correctness before safety? I think so.

Preferably the Gurkha could have removed a few hairs but, if it really was that intense, a finger would have done fine. A finger can be vaporised by a well placed gun shot, or misfiring of the Taliban's choice of weapon can cause severe damage to the hand. The Taliban would have assumed that is what had happened. Besides - the removal of a finger and the removal of a head, are they comparable? I think not.

This has nothing to do with safety? Or political correctness? The safety of the soldiers is obviously important, which is why they would have been outfitted with a camera or other form of equipment that could have been used to identify the fallen combatant. What has the fact he hacked off someone's head got to do with safety though? Doesn't really make sense.

As for political correctness, that is irrelevant too. As you cited below, there are people who don't want us over there (certainly not the majority, but a significant amount of those who aren't those we are fighting) and therefore we need to do the whole "hearts and minds" thing. That is key part of the operation - we need the full support of the Afghan people to successfully wipe out the individuals who pose a threat to this country and many others. If we're hacking off the heads of dead combatants, we are insulting them and their religion by behaving in that way.
The majority of Afghans probably don't even like the BA being in Afghanistan, not to mention the ANA soldiers turning on British soldiers lately?

We are at war, i don''t know why you seem so sure that you wouldn't have chopped the fighters head off in a heated situation where grenades were probably going off all around you, automatic fire raining down on you and perhaps a Taliban sniper in the area. Like i said before it's probably the first thing that came into his head - and unless you've fought in Afghanistan i don't believe you have a right to say what he did was right or wrong.

I have not, unfortunately, fought in an active combat situation however I have been involved in several exercises which attempt to recreate operational combat situations. I have also been involved in the planning an execution of an operation from a command perspective, and although I was not on the ground I can assure you, you get caught up in the situation. I have received exactly the same training as the Gurkha would have received and I know for a fact the training would not encourage you to behave in this manner and does, in fact, discourage any such behaviour quite strongly.