Tom Hurndall - Free at last...

[Cruddy]

Peace activist Tom Hurndall has been brain dead for months, but last night his body finally succumbed to pneumonia.

Full story - Reuters

If everyone was as brave and humane as this guy, there wouldn't BE any conflict in the Middle East.

I don't thirst for justice or revenge over this, I'm just both very sad (that he's dead) and very... not happy, but kind of inspired.

I pray for peace, peace between all peoples, especially, peace in the Middle East.

[Agathon]

Just you wait for the knuckle dragging Repugs and Likudniks to trash his memory.

[DRoseDARs]

The Israeli army said late last year it had arrested a soldier in connection with the shooting. He has since been charged with grievous bodily harm for shooting Hurndall.

Let's hope those charges are upgraded to murder. That's what sometimes happens in US criminal cases where the victim dies mid-trial.

[DRoseDARs]

Whatever happened to the soldiers involved with bulldozing that girl sometime ago? Did they ever face justice?

[Drake Tungsten]

Just you wait for the knuckle dragging Repugs and Likudniks to trash his memory.

I'd give it a go, but I honestly have no idea who this guy is.

[Zylka]

The activist's supporters say he was dressed in a bright orange jacket and was helping Palestinian children cross a street under fire in the town of Rafah near the border with Egypt when he was shot.

The soldier initially maintained he had opened fire on a man armed with a pistol but later "admitted to firing in proximity to an unarmed civilian as a deterrent", the Israeli military said.

Originally posted by Agathon
Just you wait for the knuckle dragging Repugs and Likudniks to trash his memory.

Yes, I'm sure the average Republican is going to be first in line to smear his memory under such a tale. Good to see we can all dream up our opposition in an indignant huff, now.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

Just you wait for the knuckle dragging Repugs and Likudniks to trash his memory.

I'd give it a go, but I honestly have no idea who this guy is.

That's OK. When your dead, nobody will bother clicking the link to see who you were, how you died, and if anybody was actually responsible.

[Drake Tungsten]

That's OK. When your dead, nobody will bother clicking the link to see who you were, how you died, and if anybody was actually responsible.

I seriously doubt there will even be a link...

[Generalissimo]

I had enough of all kind of peace activist that think that Gaza, Jenin and other war-zones are some kind of a big summer-camp.
Some of those people are holding an amazingly arrogant state of mind, thinking that the fact they're international peace-activists make them invulnerable.


My condolences to that family

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Zylka

Yes, I'm sure the average Republican is going to be first in line to smear his memory under such a tale. Good to see we can all dream up our opposition in an indignant huff, now.

Going by what some of them said about the bulldozer chick it's not an unreasonable expectation.

[East Street Trader]

I have sympathy for soldiers in these sorts of situation.

They know they may face armed opponents yet they are also surrounded by innocent civilians.

Of course if each and every one could keep their heads at all times the number of cases where innocent people were hurt could be minimised. But they are also surrounded by hostility and the reality is that they are jumpy.

When something like this happens the soldier concerned takes some action in the heat of the moment and then afterwards, when some horrible consequence results, he has to go back and try to work out exactly what happened and exactly why he did as he did. It would be hard enough to recall such things at the best of times but now he gets to do so in circumstances where he feels guilty and is being blamed.

We had a case in the UK not so long ago where a soldier was convicted of murdering an Irish youth at a check point. For reasons best known to themselves young Irishmen steal cars and run them through army checkpoints. From the point of view of a soldier manning the checkpoint a car approaching at high speed may be full of joy riding kids or it may be full of IRA gunmen.

On this occasion the soldiers opened fire and one of the kids died.

The soldier who fired the fatal shot was identified and tried. His conviction rested on expert evidence which showed that the fatal shot was fired as the car had crashed through the checkpoint and was driving away. By then it was clear that those in the car did not intend an attack.

Well - it was clear to all of us looking at the events at our leasure and under no stress. Which hardly applies to the young soldier who fired the fatal shot. The difference in time between the car approaching the checkpoint and leaving it was literally a split second. And he would not have been human if he was not wrought up.

Anyway, as I say, I feel sympathy for them. It cannot be thought they set out with an intention to kill children who are strangers to them. I am sure, in fact, that they set out intending to protect people. And to do so in circumstances where that may take some bravery.

That they finish up carrying the awful knowledge that they have caused some child's death is bad enough. That society should judge them harshly as well seems to me too much.

We put them into these impossibly difficult circumstances. Subject to a reasonable (and sympathetically judged) level of discipline on the part of the individuals the responsibility for the consequence of employing armed force lies with those who authorise it.

[Cruddy]

Originally posted by East Street Trader
... We put them into these impossibly difficult circumstances. Subject to a reasonable (and sympathetically judged) level of discipline on the part of the individuals the responsibility for the consequence of employing armed force lies with those who authorise it.

By that logic, you'd either court martial the CO (which undermines the WHOLE of the Nuremberg trials) or the politicians (who have, always been and probably always will be teflon coated).

Sorry. "I was only obeying orders" means jack sh1t, post 1945.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by Agathon
Just you wait for the knuckle dragging Repugs and Likudniks to trash his memory.

Why would they bother, when they have you instead to target for some witty repartee?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Lefty Scaevola
Why would they bother, when they have you instead to target for some witty repartee?

Ah, as predicted, the subhuman wit of imbeciles rears its wooden head.

He who asks for a knuckle-dragging Repuglican, that man shall receive tenfold his expectation.

[Cruddy]

Ag, you can hand it out - but you really can't take it.

Could I trouble you to make space for a PM?

And please have a little respect and take your cat fights somewhere else.