(1) Why must it always be the soldiers that pay the price? They volunteer to put their lives on the line and to risk being horrifically maimed to defend our country and our people. This is a price they are willing to pay. thesun.co.uk/news/6911572/d…
(2) But decades later they are then expected to also pay a political price — their own hounding, prosecution & imprisonment — for the government’s policies of appeasing terrorists.
(3) A government that allows itself to be blackmailed by the terrorists that the government sent the soldiers to fight.
(4) The soldiers & their comrades who fought beside them are then insulted by being considered equivalent to the terrorists, based on a twisted agenda driven by the terrorists.
(5) But of course there is no moral equivalence between British soldiers and Irish terrorists. The terrorist thugs deliberately & in cold blood set out to murder, maim and destroy, to inflict illegal violence on innocent men, women & children. Without mercy.
(6) The terrorists’ motives were bloodlust, personal criminal enrichment, glory in the eyes of their warped followers & supporters & an anti-democratic hard left wing political agenda.
(7) The soldiers on the other hand were trained, armed & sent to stand in the path of these murderous thugs; to save lives, to uphold the law & to maintain order.
(8) While the terrorists sacrificed the lives of innocent people, the soldiers often sacrificed their own lives to save innocent people. There is absolutely no moral equivalence between them & the criminals they opposed.
(9) The soldiers often operated in the most horrific conditions. Cold, wet, tired, hungry, physically exhausted & in constant personal danger. They sometimes saw their comrades ripped apart in front of their eyes.
(10) This is what soldiers do when they fight. But as well as being soldiers they are human beings with human weaknesses. Under physical & emotional stress, they sometimes make mistakes. Sometimes soldiers in Northern Ireland made mistakes.
(11) When mistakes were made which cost lives or caused injury they should not be looked at in the same light as intentional killing or maiming by terrorists.
(12) Soldiers followed their orders and were influenced by the intentions of their superiors in often complex and confused life or death situations. Sometimes their superiors — humans also — made errors or bad judgements.
(13) Most if not all of the soldiers now being investigated & prosecuted over their actions decades ago were investigated, sometimes tried & exonerated before, sometimes multiple times.
(14) If they were wrongly exonerated, on the basis of today’s standards rather than the standards of the time, can it really be right to now make them pay the price for that, in their old age?
(15) Surely those police officers, lawyers, civil servants & politicians who originally investigated them or made decisions about these investigations should be held accountable if anyone should be held accountable?
(16) Surely those political leaders, civil servants & military commanders who set the policy, set the mood & set the standards for the actions of the soldiers should be investigated and held accountable if anyone should be held accountable?
(17) Most of them are now dead & so of course cannot be held accountable. But does that mean the soldiers who served on the front line should be made to pay the price for them?
(18) And what of the politicians who themselves made policy errors or misjudgements which led to increased violence? No question of them being held accountable then, now or in the future. Only the soldiers are forced to pay the price.
(19) What about the rabble-rousers, activists & politicians who colluded with the terrorists? What about people like Jeremy Corbyn, who supported and encouraged Irish terrorists, who stood up for them & invited them to Parliament.
(20) A man who condemned soldiers then & condemns them now, favouring the terrorists over the defenders of law and order. How many lives did his encouragement cost? Will this ever be investigated & will he ever be held accountable? Of course not.
(21) The ordinary, decent working class soldiers are the easy targets for politicians, civil servants & lawyers who are too weak to stand up against terrorists & their supporters & instead look for the easy option of appeasement.
(22) And that demands that soldiers become bargaining chips. As always the soldiers are expected to pay the price. This is deeply immoral and perverse and should be stopped.
