If you're a non-UK reader, and statistically you probably are, you may be wondering who Marine A is. Marine A is the code name used for Alexander Wayne Blackman, a former Royal Marine Sergeant who executed a Taliban prisoner in Helmand province on September 15th 2011.
He appealed his sentence for murder and as a result will now serve a minimum of 8 years. This hit the headlines back in May and resulted in this petition calling for his immediate release. I noticed this as it was re-tweeted today by one of my MEPs, UKIP's Mike Hookem. Now I disagree with Mike on probably the majority of policy decisions he and his party ever makes but he (or at least his Twitter feed) seems fairly sensible. The only glaring exception is that petition.
Alexander Blackman, for whatever reason, murdered another human being. Yes, that other human being was a terrorist. Yes, that terrorist would probably have killed Sergeant Blackman. And yes, that murder would have generated outrage in much the same manner that the murders of James Foley and Steven Sotloff have. However, just because the executioner was British does not excuse us of our duty to say how reprehensible his actions were.
Those who are saying Marine A should go free (more than 70,000) have forgotten that we live in a civilised country. A country where people have the right to not be killed on the whim of one man, no matter how much of a perceived hero he may or may not be. And I'd greatly like Mike Hookem to be aware that at least one constituent of his is truly horrified at the thought of freeing Marine A early. Give him psychiatric and legal help, send him letters of support thanking him for his service, buy him a beer once he's released. But only after he's served his time, his unnamed and forgotten victim probably deserves that.
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