whether or not marine A has seen hundreds of mates killed, done 10 tours or not, engaged in many battles and taken hundreds of lives.
it does not excuse this in the slightest - thankfully the courts can be above trial by television or emotion (hopefully)
Due process is due process, the law (such that we have) is above all.
No Exceptions or exemptions.
I am sure marine A and his fellow patrol members are deeply regretting their utter stupidity - it would be one thing to possibly euthanise an opponent in such pain and distress with no way of helping them but "there you go - shuffle of......." etc is nothing more than murder.
whether or not our enemy subscribes to the genevea convention is irrelevant.
if we do not follow it we are no better than terrorists and infidels.
By all means fight aggresively - but fight within the RoE, such as they are.
if you can no longer do so you need to man up and report this to your chain of command.
The RoE might be decided by a bunch of war dodging remfs but, and it's a big but.
No-one forced you to go sign up, join up, go thru all the training and then go to war without explaining in detail on numerous times the consequences of your actions.
some instances and "fog of war" can be put down to confusion on the battlefield - i.e. i thought i saw a weapon pointing at me etc.....
but not this. CDS was right to NOT request clemency publicly - what he does in private is up to him
How many more insurgents, martyrs and home grown terrorists will this outrage generate?
just my opinion - and you what is said about them....