Pictures appear to show RAF man posing with dead Taliban fighter

[Yahooka]

Isn`t a thumbs up a great way to say that youre happy to still be alive after hours in a firefight ??

Job well done !!

[Yahooka]

If this had been the case of a killed brit or yank with a taliban fighter sitting next to their corps with a thumbs up, I am very sure the reactions here would be very different.

Yeah...........that picture wouldn`t cause a uproar in the western media.

[folium]

I have boxes of photos from military days that would unsettle people with little understanding of the context. The big difference is that <deleted> today insist on posting their "trophy" shots on sites that are publicly accessible.

If you want things to "stay in Vegas" make sure they do so...

There is nothing new or clever about such photos, the mistake is where you put them. The powers-that-be are not just being uber-pc but are trying to ensure that they do not become excuses for future outrages.

This is the downside of the selfie, self-obsessed, look-at-me culture.

[bobl]

I guess that I am in a minority of one here.

Indeed.

I might add, that the BBC coverage of it last night was disgusting. They actually had the gall to compare these guys, with the US's abuse and torture of prisoners at Abu Grhaib...

Edited May 10, 2014 by bobl

[Frank James]

Good on ya, marine. Doing your job.

He was a member of the RAF Regiment.

Right, I stand corrected. Misread the original article, which mentioned dead marines. Good on ya, RAF guy, hope you're back home now and never have to see that place again. Like old Gen. Patton said, "Let the OTHER bastard die for HIS country." Thank all you troops.

[Chicog]

I have boxes of photos from military days that would unsettle people with little understanding of the context. The big difference is that <deleted> today insist on posting their "trophy" shots on sites that are publicly accessible.

If you want things to "stay in Vegas" make sure they do so...

There is nothing new or clever about such photos, the mistake is where you put them. The powers-that-be are not just being uber-pc but are trying to ensure that they do not become excuses for future outrages.

This is the downside of the selfie, self-obsessed, look-at-me culture.

Precisely, but it's a slap on the wrist offence, not a trial by judgemental useless hack offence.

[folium]

I have boxes of photos from military days that would unsettle people with little understanding of the context. The big difference is that <deleted> today insist on posting their "trophy" shots on sites that are publicly accessible.

If you want things to "stay in Vegas" make sure they do so...

There is nothing new or clever about such photos, the mistake is where you put them. The powers-that-be are not just being uber-pc but are trying to ensure that they do not become excuses for future outrages.

This is the downside of the selfie, self-obsessed, look-at-me culture.

Precisely, but it's a slap on the wrist offence, not a trial by judgemental useless hack offence.

Obviously, it's a pretty tame picture. No desecration, messing or mutilation = no big deal. But what a fool for letting the picture become public property. Typical "Rock-apes"....!!

[26vinny]

fairplay its ok 4 them to do it, then ok 4 him to

[dennisrobertpell]

The Taliban have won this conflict the British are going home. Tony Blair will not be there to meet them as they should never

have been sent there in the first place.

[stephenterry]

This matter should have been dealt with at the time by the CO at the camp. Internal discipline to make the point that we're at war not at a holiday camp. One week cleaning latrines. Photos deleted. End of matter.

For the BBC to broadcast it now, is PC taken to extremes, which to my mind has been politically motivated to show the world we are a civilised nation. I wouldn't be surprised if David Cameron gets in on the act as well, his insincere posturing that would make me want to puke.

[Chicog]

This matter should have been dealt with at the time by the CO at the camp. Internal discipline to make the point that we're at war not at a holiday camp. One week cleaning latrines. Photos deleted. End of matter.

For the BBC to broadcast it now, is PC taken to extremes, which to my mind has been politically motivated to show the world we are a civilised nation. I wouldn't be surprised if David Cameron gets in on the act as well, his insincere posturing that would make me want to puke.

It wasn't the BBC alone that reported this story.

The pictures first went public on LiveLeak.

[sustento]

For the BBC to broadcast it now, is PC taken to extremes, which to my mind has been politically motivated to show the world we are a civilised nation.

The whole point of our presence in Afghanistan is to try and convince the Afghanis that we ARE a civilised nation and to try and encourage them to follow our example.

It is against MOD regulations to take pictures of enemy corpses. Taking a picture and keeping it to yourself is forgivable. Taking a picture and broadcasting it to the world is stupid.

[wandasloan]

It is against MOD regulations to take pictures of enemy corpses. Taking a picture and keeping it to yourself is forgivable. Taking a picture and broadcasting it to the world is stupid.

Is it as stupid as a bunch of preening ninny politicians posing for a picture so their .... their STUPID words can be broadcast to the world? That stupid?

Why do you think that the MOD did NOT keep this to themselves but felt the need to shame the armed forces with a photo op of well-dressed people whose chief worry in life is whether they will be on time for lunch?

Completely unwittingly, and I use that word on purpose — completely unwittingly you do bring up one problem the twits at the MOD don't suss to, and that is that everyone, everywhere including the MOD now either broadcast their photos to the world or they don't broadcast them at all. Just as you now broadcast your opinion to the world or you do not write it at all.

I have boxes of photos from military days that would unsettle people with little understanding of the context. The big difference is that <deleted> today insist on posting their "trophy" shots on sites that are publicly accessible.

If you want things to "stay in Vegas" make sure they do so...

There is nothing new or clever about such photos, the mistake is where you put them. The powers-that-be are not just being uber-pc but are trying to ensure that they do not become excuses for future outrages.

This is the downside of the selfie, self-obsessed, look-at-me culture.

Many friends of mine have similar boxes. But it is 2014, as many people don't yet notice. There are no boxes. You cannot (thank you NSA and GCHQ, thank you so much) you cannot only show such photos to your mates and buddies. The very nature of how you show such photos has totally changed since you put your last photo in the last box. Today, no one has a box. Either they show them to no one, or they show them, thanks to the NSA and hackers everywhere, to everyone.

What will you do with your photos? Burn them? Or digitise them and share them with a very few people? Well, if the latter, you're broadcasting them worldwide.

.

Edited May 12, 2014 by wandasloan

[folium]

It is against MOD regulations to take pictures of enemy corpses. Taking a picture and keeping it to yourself is forgivable. Taking a picture and broadcasting it to the world is stupid.

Is it as stupid as a bunch of preening ninny politicians posing for a picture so their .... their STUPID words can be broadcast to the world? That stupid?

Why do you think that the MOD did NOT keep this to themselves but felt the need to shame the armed forces with a photo op of well-dressed people whose chief worry in life is whether they will be on time for lunch?

Completely unwittingly, and I use that word on purpose — completely unwittingly you do bring up one problem the twits at the MOD don't suss to, and that is that everyone, everywhere including the MOD now either broadcast their photos to the world or they don't broadcast them at all. Just as you now broadcast your opinion to the world or you do not write it at all.

I have boxes of photos from military days that would unsettle people with little understanding of the context. The big difference is that <deleted> today insist on posting their "trophy" shots on sites that are publicly accessible.

If you want things to "stay in Vegas" make sure they do so...

There is nothing new or clever about such photos, the mistake is where you put them. The powers-that-be are not just being uber-pc but are trying to ensure that they do not become excuses for future outrages.

This is the downside of the selfie, self-obsessed, look-at-me culture.

Many friends of mine have similar boxes. But it is 2014, as many people don't yet notice. There are no boxes. You cannot (thank you NSA and GCHQ, thank you so much) you cannot only show such photos to your mates and buddies. The very nature of how you show such photos has totally changed since you put your last photo in the last box. Today, no one has a box. Either they show them to no one, or they show them, thanks to the NSA and hackers everywhere, to everyone.

What will you do with your photos? Burn them? Or digitise them and share them with a very few people? Well, if the latter, you're broadcasting them worldwide.

.

Thanks for the reminder re the date...

The key word you use is "share". Obviously I now store photos digitally and I have actually sorted, selected, digitized and labelled a selection of my military photos for my kids to see in later years. The rest will be burnt at some stage and certainly never "shared". The "Rockape" who took the photos at Bastion after the Taliban attack, made the fatal error of "sharing" them, that's how they ended up on LiveLeak.

Hence my comment about this mania to share events and acts with the great unknown. It's a classic example of having all the toys but not being wise enough to know how to use them sensibly.

[wandasloan]

Thanks for the reminder re the date...

The key word you use is "share". Obviously I now store photos digitally and I have actually sorted, selected, digitized and labelled a selection of my military photos for my kids to see in later years. The rest will be burnt at some stage and certainly never "shared". The "Rockape" who took the photos at Bastion after the Taliban attack, made the fatal error of "sharing" them, that's how they ended up on LiveLeak.

Hence my comment about this mania to share events and acts with the great unknown. It's a classic example of having all the toys but not being wise enough to know how to use them sensibly.

Yesyesyes.

My point was simply that now there is really only way that is used to share, and that is to broadcast it to the world. You can't put something on the internet that is NOT shared with the entire world. Or, to be more exact, you can direct your sharing to a few people, and it is possible, even likely, that the whole world won't see it. But that's only "security through obscurity". The photos are there, the whole world CAN see them.

And of course some people are wiser than others in exactly how they share. That is, putting in email has less chance of exposure than putting in a "private" Instagram has less chance than an open Facebook account. But bottom line is that showing your paper photos to friends at home or at the pub and retaining them *is* private, and copying them to any internet place is not private, quite binary.

I told my son after his first overseas tour in a hellish place that he should *never* post anything but the most innocuous photos and even then to password them on his Facebook or whatever. And I advised him to print out those he wanted to keep and put them in a box, like his father did and his grandfather did and you did and never to share the digital versions, ever, with anyone. I didn't actually dream at that time that the twits who pass for phuyai in Britain would be quite this stupidly anal-retentive, but anyway, it turned out to be decent advice, I think.

I looked for this quote for some time because I wanted it here, exactly. It is from the movie, Apocalypse Now, in 1979. And we have got much, much worse since 1979.

We train young men to drop fire on people, but we won't let them write "phuoc" on their airplanes because it's obscene.

- Colonel Walter E. Kurtz

Or to take photos marking their success at "dropping fire".

"Phuoc" is my transliteration of the word Kurtz used. I think that's what he said, since the movie was about Vietnam. It could have been spelt differently.

.

Edited May 13, 2014 by wandasloan