Pardoning Soldiers...

[shifty.ricky]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6372763.stm

I don't agree with this.

While I feel that they may have suffered shell shock I'm not a fan of rewriting history to make people feel happy. This is the kind of thing that happened when a new king came in during the middle ages. The old king would have been made out to be a monster.

Leave history alone. Otherwise where do you stop just to stop people having their feelings hurt.

[brumster]

I agree, although I'd have liked a bit more information about what the two soldiers allegedly done before passing judgement. I mean, if they refused to follow orders and people died as a result that's one thing - if they refused to follow orders and a field captain didn't get a cup of tea in the morning, got a bit annoyed and pinned this on them... well, that's slightly different ;)

[Big Adam]

Where's the harm? Unless you've spent 18 months in a trench in occupied France fearing for your life, I don't think you can pass judgement on events of 90 years ago.

A tiny little metal plaque under the main marble war memorial now means the 94 year old daughter of one of the soldiers can spend her last days knowing her father wasn't a coward. She looked chuffed to bits on the news.

Must admit that the grandson's demand for medals is a bit rich though. Clearly a fan of ebay.

[Karl]

It's hardly re-writing history, the record will always show that they were pardoned at a later date once the world came to its senses. It's bad enough that they were sent to pretty much certain death in ill conceived attacks (How they ever thought lead BBs would cut steel wire is beyond me), then they suffer from severe shock, hardly in control of their actions so they get shot by their own side (Sounds familiar?).

[bob_monkhouse]

I agree. I don't see the harm in it myself, particularly since every military death is reported these days. What's the harm in giving the old boys some recognition for their bravery 90 or so years on?

On a similar note, did anyone see Panorama last night? It was about the soldiers who have died in Iraq. I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I have seen in ages. The families of the RMP who died in the police station because they did not have comms equipment aside, I couldn't understand what anyones huge problem was. Yes, it must be exceptionally sad to lose a son in war, but one guy seemed hugely surprised that his son was hit and killed by a sniper buller in a warzone. What do these people expect - that you sign up to the forces and it's a picnic?