Letters: Friday, April 14, 2017

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Soldiers under pressure

MAY I add to the letters regarding Sgt Blackman’s trial and sentence.

Has Mark served in the forces, or is he like the panel at the Court Martial (men with peak caps, pips or crowns on their shoulder and no doubt sporting medals on their chests) who have never witnessed or taken part in a firefight with insurgents?

A vast number of their own faith disown these insurgents for their views and actions. They are men who will enter a house and shoot the mother because she has not covered her head and face, take the daughters away to rape or sell for slaves, take the father out and publicly behead him in front of cameras.

This was the type of person Sgt Blackman was facing when he called for helicopter assistance.

According to reports and at the trial Sgt Blackman assumed that the man was already dead when he shot him.

Even so, the platoon did not have the first aid equipment to render assistance to the injured.

And to call for a helicopter to remove him could have meant that it would have then come under fire from the ground.

In that case more lives would have been at risk and the insurgent might have died before it arrived.

Mark quotes the Geneva Convention for the soldier’s actions, but does it state how to deal with someone who is close to death?

Mark, would you stand back and watch as the injured man slowly bleeds to death in agony?

Cameron and Osborne when in power reduced our military so much so that men and woman are regarded more like machines than humans.

Once one tour is over they are back home for a quick make over, a spray of WD40 then they are back into action again.

Should a death occur, the powers that be shed a few crocodile tears and send a condescending letter to the loved ones before they forget what has happened.

Sgt Blackman wanted to serve his country and found himself a trusted and popular leader of men.

I do not think of him as a hero but as a person who, after far too many tours without a proper break, found his physical and mental courage snapped and he regretted that the moment after his actions.

In the 1950s I worked with an ex-First World War amputee, he told me of horrible episodes that took place on both sides in the war, because it was war.

He had a terrible temper, we all kept clear when he lost it.

And my father, after almost four years abroad in the Second World War displayed a similar temper to his family for years afterwards. We all just said, ‘oh they’re off again,’ when they got angry.

Upon reflection their anger was the result of what they went through while serving in the forces.

JH OLIVER, Brooklands Avenue, Swindon

Prophet’s guarantee

IN DENOUNCING the barbarous attack on churches in Egypt, I draw attention to a written guarantee given to the Christians by the Holy Prophet Mohammad. It states: “This is issued by Mohammed, directed to the embracers of Islam, as a covenant given to the followers of Jesus the Nazarene, in the East and West, the far and near, the Arabs and foreigners, the known and the unknown.

“A promise to them, and he who disobeys this is a disbeliever and a transgressor . . . Whenever Christian monks, devotees and pilgrims gather . . . they are under My Protection. . . No one is to . . . destroy or spoil any of their churches, or houses of worship, or take any of the things contained within them . . . . No taxes or tithes should be received from those who devote themselves to the worship of God . . . No one has the right to interfere with their affairs . . . they will live favoured and protected from everything which may offend them by the Callers to religion (Islam).

“Their churches must be honoured and they must not be withheld from building churches or repairing convents.

“Muslims must protect them and defend them against others and . . . must not contradict or disobey my promise until . . . the end of the world.

In the light of this do these criminals still say that they are upholding Islamic teaching?

SHAHID AZIZ, President Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore (UK)

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Christians persecuted

IN RESPONSE to Mark Webb’s letter (April 8th) regarding persecuted Christians, I think he might have changed the tenor of his letter if he had been fully aware of the extent that Christians are persecuted today.

I understand his intention to be a voice against intolerance but you cannot escape the fact that today Christians are the most persecuted group in the world.

This is almost entirely due to the rise of Islamic extremism and Hindu and Buddhist Nationalism.

Last year 90,000 lost their lives for their faith.

There are at least 50 countries where followers of Christ must keep their faith hidden, and where living the gospel means facing beatings, imprisonment, discrimination and in some cases death.

I will just cite one case, that of Asia Bibi, a mother of five who has been held since 2009 and sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan following an argument with Muslim women at a water well.

Perhaps Mark Webb should investigate this and the multitudes of cases of terrible religious persecution against those who follow Christ,which has resulted in the decimation of Christian communities across the Middle East and Asia.

I type this response in the wake of the slaughter of 47 Christians at Palm Sunday Church bombings in Egypt by Isis Perhaps if he were to walk in their shoes he might arrive at a different conclusion.

STEVE JACK, Parsonage Court, Highworth

Solution to litter

I WAS litter picking in Thamesdown Drive on Sunday and collected 68 plastic bottles between Torun Way and the Tawny Owl Pub.

The bottle material PET is easily recyclable without too much energy and when separated, cleaned and granulated, is a valuable source of new material.

If we had a deposit scheme in this country research suggests we could reclaim as many as an additional 16,000,000 plastic bottles every day.

Norway, which has a deposit scheme in place, are hitting a 96 per cent returns rate, by adopting standard deposit charges between 10p pence and 25p per plastic bottle.

And before the industry starts shouting ‘foul’, they are the ones who have created this throwaway society because it is easier and cheaper for them to see plastic thrown on the street than properly collected and reused.

ASDA would not even contribute £1,000 annually to keep the bottle recycling facility on the Orbital car park.

I dream about parish-wide bottle hunts with youngsters dragging carrier bags full back to the retailers to get their 5p a bottle pocket money.

On the street they will become as rare as hen’s teeth, as rare as today’s single use carrier bags blowing around.

Strangely, on Sunday the main presence was that of Lucozade Energy. Anyway, it’s clearly not working because it doesn’t provide anywhere near enough energy for the bottle tossers is to find a litter bin.

Next target, glass bottles and McDonald’s plastic drinking straws, they last for ever and are hard to pick up.

JOHN STOOKE, Haydon End, Swindon

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A stupid strategy

FLY TIPPING and the general scattering of rubbish everywhere is increasing, along with the consequent cost of clearing it up.

Apparently, part of the council’s strategy to tackle this problem is to... close local recycling sites!

The recycling site in Highworth has just been closed, with locals being advised to take their recycling to Cheney Manor (really accessible to local residents) or to put it out for refuse collection - adding to the quantity of refuse residents have to store until the now fortnightly collection.

Is this strategy going to save the council money, or increase consequent costs?

Is this strategy going to encourage people to be more responsible with their waste, or the complete opposite?

PAT NORMAN, Highworth

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Health help needed

I AGREE with M Collins. I have a son suffering from a mental health problem and for me to travel to Devizes if he was in there would be by bus, and at 76 years of age I would find it a bit much.

We need Sandalwood Court here in Swindon. There are more mental health patients in Swindon than there are in the other two towns put together.

More help is needed for the mental health departments than is being given.

I think the town’s two MPs should be helping to keep this facility in town.

And I think that the thinking of Angus Macpherson is ludicrous. How can he say this move would be of more benefit to the town?

As families we need less stress and more help.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED