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WW1 deserters pardoned.
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Komnenos View Drop Down
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Posts: 4361 		  Quote Komnenos Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: WW1 deserters pardoned.
    Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 04:05
The British government will pardon over 300 soldiers who were court-martialled during WW1 for desertion.
It might come a bit too late, not only as the pardon has come almost 100 years after the event, but also as most of the involved soldiers were executed immediately after having been sentenced.
The British government has now recognised that most of deserters during the trench wars suffered from acute mental stress and disorders ( shell-shock etc.) and should have medically been treated and not been shot.
The pardon has come after a long lobbying by family members.
 
The question remains, is this pardon a meaningless excuse, done mainly for PR and a few remaining family members, or does it set a important precedence, by recognising that there are valid reason for not fighting in a war, being medical or else?
How are other deserters of other wars been treated? For example, deserters of the Vietnam war, are they still being sought or have they also been pardoned?
 
 


Edited by Komnenos - 17-Aug-2006 at 04:06
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Posts: 5711 		  Quote Constantine XI Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 05:37
The pardon is appropriate, the war ended long ago and the strict discipline of the British military is not required to win any difficult wars right now.

Will the American government extend the same nicety to her own deserters right now? No. Because they are fighting in conflicts right now in which they are the leading force, to issue such pardons would be seen as encouragement for further desertion in the midst of their current military commitments around the world.
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 06:00
Of course it may be possible that the British government indeed regrets what happened, but I think that if another WW1-style trench war would break out,most armies would do exactly the same thing to deserters. Strategic interests mean more to countries than the lives of their soldiers.
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 06:22
Nope. If they were convicted properly under the law as it existed then, IMHO the sentences should stand. A person should be judged by the standards of his/her time, not by the "enlightened" sensibilities of a more modern era.
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Posts: 1564 		  Quote DukeC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 13:19
It's important to acknowledge the limits of human endurance, both mental and physical. The 23 Canadians executed were included in our Book of Remembrance in 2001.
 


Edited by DukeC - 17-Aug-2006 at 13:21
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Posts: 4310 		  Quote Tobodai Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17-Aug-2006 at 18:01
It is important to note that the british army did not pardon all deserters, but only those that clearly were mentally ill and unfit for combat.  It is fitting, if they had pardoned all that had been shot for desertion is would be different.
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Posts: 2656 		  Quote Genghis Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18-Aug-2006 at 01:23
Originally posted by Tobodai

It is important to note that the british army did not pardon all deserters, but only those that clearly were mentally ill and unfit for combat.  It is fitting, if they had pardoned all that had been shot for desertion is would be different.
 
I agree, that is a good distinction to make.  And I also think it would be unfair to judge too harshly the members of the British Army who carried out these sentences.  The knowledge of such stress disorders and psychology in general was rather limited, and they could not have been expected to know it as anything but cowardice.
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