Crooked in Canada

A Canadian soldier serving in Afghanistan has been charged with murder after shooting to death a Taliban fighter. Good on him for doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing, taking out the enemy, and shame on our Canadian military police for doing what I consider an insult to the 106 soldiers who have already died fighting for the Afghan people and their freedom, and an insult to the soldiers who continue to battle on, including one or two who are friends of mine.

Charging Capt. Robert Semrau with second-degree murder based on information provided by those who were either caught up in the moment or have an axe to grind is utterly absurd, and as far as I’m concerned the military police was pressured into laying the charge, Unarmed or not, the dead man could have prevented his own death, but obviously he didn’t. It was his own stupidity that got him killed as far as I’m concerned. He could have avoided the bullet or bullets that killed him.  He didn’t and now a Canadian soldier is going to be made accountable for the actions he took when faced with a life or death situation. For all he knew the guy he took out could have been lethally connected or wired up.

The Capt. did the right thing to preserve his life and the lives of others and charging him with murder is obscene and disgusting.  I have to question the military police’s motivation in this one.

I’m not saying that the military police investigators are going out of their way to fudge their investigation so they can lay a token murder charge; I’m just saying that when it comes to the truth as it is told to them by those close to the incident, they might be reading into something that isn’t there.

Funny how that incident took place on October 19, 2008 and that it has really only come to light in the past 4 or 5 days, and that a second-degree murder charge has arisen against somebody whose orders are basically kill or be killed in Afghanistan.

106 Canadian soldiers have fallen in Afghanistan living and fighting by that unspoken rule of engagement.

That said-I’m founding it extremely difficult not to believe that the military investigators aren’t naive, that they are not buying into anything and everything disgruntled and sympathetic Afghani soldiers have to say regarding the alleged incident at Lashkar Gah where British and Canadian troops were defending the capital against an insurgent attack.

Nothing like slapping our Canadian soldiers in the face in the hopes of scoring some political brownie points in a nation where it’s kill or be killed.

This story is going to get a lot of ink during the next little while, but after everybody has had their fun making Semrau out to be the bad guy, and military justice is finished making a scapegoat out of him, I have no doubt in my mind that Semrau will be vindicated.