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Picture this: you are a Dutch combat marine. You are sent to Iraq to keep the peace. You police the streets while heavily armed. Bombs go off regularly and many of your collegues (from friendly military forces) are killed in ambushes and by snipers.
On one patrol you run into a group of Iraqis that are looting a container. Your unit responds. Shots are fired. The crowd panics and reacts adversely. More shots are fired. One looter dies (but is carried away immediately by the looters and buried straight away. Really handy for an investigation).
The next thing you know is that you are whisked away on a plane to the motherland where you are imprisoned and charged with manslaughter and homicide.
HAS THE DUTCH MILITARY STAFF AND PUBLIC PROSECUTORS GONE TOTALLY MAD!?!?
I mean, we are not talking about the streets of Hoofddorp (suburbia close to Amsterdam). There is real danger there. The Dutch forces stationed in Iraq are risking their lives on an important mission (important for the people of Iraq, that is). They were under (some form of) attack. The Iraqi that was shot (however unfortunate it might be) was not leisurely walking his dog only to be shot point blank by the marine; he was a member of a group of looters that ignored the warnings of the powers that are. One should not do this!
I am not advocating outright shooting and unlimited use of force by our troops in Iraq, but I do think that "our boys" (I am sounding like my grandfather here) deserve a lot of leeway and that in case of incidents like this they deserve an honourable treatment and a good investigation "sur place".
I also condemn the foolish remarks made by the Attorney General who compared our heavily armed soldiers in Iraq to ordinary policemen. This guy must be sent looking for his marbles, preferably in a place where he is routinely fired upon.
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