I was just reading about a court case in the UK where five Royal Marines had been arrested on charges of violating the Rules of Engagement with respect to an insurgent that they had already taken into custody. For anyone who hasn't already read about it:

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/14/world/europe/uk-royal-marines-murder-case/index.html

I'm usually in the UK once or twice a year and the way the country has been developing over the past decade or so really does scare the living shit out of me.

The place has become very militaristic, with respect for the troops expected lest you become a social outcast. Criticism of the war is deemed to be non-supporting of the troops and disrespecting of their wives... and that fucking poster - "Keep Calm and Carry On".

I was there last Christmas and there was massive public egging-on to get some song sung by a military wives' choir to number 1 in the guise of "supporting the troops".

I've just had a mass purge of my Facebook friends list seeing some of the disgusting shit I've been seeing from many Brits on there, about how torture is completely OK if it's a Afghan insurgent, and how "our boys" were just doing our job.

Is the UK heading the same way now that Germany was in the 1920s and 1930s?

I am from the UK Although i did not support the war i will support the troops as they are doing their job in difficult circumstances. I would love for them to come home but as it is the goverments say so we the public have little to say so we support our troops as best we can.

Yeah, that puts it quite well. We support our troops but not necessarily what they are being made to do, if that makes sense!

I'm usually in Plymouth and Bristol.

Mr. Blobby...wasn't that the pink thing on a show presented by Noel Edmonds?

Yes. He made it to the Christmas no. 1 years back. See what I mean??? ;)

And there is a massive naval base in Plymouth - not surprising that there is a fair amount of support for the military there...

The problem is that it's gone way beyond supporting the troops to bring them back safely. The media there has got people into such an anti-foreigner fervour that it's turned into worship of the military in its own right. And as I said before, all things Muslim or foreign these days are deemed to be evil among that group. But yeah, I understand that it's usually the unwashed masses reading such trash as the Daily Mail and The Sun (although, it seems The Sun have been uncharacteristically neutral about it, and apparently the Daily Mail had to turn off their comment function for that article due to all the racism on there).

Sounds like Britain is becoming more Americanized.

Long answer: No. Tony Blair was kicked out of office for the war. There have been protesters in Parliament Square for 8 years. London averaged one terrorist attack a month during The Troubles but compared to Paris you see very few soldiers walking around. Our military is almost always met with resistance when they want to do things, for instance the security at the Olympics had protests because they were using soldiers and missiles. The country is on the verge of breaking apart with the Scottish referendum and there are no military commanders in the negotiations. The first Conservative government in over 20 years doesn't have a single veteran in its cabinet. Outside of Northern Ireland, active military personnel haven't been used in place of police since WW2.

As for the article, not surprising. You get together a bunch of chavs from the poorest backgrounds in the country and expect them to have exceptional values and morals? People criticise the war all the time and half of parliament are against the war and openly criticise the current and past government for its continuation. Facebook has a lot of morons on it, that's no surprise. Britain has a good relationship with it's military compared to, say, Germany or Spain and it's natural for us to feel good about it since it's done so much to protect us over the decades. Compared to the US we actually have a cold view of our military and our relationship with that country is a lot more worrying to me than our armed services.

Couldn't have said it better myself. In fact, the UK is one of the least militaristic countries I've ever lived in (and I've lived in a fair number).

Sure, we support the military or at least the guys who are in it (not what the military does in 'our name'), but the country isn't remotely militaristic.

In fact, the only time I see anything written about rah-rah the war and fuck terrorists is on the extreme right-wing newspapers, just like in any country.

On the middle of the road or left-wing newspapers, Brits are extremely liberal when it comes to the protection of anyone's rights -- even if they were just shooting at UK soldiers a minute before. In fact, the political correctness of the UK has gone overboard to such an extent that terrorist's rights and extremist rights are better protected than those in the middle. more often than not.

And don't even get me started on the rights of an extremist right wing Muslim terrorist born in Pakistan vs the rights of the middle of the road born in the UK Brit (don't care what ethnicity).

The extremist Muslim born overseas will end up with better rights than the middle of the road born in the UK Brit almost every time.

And before you start calling me "anti Muslim", don't even bother. I'm one of those folks that's been fighting for Muslim rights since 9/11 and was supremely pissed off at all the ignorance in the US directed at Islam and Muslims. But...... there is a limit to what anyone should expect to be protected for.

Let's take a few interactions and stories and pretend it applies to everyone in a huge country! Fun!

Have we already mentioned that all Americans are jingoistic, xenophobic, fat and stupid? I not, I'm calling dibs on that.

Be nice to get a deck chair once in a while.

Am I missing something here? OP considers it disturbing that many civilians show support for soldiers who are being accused of murder of someone who ambushed them because they returned fire and apparently did not provide medical aid to him? I'm a little confused.

More that said someone was already in custody by the time and that the Geneva Convention forbids maltreatment of prisoners of war (with good reason). What precisely happened between the end of that video and the death of the prisoner is yet to be clarified by the court case, but the attitude that the unwashed masses are taking that "if he was killed being abused by the Marines, it's a good thing" is a very disturbing one.