Here’s a good example. Three American serviceman stationed in the UK gang rape a British teenager.

Not sure about Britain, but transfer this scenario to Japan (Okinawa?) and its almost an annual event. It used to be that most of the time the sevicemen weren’t even prosecuted, but that has changed in the last few years.
On the subject of bin Laden, about 6 months I met an army officer who had just returned after serving in Afghanistan who said that it was the general view that ObL couldn’t have gotten arrested if he’d applied for an identity pass to work in any of the bases: he was not their main concern. I thought he was trying to wind me up – Nermal

Yes. Great ‘Devil’s advocate’ stuff Nermal, but unless these guys lived in a hermetically-sealed box they could see there was a conflict in the offing.

Make the choice to travel to such a country and you are taking the responsibility on your own shoulders.

Doubtless they were there selling double glazing or collecting for kidney research, but that’s the risk they took.

Stop weeping for them. It butters no parsnips here.

Moggy

And yet you would probably appreciate being held innocent until proven guilty if it was you in their place.
Anyway, you say they could see a conflict coming: how? In the national newspapers? On TV? From the radio? We have those means of communication and take them for granted. We even believe most of the factual stuff that is given to us by the media, within reason.
Didn’t one returnee say that the first he knew that there was a war on the way was when he got bombed and assumed that it was one of the warlords who’d got some aircraft working. I suppose under those circumstances you might turn round and say that you were in the wrong place, that these bombs were actually from your allies and could someone help you across the front line?
I weep for no one, except maybe your rather silly belief that the Americans were justified in sweeping people up and incarcerating them for up to four years with no proof, before throwing them out without even a sorry. If they were terrorists then obviously all that did was to inflame them before letting them go; if they were terrorists then the Americans have created a breeding ground for hatred; and if they were innocent civilians then the Americans could be said to be employing the same type of tactics expected of the nazis. I have no wish to hear of your fetish for parsnips either. – Nermal

Personally – No.

Who cares? They were doubtless caught where they hadn’t ought to have been. Less liberal regimes would just have shot them out of hand.

They should consider themselves lucky and keep their heads down.

Moggy

Why shouldn’t they have been there? Is there anywhere in the world that you are aware of that you are forbidden to be, not by the laws of that country but by the demands of your own country?
I have seen the governments website which shows which countries you are advided not to visit, whether for health reasons or due to a little armed struggling between the ruling forces and the opposing forces, but there has never been any law forbidding Britons from going to any particular country unless we were at war with it (they couldn’t stop people from going to Rhodesia, for example; they had to be content with imposing economic sanctions).
And how would you know they were where they shouldn’t have been anyway? There was no information publicly given by the American government for the returned Brits, unless you are one of the chosen: as far as we were aware they could have been snatched off the street in Germany (which has happened, I believe), Sudan, Ethiopia, Singapore, America, or Norway, to give a few examples. Once again you are prejudging someone guilty without evidence – something even the Americans decided they couldn’t do (or else they would have been sentenced, yes?). Why not string them up now – they just have to be guilty of something! – Nermal

Did ground kills have any bearing on the subject? Might there have been some fighter pilots who were more successful in strafing attacks than air-to-air, and in such cases would they have been classed as aces?
Would Warburton have been flying alone or in squadron formation when he made his claims? How much easier would it have been to claim a shoot-down if you only had your own crew to give witness? – Nermal

We got Radio 1 when I was in the UAE, they irritated the crap out of me by playing months old music as “new” and constantly playing what seemed to be the same 10 songs over…and over…and over…

Doesn’t sound like Radio 1 – well the constant repeatition bit does but if the song is over six months old then its lost for eternity (or until it is resurrected by Radio 2…).
You sure it wasn’t BFBS? If British forces are anywhere for longer than the life-span of a mayfly then so are the British Forces Broadcasting Services team. Think local radio but without the lost dogs, flower show results, or features on what surgical stockings are available – Nermal

It was not revealed till the last episode of Dad’s Army that Wilson had been an officer, a sort of icing on the cake really. In episode 1, Mainwaring had asked about his WWI service and he said he’d been a Sgt in the RAC, at Gallipoli, Mons, Passhendale (sp?),, and Mainwaring had cut him short on the rest, because he’d only been in the Orkneys himself, and didn’t get to France till 1919. “Well. someone had to clean up the mess.”

Wasn’t there a subplot in one show about Wilson either not wanting or not being allowed to wear his medals? Maybe at a Remembrance parade or something? – Nermal

Whatever became of the proposed remake of Father Ted starring Steve Martin ?

What a dreadfull idea.
How is his Irish accent? All he would do is introduce pratfalls and custard pies (or equivalent). And which Hollywood actor is going to want to say ‘feck, arse, gurls’ with out being type cast?
Hells teeth – why not get Eddie Murphy instead and screw it up compleatly? – Nermal

Why a Spitfire II and not a Seafire II? Would make more sense, although probably more difficult to trace – Nermal