For what it is worth, and to correct the perception seemingly enjoyed by the sender of a stream of PMs to me, I repeat that the situation cannot properly be judged without considering both perspectives.

It appears possible that crimes have been committed by the soldiers - but the most recent relevant UK case I know of, involving a video seen on national TV of about 4 policemen with modern long truncheons whacking the hell out of a lone person arrested and lying on the ground, one policeman twice whipping in from the edge of the fracas just to get a couple of licks in with his truncheon, resulted in a case being brought by the prisoner which failed on the ground that the force used was reasonable and justified.

The issue on the thread(s) seems to be whether the soldiers' actions should cause outrage. Whether there was a crime is not the be-all and end-all of that matter. We mostly commit some crimes on a daily basis.

These were not relatively peaceful demonstrators like those the police crushed with horses in Red Lion Square. The information we have seems to indicate they were not peaceful bystanders brutalised and arrested (or vice versa) like in the miners' strike. These were rioters with (or immediately involved with others with) explosive weapons, who chose to attack soldiers, and received a prompt response. It is not like the calculated endless brutality in Guantanamo Bay, or like Abu Graib, or even like the systematic brutalisation of captives that Iraqi troops handed out to captured US personnel. It is not like the machine-gunning of Moslems in former Czechoslovakia, or Jews in Nazi Germany (or captured British troops by Americans in the American war of independence). It is not like Israeli armoured bulldozers crushing Palestian homes. It is not like "freedom fighters" (wherever from) blowing up uninvolved civilians.

In perspective, if the rioters had been soldiers, their treatment would probably seem to have been a pretty clear breach of the Geneva convention. But to call it an outrage is an over-reaction that results in there being no appropriate words to use for far greater wrongs. The reaction that it was a huge outrage seems largely to be based on an over-eagerness to condemn the British.

What was seen on the video was not proper, probably excessive, but understandable, and not amazing.