‘Army has no future if ECHR laws become the norm’, warns SAS hero

HE was twice decorated for bravery in the field and rose to be one of the lynchpins of his SAS unit as he helped to extinguish political fires across the globe.

But now George Simm DCM fears Britain’s military prowess is facing an unprecedented challenge from a political decision to place European human rights over established international law.

Though bound by strict secrecy rules, the 70-year-old former SAS Regimental Sergeant Major has decided to speak about his time with the “Who Dares Wins” regiment because of fears that its soldiers are beginning to question whether they can get the job done.

And with a real prospect of war between Nato and looming, his message has never been more important.

“Applying the ECHR to military operations makes no sense – it is a clear misapplication of its initial intent and, if it becomes the norm, then there’s no future for the army,” warns George, from his home in Northumberland.

“Politicians need to explain this to the public.

“You simply can’t fight a war where there’s potential for loss of life under the shadow of an autopsy that will see that loss of life used against you in endless vexatious and mendacious claims and accusations.”

It follows mounting concerns that the ever-tightening stronghold of European human rights laws is impacting the ability to carry out “kill-or-capture” missions against High Value Targets.

“There is a prevailing sense that cuts to our defence posture are already forcing us to fight with just one arm, and human rights legislation has that arm tied behind our backs,” remarked one senior army source, last night.

George’s success in “the unit” seems all the more remarkable given that he has “never really liked guns”.

His 30-year career took him from the bitter streets of Northern Ireland to the mountains of Oman, the steaming jungles of Colombia and the deserts of Iraq.

Raised in the northeastern coastal town of Newbiggin, his influences were the miners who rejected the occupation’s reserved status to fight during the Second World War.

“My uncle Dennis was a Northumberland Fusilier. He used to sit and drink beer with my father, and I used to sit tucked in behind the chair, and listen to his stories about army life,” he recalls, with a softly-spoken brogue.

Already an accomplished cadet, he won a place to a local Grammar school only to have it taken away when he revealed he would join the army at the earliest opportunity

“A lot of people I know like guns – their design, the efficacy of how they work,” he says.

“For me, they were always just a tool, like a screwdriver.”

It took only three years with the Coldstream Guards and the Guards Independent Parachute Company for him to be invited to apply for the SAS.

For the most part, the secretive regiment has enjoyed a reputation for achieving the impossible in challenging circumstances since it was formed 84 years ago by David Stirling, whose exploits are dramatised in the drama Rogue Heroes.

But under a new and increasingly litigious environment it has endured its share of controversy, too, following claims that one squadron “unlawfully” killed 54 Afghans during a six month tour in Helmand Province in Afghanistan in 2011.

The accusation tears at the heart of any SAS veteran.

In part the regiment is a victim of its own laws of “omertà”.

“People have their ideas of the SAS, but they’re often wrong,” he says. “The guys are actually well-read, They devour history and current affairs.

“The officers come from mostly Public Schools and are bright, and the combination is quite special.”

Any sense of class divide is discouraged.

“From Kabrit in 1941, David Stirling insisted on meritocracy. Ability is what counts and there are no other barriers hindering your progress onwards and upwards.”

While it is no democracy, the cohesiveness of the unit and trust in each member of it means that every viewpoint is valued.

George adds: “You never stop being assessed.”

Though reluctant to discuss details, he admits that he has taken a life in the line of duty,

“Like surgeons and first responders, we’re professionals, There is no soul searching.

“But people think we’re all about killing, and we aren’t. There are many different ways to achieve an objective. Killing normally happens when something goes horribly wrong.

“You have to train for it, though. because you don’t want to do something really well only to die because somebody was a better shot than you.”

He adds: “I know what death looks like. I know what a good person is and I don’t need someone with a dog collar to tell me if I’m a good person or not. I know, and that’s important because it’s the only real thing. Everything else is abstract.”

Recalling his first Middle East operation in Oman, where British forces helped modernist Sultan Qaboos overcome a communist insurgency, he says: “We used to do clinics, and issue lotions to cure children’s eye diseases.

“If your children are happy, then families are happy. We win by being good people that even remote tribes can identify.”

On one occasion his unit ran 15 miles through the night to aid a dying woman.

“When we got there, she had an advanced peritonitis and was very close to death.

“As the paramedic I tried to intervene but the head man looked at me and he said, ‘You can’t touch my wife. It’s Allah-Kharim, God’s will’. And she died.”

Their covert nature means that Britain’s Special Forces have been increasingly utilised by successive governments.

According to other sources, UK Special Forces are said to have deployed to 20 countries over the last 25 years.

In 2000 they rescued five British soldiers and 20 civilians from the clutches of the “West Side Boys” militia in war-torn Sierra Leone.

Islamist groups have been the focus of other operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, Kenya and Syria – where they worked with US counterparts – and The Philippines.

Since 2019, they have also been used in an intelligence-gathering capacity on the Russian border in Estonia, while SAS veterans trained Ukrainian troops in Poland and just inside ‘s border.

Soldiers obeyed the clear Law of Armed Conflict, which is part of International Humanitarian Law, says George, and had operated effectively.

“The problem is that, in today’s lawfare environment, the men are being put in a very isolated and vulnerable position,” he adds.

“We have a chain of command that understands inherently what is permissible and acceptable.

“In the Laws of Armed Conflict the reasonable killing of High Value Targets, is allowed. These are the people who make bombs and terrorise civilians.

“But this is not in sync with the UK Government’s chosen use of ECHR Article 2, which protects the right of every life, even terrorists. Soldiers are forced to operate in a legally bipolar environment.

“And you can’t have it both ways. You can’t say we need the military but we want them to operate as social workers.”

He adds: “Governments need to learn this lesson fast, because right now we have soldiers in the field trained to grasp the reality of situations quickly, and they are colliding with a cascade of legal confusing issues,

“The danger is that, at the crucial moment, their heads are in a legal fog and they start to doubt themselves. And that only ends one way.”