"Operation Northmoor was set up by the government in 2014 and looked into 52 alleged illegal killings.
Its closure was announced by the government before Royal Military Police detectives even had a chance to interview the key Afghan witnesses."
This is very interesting. Language and selectivity by a corporate machine are two of the tools that reflect power relations within an imperialist state (e.g. PR) and in its relation to other states.
The BBC article doen't even allude that the British regime and the military were in Afghanistan and Iraq as an ally with the American-led mission to fight "the terrorists" and "liberate" the people (in Afghanistan, especially women).
What happened after that and the chaos left until the present day was not the responsibility of the coalition forces. "We did our bit."
The "illegal killings" or "war crimes" must have occured in "very hard conditions" and "highly stressful situations" that "our boys" (and girls) were going through. "Mistakes were inevitable."
After all, what is 52 killings compared to what ISIS or Al-Asad's regime carried out?
More importantly, we are investigating the killings and trying to prosecute those responsible. We uphold "the rule of law." We conduct operations in making the world a peaceful place and we conduct other operations when things go wrong!
British imperialism today abide by a different ethos—we are a "good force" in the world and mistakes happen. We have been doing our best in outsourcing violence to other regimes and private companies.