Wall Street Journal and other news agencies have been going off on this report about US Marines videoing themselves urinating on enemy (i.e. militant) corpses in Afghanistan.
US military confirm the video is authentic and that Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment from Camp Lejeune North Carolina.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta condemned the bad behavior on Thursday and telephone Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai to say he (Leon Panetta) found the images deplorable. Quoting Defense Secretary Panetta, “This conduct is entirely inappropriate for members of the United States military and doesn’t reflect the standards or values our armed forces are sworn to uphold.”
The video was uploaded to YouTube and other websites and runs for about one minute. It shows four men in Marine combast gear standing around three corpses on the ground – urinating on them. One was heard to have said, “Have a great day, buddy.”
Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai called the act “inhuman.” And the Taliban condemned the video (as expected) saying that US forces have committed war crimes against them for the past 10 years of war. Taliban recent negotiations with the US will not be stopped due to this incident.
There have been other misdeeds by US forces in the War on Terrorism. In Iraq, there was the abuses see at the Abu Ghraib prison.
But, the Taliban have also been tainted with their own misdeeds. In 1996, they brutally killed Mohammad Najibullah, the deposed communist president who was seeking refuge at a U.N. compound in Kabul. His corpse was castrated and hung from a traffic light on a busy street for everyone to see.
From the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, the desecration of the bodies of enemy combatants is a court-martial offense.
Now for my take on the matter…
Those Marines were Morons!
The four who had their peckers out to do the deed and the jerk holding the camera to record the event. If your going to take a piss on a dead enemy corpse, don’t take any pictures or video of yourself doing it! You can think it – just don’t do it for real guys!
Our young troops must also be made aware of the “larger” picture and how stupid mistakes can affect national policy or our nation’s image. Today, Uncle Sam got a bit of that golden splatter on his pants leg.
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Ref.
1. Online Wall Street Journal. “In Damage Control Bid, Pentagon Calls Karzai Over Video” by JULIAN E. BARNES in Washington and MARIA ABI-HABIB in Kabul. January 12, 2012. ( http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577156434037860096.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLETopStories ).
2. The Jawa Report. “Taliban Condemns Marine Pi$$ing Video As Inhumane” January 12, 2012. ( http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/210743.php ).
