US Marine Corps probes 'Taliban desecration' video

news Add comments
Jan 112012

The US military has said it is investigating a video that appears to show a group of Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters.

Hmmm. Marines pissing on Jihadis. How should I feel about this…

Posted by admin at 8:09 pm
  • Michael Scott

    I’m ok with them pissing on dead Taliban, only because it would be logistically impractical to take a crap on them in some cases.

  • russcal

    I’ll admit, I’m not terrifically worked up by a few Jarheads taking a leak on some dead scumbags…. stuff happens during wartime, and the pissing those scumbags got is far more dignified and humane than ANY treatment US or allied bodies would get.

    But why, in this day and age of instant outrage would A) someone be stupid enough to film something like this, and B) why would anyone by so gosh damned stupid to post it on YouTube?

    That’s what any and all Marines involved with this should be charged with… gross stupidity!

    As to the Taliban dead meat… eff ‘em. They are pieces of sh!t anyway you look at them.

    • Anonymous

      > But why, in this day and age of instant outrage would A) someone be stupid enough to film something like this

      That’s the great question of the age. It’s not just dumbass Marines in a stressed-out combat zone… it’s also dumbass kids on the street… and dumbass Congresscritters on Twitter.

  • David Winfrey

    Y’know, I don’t “personally” care what happened to the dead scumbags either, & certainly agree stuff happens, and the the greater dignity of corpse-pissing over (say) beheading.

    That said, it strikes me that desecration of corpses (whether via bodily fluids, the collection of ears, or whatnot), is — like torture of suspects, shooting unarmed fleeing combatants in the back, or murdering an enemy’s children under the rubric “Nits make lice” (one Col. Chivington, if memory serves), are ALL things a righteous and honorable warrior would NOT do…let alone, a citizen of a righteous and honorable nation, condone. Which (in terms of this particular indignity, anyway) our own brass appear to agree.

    Or to quote a commander there’s no need to name, “If we adopt the ways of the Nazis, we become as bad as the Nazis” (which though incorrect in strict fact…I’ve no problem with a man in the field skinning the terrorist-who-knows-where-the-nuke-is’s infant after said terrorist has been skinned to no effect…is among the moral/ethical teaching *I* was brought up to embrace.

    Guess it all falls under the heading of “moral relativism,” though, right?

    • Anonymous

      > ALL things a righteous and honorable warrior would NOT do

      You’d like to think so. However… war makes the best men do some pretty weirdass things. And the archetypical Righteous and Honorable Warrior is more a myth than reality. Not as mythical as the Righteous and Honorable Politician or the Righteous and Honorable Lawyer, but still…

      > Guess it all falls under the heading of “moral relativism,” though, right?

      *EVERYTHING* falls under the heading of “moral relativism.” Anyone who claims that there are, in fact, moral absolutes is trying to sell you something. A simple test: find someone who is bound and determined that “Thou shallt not steal” is an absolute. And then ask him about, say, a French resistance fighter who gets the opportunity to swipe some Nazi documents. Or a Mossad agent who wanders out of Iran with some nuclear plans. Then ask about the whole “not bearing false witness” thing with respect to undercover cops.

  • David Winfrey

    Well said, nor am I condemning the soldiers for what often comes naturally on the field of battle/in the stress of combat. I’m simply saying (as I’m sure you know) that yes, this was offensive, and SHOULD be seen as offensive.

    I take your take on moral relativism a step farther, also: there’s no intrinsically/absolutely righteous and honorable nation either, every nation having its own personal bill of blood. Sure, behaviors and practices can be ranked to some extent: apartheteid (sp) trumps segregation, death camps leave all in the dust. But I get ill with those who duck accountability for SOME crimes cuz’ they’re OUR crimes. “He’s a sonofabitch, but he’s OUR sonofabitch” is fine; “My country, right or wrong,” no. And as for the dumbass who tells me “If you don’t like it here, leave,” why would I not hold my own lands wrongs “worse” than those of other lands; MY land did THOSE. I don’t care (as much) about how my neighbor treats his wife and kids as I do how my brother does; he’s blood.

    I know my nation’s record as well as I comprehend that in any war, stuff happens. But I expect…nay demand…a higher accountability than displayed by one political camp, at least.

    So yeah, Scott, I think you should give a damn. Or just own up and say “might makes right,” and leave it at that.

    • Anonymous

      > why would I not hold my own lands wrongs “worse” than those of other lands

      Because that way leads to hatred of your own lands. Remove the names and labels and judge actions on their merits or lack thereof.

      > I don’t care (as much) about how my neighbor treats his wife and kids as I do how my brother does; he’s blood.

      That’s fair and appropriate. However, if your brother and neighbor are equal scumbags to their wives and kids… the brothers wrongs are not worse than the neighbors; they just matter more to *you.*

      > I think you should give a damn.

      The Marines should be, and last I heard, will be prosecuted. But here’s the thing:what they did, they did on their own. Wasn’t ordered from above; wasn’t condoned from above. More, wasn’t condoned – in fact, it was condemned – by their home culture… unlike the culture they are fighting, which not only condones, but *demands* far, far worse things.

      From a purely strategic and *long* *term* point of view, an argument can be made that it would be better if these Marines were not only not punished, but celebrated. Why? Because in this war, we are at war not with a political or economic ideology, but a religious worldview. The enemy in this war believes that they have their god on their side, and that they are Special People. The more they see things that they believe their god would punish go unpunished, the more they may doubt their own religious conviction.

  • BearededDragon

    Pissing on bodies? Typical American military indiscipline. What else can one expect from a bunch of overinflated egoists like American “warriors”? Wankers more like.

    • Anonymous

      That’s the best ya got, huh?

© 2013 The Unwanted Blog Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha