Pissing On The Enemy

In case you haven't already heard, there's a group of Marines who are in some hot water over a video that's been making it's way around the internet. In the video, four Marines are shown urinating on the Afghan corpses. The corpses are assumed to be fallen members of the Taliban.

A Taliban spokesman has called the golden shower barbaric, inhuman and unforgivable. Keep in mind, this is coming from the same group of cave-dwellers who routinely torture and behead people. This kind of behavior tends to make me a little less sympathetic to their outrage.

Ok, let's look at the diplomatic side of this. You know that our enemies in the Middle East (which seems to be pretty much all of the Middle East) are going to run this up the propaganda flagpole and milk it for all that it's worth. I'm sure some will argue that in this time of transition, especially in Afghanistan, this pissing incident couldn't have come at a worse time. And I get that. But honestly, do you really think that people in this part of the world are ever going to really embrace America? I personally don't think so.

And then there's talk of retaliation by the fun-loving Taliban. Is this to insinuate that the Taliban only tortures and kills when provoked? If they weren't provoked, am I to believe that members of the Taliban would actually be producing things instead of blowing things up?

Agreed, pissing on the enemy and then putting it on a video for the whole world to see probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. But, where is all of this outrage when the videos are circulating that show American journalists being savagely beheaded by the Taliban? Where was this outrage when bodies of American soldiers were mutilated and dragged through the streets of Somalia? And where is this outrage when an Islamic fundamentalist straps on a bomb and blows up a marketplace full of women and children? These are the kinds of things that really piss me off.

If I feel bad for anyone, it's the Marines in this case. They are going to be made to look like the barbarians when this is all over. Hell, they're already comparing it to Abu Ghraib. That certainly can't be good.


But before we rush to judgement on these guys, let's keep something in mind. There's no telling what kind of horrors and atrocities these Marines have witnessed. Can you imagine the stress level in a war zone? Fortunately, most of us will never know because these guys go in and do the dirty work for us. A moment of bad judgement sometimes happens.

Maybe some of their buddies were killed by Taliban soldiers. Maybe by these Taliban soldiers. You think maybe that might be enough to cloud your judgement in a situation like this? I'm not saying it was right, but it's just something to keep in mind.....

kw

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/united-states-marine-corps-investigating-online-video-appears-show-marines-urinating-corpses-taliban-fighters-article-1.1004795