I did not see the video, nor do I want to see it. It is a You Tube posting that reportedly shows four U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters.
The Marine Corps is investigating and has said this action is not consistent with Marine Corp values.
First of all I understand the dispassion some combatants can feel against an enemy they have killed. These Marines may have seen their buddies blown apart by IED’s or in a combative firefight and they were in no mood to pay respects or acknowledge it to the enemy dead.
Granted Peeing on a corpse is ignorance at it’s best, but then again intellectual diplomacy is not part of the Marine Corp training nor should it be. Each Marine is trained to be a killing unit, not a diplomat over the enemy dead.
The Taliban are more egregious in their treatment of prisoners or of enemy dead. Cutting off the head of an enemy is not a civilized action in today’s world, if it ever was in any time or ethic.
War is hell as the saying goes. War is filled with atrocities, indignities and insults on both sides. It is what war is. You have two choices. Get over it or don’t go to war.
What is not appropriate on either side is to second guess the actions of those who were there, by those who were not there or by those who have never been in battle who cannot know the power of fearful and then euphoric survival nor of survivals lingering pain of loss when comrades in arms no longer live.
The idiocy of war is that you can kill the enemy with impunity, but then you must respect their remains.
Who thought that one up?
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