US Marines urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan

Byrnzie

John McCain: "The Marine Corps prides itself that we don't lower ourselves to the level of the enemy."


Isn't it a bit late for that?

It's already known what the Marines did in Vietnam, in Panama, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Murdering unarmed civilians for sport, cutting off ears and noses, pissing on dead bodies, bayoneting babies, wiping out whole villages of men, women and children, rape and torture. This is how you don't lower yourself to the level of the enemy?

I'm scratching my head trying to think of when any such routine atrocities were ever inflicted on any Americans by the 'enemy'?

Prince Of Dorkness

The argument that "who gives a fuck, they were terrorists" to me is a bit scary.

First... do we know they were terrorists or were they just people who got in the way? Will we ever know?

Second... I'd like to think that we could expect our soldiers to be better than that.


that said... I've known a lot of men and women coming back from the Middle East and especially in the most violent places, war messes you up. Badly. The horrors those people have to see every day would make most of us climb under our beds and scream.

Although I AM shocked by the incident and even more shocked by the video being made and then posted on Youtube... I hope those men aren't punished too much. And I hope that they and ALL returning military personnel get the help that they need... mental and health care... finical support... anything they need. They deserve it.

catefrances

Byrnzie wrote:

...
The Texas governor said on CNN's State of the Union programme: "Obviously, 18 and 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often. And that's what's occurred here.
...

so the military doesnt teach them respect for the enemy? thats a shame cause i know that the 18-19 year olds that ive raised so far wouldnt think it was just a stupid mistake, urinating on a corpse.. theyd think it was just not something a civilised person does, not to mention disgraceful...

even though we dont respect the enemy in life(otherwise we wouldnt kill them) they must be respected in death. i know some here have said theyd do far worse to us but that argument isnt gonna hold any amount of water. it just brings everyone down to the lowest common denominator... and thats not something we should rejoice in, let alone use to bolster any positive argument.

Prince Of Dorkness

catefrances wrote:

i know that the 18-19 year olds that ive raised so far wouldnt think it was just a stupid mistake, urinating on a corpse.. theyd think it was just not something a civilised person does, not to mention disgraceful...

Which of course is why they did it.

I'm not defending them, but I DO know that they come from a country that has spread so much anti-Muslim propaganda that it's going to happen that they lose their sense of right/wrong when under the amount of stress they're under.

I'm sure that when they calmed down, they all had a "what the hell was I thinking" moment. Or... I hope they did.

catefrances

Prince Of Dorkness wrote:

catefrances wrote:

i know that the 18-19 year olds that ive raised so far wouldnt think it was just a stupid mistake, urinating on a corpse.. theyd think it was just not something a civilised person does, not to mention disgraceful...

Which of course is why they did it.

I'm not defending them, but I DO know that they come from a country that has spread so much anti-Muslim propaganda that it's going to happen that they lose their sense of right/wrong when under the amount of stress they're under.

I'm sure that when they calmed down, they all had a "what the hell was I thinking" moment. Or... I hope they did.

i hope youre right... i hope it was a heat of the moment thing. but how out of your mind do you have to be to pee on a corpse? how much time had passed since the death of the afghanis before they peed on the bodies... and where was their commanding officer?

conman

catefrances wrote:

where was their commanding officer?

he was too busy trying to impress admirals and generals...

Prince Of Dorkness

catefrances wrote:

i hope youre right... i hope it was a heat of the moment thing. but how out of your mind do you have to be to pee on a corpse? how much time had passed since the death of the afghanis before they peed on the bodies... and where was their commanding officer?

I have never been in the military so I don't know from first hand experience but I do know that when you're on a battlefield or in combat situations you learn to shut off your moral compass and just function without too much higher reasoning. You have to, trying to decide the moral pros and cons of shooting the truck driving at you too fast will get you and many of your friends dead.

I just know that many of the former military guys I've worked with will, if they trust you enough, tell you stories that clearly haunt them. They really do break them over there and it's hard to out all the pieces back together.

pandora

We should take into consideration how people follow what another does
in group situations also

few stand up for what they believe and say hell no... I'm not doing that! ...

instead they will follow the one or few doing something they know is morally wrong

kind of like the bullies and their backers

JonnyPistachio

pandora wrote:

We should take into consideration how people follow what another does
in group situations also

few stand up for what they believe and say hell no... I'm not doing that! ...

instead they will follow the one or few doing something they know is morally wrong

kind of like the bullies and their backers

That is what's even more amazing in this instance...Was there a discussion about pissing on the bodies, or did one guy whip out his tallywhacker and the others followed like sheep? I can just picture them laughing like Beavis and Butthead. So sad some people can't think for a second.

Jason P

The four soldiers should be severely reprimanded, without question.

On a side note, I noticed that many who campaign on this website against stereotyping are fine with letting the actions of four people paint an overall picture of the US military ... oh, and by the way, welcome to the club.

pandora

JonnyPistachio wrote:

pandora wrote:

We should take into consideration how people follow what another does
in group situations also

few stand up for what they believe and say hell no... I'm not doing that! ...

instead they will follow the one or few doing something they know is morally wrong

kind of like the bullies and their backers

That is what's even more amazing in this instance...Was there a discussion about pissing on the bodies, or did one guy whip out his tallywhacker and the others followed like sheep? I can just picture them laughing like Beavis and Butthead. So sad some people can't think for a second.

"tallywhacker" runs to post in fun words to say thread

JonnyPistachio

pandora wrote:

JonnyPistachio wrote:

pandora wrote:

We should take into consideration how people follow what another does
in group situations also

few stand up for what they believe and say hell no... I'm not doing that! ...

instead they will follow the one or few doing something they know is morally wrong

kind of like the bullies and their backers

That is what's even more amazing in this instance...Was there a discussion about pissing on the bodies, or did one guy whip out his tallywhacker and the others followed like sheep? I can just picture them laughing like Beavis and Butthead. So sad some people can't think for a second.

"tallywhacker" runs to post in fun words to say thread

:P

Byrnzie

Jason P wrote:

The four soldiers should be severely reprimanded, without question.

On a side note, I noticed that many who campaign on this website against stereotyping are fine with letting the actions of four people paint an overall picture of the US military ... oh, and by the way, welcome to the club.

Nobody's saying that every Marine is a twisted murderer, but on the other hand, do you think that these Marines pissing on dead bodies is the only thing the U.S military can be criticized for in Afghanistan and Iraq?

Have you not watched the Winter Soldier testimonies by veterans of these wars of occupation? Atrocities against Iraqi and Afghan civilians are routine. They are not exceptions.

eddiec

I think it's very easy to look at this episode and condemn these men. It was a stupid horrific act. But it's also very easy for people to criticize from the outside- meaning, these guys face death every day and that messes with the head. Whether the war is just or illegal makes no difference. These men are in that situation as we on this board are not. Again, I am not condoning what they did but clearly they have been mentally screwed up in some ways dealing with the stress of a wartime soldier. Maybe they are all scumbags. That may be true. Or maybe they are your buddy from high school that was a nice guy until violence altered his perception of what was right and wrong.

Jeanwah

Not sure if this was posted yet. According to Fox News, "Boys will be boys", and that's it. Check out the video.

http://digg.com/newsbar/Politics/fox_ne ... t_shoot_me

Ikaika

LTC Allen West said it best:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/all ... 16699.html

MookiesLaw

Ikaika wrote:

LTC Allen West said it best:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/all ... 16699.html

have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God,

:roll:

Somehow i don't think "God's" very concerned with what's happening in the Middle East. Perhaps the question they should be asking their God is why are they still there?

catefrances

MookiesLaw wrote:

Ikaika wrote:

LTC Allen West said it best:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/all ... 16699.html

have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God,

:roll:

Somehow i don't think "God's" very concerned with what's happening in the Middle East. Perhaps the question they should be asking their God is why are they still there?

not sure God has a position for or against peeing on dead bodies.... unless of course its some sort of weird sexual practice.

MayDay Malone

Godfather. wrote:

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

why am i not surprised?

war fucks people up.

makes them do stupid things.

i reckon when you see dead bodies everyday you kinda get desensitized to it and you have to joke around in the heavy moments.

those guys are in hell over there. they just got out of a firefight so i doubt that with the adrenaline dump they were thinking very clearly.

still, they killed the guys. i guess it was not enough so they had to piss on them as well...

i hate war.

best response I've read on this topic.

Godfather.

For once, I agree with Gimme.

War is hell. I don't care if they did piss on them. Politicians send young people, no different than you or me, to kill with their bare hands, and then judge the way they killed.

Like to see Hillary and Barack in the foxhole with the bullets flyin, see what their candy-asses are made of when they ain't sleepin at the Crown Plaza...

I say lets start pissing on the politicians.

MayDay Malone

MookiesLaw wrote:

Ikaika wrote:

LTC Allen West said it best:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/all ... 16699.html

have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God,

:roll:

Somehow i don't think "God's" very concerned with what's happening in the Middle East. Perhaps the question they should be asking their God is why are they still there?

God. Country. Corps.

In that order. It's a Marine thing.

Allen West is right: "If you have not been shot at by the Taliban, then shut the hell up."