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Regarding Marines In Video, Some Context, Please!




How about a little context here! The video of Marine snipers urinating on Taliban corpses has gone viral on the Internet. I have yet to see, either on the Internet or the MSM, what the late Paul Harvey called “the rest of the story.”

Regarding urinating on corpses: dumb, yes; shocking, no. But what do you expect from Marines thrown into a “life-or-death” situation? Marines are trained to kill. Having killed no one, I can only imagine the relief the Marines must have felt to still be alive. (In the interest of full disclosure, I was NOT a Marine. I chose the Army, and stayed in almost 22 years. I have NEVER been shot at.) But, during Desert Shield/Desert Storm, I, and a platoon of men, went behind a building to urinate. We later were informed that the building was a mosque. Did we mean any disrespect? No. Can what we did be compared to what the Marines in the video did? No, because the building was not trying to kill us. So, when viewing the video, do so in the context that these Marines were in harms way, that the corpses they urinated on were, a few minutes before the video was shot, trying to kill them. Bad things happen in war. When men come under extreme fire, or see their best friend die, anger and hatred flow freely. Enemies are dehumanised. Contempt for the other is a battlefield weapon. Young soldiers – and nearly 40 percent of the US Marine Corps are below the age of 22 – are prone to callow, as well as gallows, humor. Some of them do stupid things.

Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, said that she condemns the “deplorable behavior” depicted in a video that appears to show US Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters, and that the actions were “inconsistent with American values.” Leon Panetta, Secretary of Defense, said that such behavior is “entirely inappropriate for members of the United States military” and that those responsible will be held accountable. Further, he phoned Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai Thursday and promised full investigation. President Barack Hussein Obama “shares in the sentiments expressed by Secretary Panetta,” the White House has said. A Marine general promised an internal probe as well as a criminal one. Karzai called it “completely inhumane.” The Afghan Defense Ministry called it “shocking.” And the Taliban issued a statement accusing US forces of committing numerous “indignities” against the Afghan people. Whatever happened to “keeping faith with the troops?” I guess that politics trumps the miliary. Besides why are we concerned with what the Taliban thinks?

As Norman Pattis says, “Odds are the young men in this film will be strung up by military authorities. They will be treated like political road kill. Expect them to stuck in a military brig right next to Bradley Manning, and to be presumed guilty by the commanders who told them to run headlong into the arms of death. We will sacrifice them to make ourselves feel better.”

In the FWIW department, Rick Perry, governor of Texas and presidential candidate, defended the Marines when he appeared on CNN’s State Of The Union. He said, “Well, obviously, 18, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that’s what’s occurred here.” He continued, “What’s really disturbing to me is the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military, it appears. Whether it’s the Secretary of State or whether it’s the Secretary of Defense. I mean, these kids made a mistake. There’s not any doubt about it – should’t have done it. It’s bad – but to call it a criminal act, I think, is over-the-top.”

But that’s just my opinion.

Access to other articles like this one can be found at RWNO, my personal web site.

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