It appears very much as if several soldiers recently urinated on some bodies, and video-recorded themselves doing so.
It also appears very much as if this occurred in Afghanistan, these soldiers are U.S. Marines, and the bodies are Taliban.
“It was inhuman and despicable, an unforgivable act,” said Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi. (Good to see he found some downtime to comment in between beating and raping women, locking children in boxes to suffocate, and so forth. But maybe he’s not on those teams.)
The video has been universally condemned by U.S. officials as well. This condemnation is, of course, correct. However, its degree is absurd. I think we have here an administration eager to once again prostrate and flog the United States for the world, and thankful for the opportunity to do so. Why, they even gets to flavor the whole thing with their thinly-disguised contempt for the military!
A proper response—a strong, mature response—would have been a sincere apology and an assurance of thorough investigation (followed immediately by execution of said investigation, and punishment as appropriate). The end.
(Actually I’ll put a small asterisk here—*—and say yeah, they could stop today and be leaving it at essentially that, and if they do, then I’ll respond accordingly. Not holding my breath.)
For one thing, this behavior is clearly very far out of line with how the huge majority of American soldiers conduct themselves, and our highest officials excitedly wallowing in it lends it perceived credence it doesn’t deserve. For another, we don’t know what immediately preceded this, but we do know they’re not on a nature hike over there. It doesn’t excuse the activity, but let’s please consider that a 42-second video might be robbing us significant context.
(You know, as we gaze at our iPads, sip our Starbucks, and quack about these horrendous atrocities our boys committed.)
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I just have to wonder what makes so many people today strive so very hard to commit the dumb stuff they’re doing to video. It’s like everybody wants the approval of an audience, regardless that it will be used against them later. While I don’t condone their actions, I’m also not naive enough to think they are the first (nor will they be the last) to desecrate the corpse of an enemy. Most people are just smart enough to not to make their own evidence for their later court date. Having said that, our leaders need to say something along the lines of “Hey, these guys made a mistake in judgement, we’ll deal with it” and then not throw the rest of our troops under the bus. But they won’t.
In more generic terms, this is a classic example of why I don’t like the media these days. Yes what these soldiers did is wrong. Yes I’m sure they’ll be dealt with. But why is this one little occurrence getting so much attention and being blown so out of proportion? It should be just like any other professional situation: Dealt with in a firm, strict manner in a mostly private manner. Any necessary apologies should be issued, and possibly a short, mostly ignored press release put out if there’s some bit of public necessity.
As Mirth said, this wasn’t the first time something like this happened, and probably not the last. Just b/c these guys happen to self-incriminate themselves by taking video doesn’t really warrant dragging this all out into a couple days of full on media blitz.
I had similar issue with the Casey Anthony trial… No I don’t defend her at any level. From what I know of what happened (which mind you was provided to me via the same media I’m harping on), she at the very least was a poor example of a mother and a member of society. But her character and morals is not what I’m concerned with here…
I’m wondering why this one situation got dragged into the spotlight and made such a big deal? There are thousands of horrible acts taking place nationally on a daily basis. There are plenty of horrible parents for whom whole series of novels could be written to narrate their failures at life and the destruction of others’. So what made the media grab on to this one particular story? I don’t think there really is anything in particular… they were just looking for some sort of drama (b/c that’s all news is these days… reality TV-esque drama) and just wouldn’t let go.
This is why I pretty much never watch any network news (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, etc.) and mostly stick to local news and podcasters. There’s much more integrity and honesty from media that have a smaller audience and thus more accountability in what they report, else they risk losing what little audience they have. These smaller media sources also are much more responsive and interactive with their audiences and tend to have less political ties and motives than their bigger brethren.
/rant
You both make an excellent point about there being all sorts of things that happen that we never see. (I had actually started in that direction when I was arranging the post in my head with the “nature hike” comment, but then pulled up.)