I imagine there's nobody in the whole world with access to media who doesn't know about the latest outrage perpetrated by US troops, in this case Marines, in one of our endless Middle East wars. Afghanistan. Desecration of the bodies of dead enemies. Four marines pissing on the dead bodies of three Taliban fighters. It's all on video, which if you're interested, can be found on YouTube. The video, placed on YouTube by another marine with the handle "semperfiLoneVoice,"--good for you and Good bless you, man--Tuesday, went viral Wednesday afternoon. (see this story) Official US government spokespeople, including the secretaries of state and defense, have publicly deplored the incident. Afghans and other Muslim nations are outraged, of course, and ever more convinced that the US military are vile, infidel occupiers, not the friends we profess to be. Two of the sadistic blockheads that did this have been identified. And I'm sure they'll run the other two down. And while they're at it, they need to get the guy who videoed the whole disgusting scene.
Listen, these guys are not the whole Marine Corps, but they and the miscellaneous sadists, outright killers, and other psychos that have been caught for crimes against innocent civilians and prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. are representative of the inevitable consequences of war. Unfortunately, they probably represent a goodly number of their comrades. Why? Because saturated in an environment of violence and hatred, people readily shred their humanity. Above all else, war brutalizes people, it gives free rein to the basest impulses of humankind, it robs human beings of their capacity for rational thought. I was about to say it turns them into animals. In fact, animals seem more circumspect than people whose humanity has been distorted out of all recognition by the mindless violence and destruction of war.
So what's the upshot of all this? Yet another demonstration of how callous and cruel a country we've become. These guys might as well have pissed all over this country, because that's the upshot of what they've done in the eyes of the world. The guilty will be punished probably, not as severely as their gross crime deserves, but the memory of what they did and what they represent won't be going away.
Update I: The response of many people to this outrage is almost as outrageous. And really, really disgusting as well as scary. Check this out--read the comments. What a country we live in!
4 comments:
great article on this at the ny times online today.
one of the things that so pisses me about all this is the knee-jerk use of 'our heroes' about the soldiers fighting over there. sure, some are heroic, but heroism isn't built into the job---you're trained to kill people and despise them enough to make that okay, and you're placed in a context of horror that can bring out all your own hatred and vengeance. and in a context that rewards your violence. how many of us might act this way in such circumstances? i'd love to beleive myself incapable of it, but i'm not sure i am. just as i'd love to think i was capable of the heroism of other soldiers, but again, who knows?
and all those patriotic citizens who think pissing on corpses is cool....imagine their response to american corpses getting pissed on by 'the enemy.'
damn, i should never post anything without rereading it! i just reread my 2nd sentence. pretend i wrote 'one of the things that so angers me....'
War is hell. If you can't stand the atrocities, get out of the slaughterhouse.
The most appalling aspect of the whole thing is the callous and cruel approval most people give this atrocity. That's even more sickening than the crime.
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