Mind-Bending Irony

To all those upset @ the picture of those Marines urinating on dead enemy corpses, they were the result of a military operation resulting in a firefight.
The toiletban & al-caca torture & decapitate live innocent victims they kidnap.
What do you think they do to any foreing "infidel" combatants they capture or kill? I can tell you w/ certainty it's a hell of a lot worse than urination on the corpses.
War is hell, but what the toiletban & al-caca have always done is terrorize innocent civilians because they know what's going to happen when they take on armed combatants such as those Marines more often than not.
Nice to see the terrorist-supporting vermin scum get a dose of humility @ the end of a stream from those they tried to kill.
If those Marines REALLY wanted to get miedieval they would've splattered the corpses w/ pig's blood, that'd REALLY send a message: No 72 virgins for you! Mission accomplished (for now) :) henry

It's ok to kill someone, but let's make sure we do it respectfully. At least Bin Laden got a decent Muslim burial.
I'll bet those dead soldiers who were urinated on are really angry now.

I see nothing wrong with the urinating photo other than WAR is H3ll!

BFD. I think that without experiencing the adrenaline overdose and shear sense of relief at surviving the firefight, none of us can understand this rather harmless gesture.

Now we have people judging 20 year-old Marines, who've just made it through another life-or-death struggle, knowing full well they may be killed in the next one, giving vent to emotions they can hardly contain?

Give these guys a break.

Rambler, well said sir, well said. The toiletbums & al-kookoo do MUCH worse "defiling" of enemy corpses & the media just looks @ it as another day in lovely Afghanistan. Hypocrisy abound & yes, WAR IS HELL :) henry

These Marines are guilty of stupidity and should have some minor punishment for disobeying protocol, nothing more.

A baseless 10+ year invasion of a country causing tens of thousands of civilian deaths, coupled with Abu-Ghraib and incidents like this, and we wonder why we're viewed so negatively by the rest of the world.

@hank: "The toiletbums & al-kookoo do MUCH worse "defiling" of enemy corpses & the media just looks @ it as another day in lovely Afghanistan."

Please grow up.

Mission creep keeps US troops in Afgh. We're foreign occupiers now, so we're objectionable whether on our best behavior or worst. Maybe the fragile Faberge egg in this picture is the American public's wish to see ourselves as great uplifters of benighted heathens.

But Afghans hate their next-door neighbor until the guy across the street starts something. Then neighbors band together against that guy, until ppl on the next street over start something, then street solidarity takes hold. Etc. Change will come from the inside.

So, let's not get carried away with our beneficence. It does lead to hypocrisy. Those Marines are us, for better (mostly) or for worse.

Well put Adonis. Once again I cite George Washington: "Beware of Foreign Entanglements"

Lets see Hillary send Chelsea to battle for a year. See what happens when you send young people to kill or be killed in a war that ultimately will have no benefit. See what happens when soldiers know that politics hamper their chances at success and survival. See what happens when you watch your friends get blown away. A little pee party never hurt nobody.

I realize, that the author of the letter, Daniel Seidenberg, US Army, Ret., is commenting more on the disparity between how we citizens weigh (war) killing against corpse-desecration, but to address the underlying issue of how our Nation is represented by our military:

The Marine Corps has three Core Values. These are Honor, Courage, and Commitment. According to 'Marines.com', "The values that define a marine."

In respect to the first of the Values, the website states, "Marines are held to the highest standards, ethically and morally. Respect for others is essential. Marines are expected to act responsibly in a manner befitting the title they’ve earned."

And, in the case that these were Army soldiers, among their Values are 'Respect' and 'Honor' (source, goarmy.com):

RESPECT - Treat people as they should be treated. In the Soldier’s Code, we pledge to “treat others with dignity and respect while expecting others to do the same.” Respect is what allows us to appreciate the best in other people. Respect is trusting that all people have done their jobs and fulfilled their duty. And self-respect is a vital ingredient with the Army value of respect, which results from knowing you have put forth your best effort. The Army is one team and each of us has something to contribute.

HONOR - Live up to Army values. The Nation’s highest military award is The Medal of Honor. This award goes to Soldiers who make honor a matter of daily living — Soldiers who develop the habit of being honorable, and solidify that habit with every value choice they make. Honor is a matter of carrying out, acting, and living the values of respect, duty, loyalty, selfless service, integrity and personal courage in everything you do.

War is Heck, that seems to be the prevailing opinion in most of the above letters. Very sad. Now, don't get me wrong, I understand the need to sanitize war, to trivialize it, especially when your country is in the business of waging war against half the planet but that is a natural reaction to war that traditionally takes root on the Home Front, not in the trenches. Soldiers cannot afford to trivialize war and though there will always be exceptions, for the most part, good soldiers take their professions quite seriously, I know my father did. I know that if my father had come upon those Marines while they were having their "moment" he would have" boxed-their-jaws" and dragged them off to their commanding officer.

I have to agree with EQUUS_P, our soldiers must hold to a higher standard, if a soldier loses the moral high-ground he cannot remain any better than his enemy and might even, by turns, become a murderer.

As an aside, when I was doing a long stretch on the Riverside County Work Farm out in Banning, California some years ago I worked my way through the regular kitchen and was finally chosen to work the "Staff Kitchen" where I prepared and served lunch and dinner to the Correctional Officers and other outside workers. The most common question other inmates used to ask me when they found out I was serving the "Cops" was: "Do you spit in their food, huh, do you?" Of course, I did not spit in their food, that would have been wrong. Some of the guys who asked me that question accepted my answer...others just didn't get it. That, I think, is the same essential difference in perspective that exists between those who think the urination incident was trivial and those who think it was wrong and it all boils down to a word that seems to be getting less-and-less use these days: INTEGRITY.

What happens to an empty shell, a dead body, is not a desecration. The desecration is the beheading of unarmed soldier and filming it. Urine, kerosene, dirt, gasoline or even what the Himalayan priests do; grind corpses to pulp for the condors to eat, is what happens not only in war, but in times of peace.
Bin L was buried at sea because he was a criminal and there is no marker to visit according to his religion.
Worse things have happened in war than dead bodies being pissed on. Living soldiers have suffered to drink their own urine and worse.
Read the Journal written by the JOINT MILITARY COLLEGE: "The Sources of Islamic Revolutionary Conduct" ISBN number 1-932946-02-0.
I don’t think that many people of the west understand how benign this incident is compared to the atrocities of these malignant’s.

Go drive a road in Iraq or stand in the steet as an obvious American. Western Union will notify your family.

@jw

"Worse things have happened in war than dead bodies being pissed on."

This is pretty much the line of logic that the original letter is following.

Regarding, "What happens to an empty shell, a dead body, is not a desecration"? That can easily be agreed *and* disagreed with--because the idea of 'desecration' is one of perception of respect/reverence. On one hand a corpse is just a collection of inanimate matter, but on the other it is (was) a vessel for a person--the house of a unique life/soul, which is now vacant. Usually, it depends on how you felt about the living person, that tends to define how you feel about their corpse.