That wasn’t the theory being espoused by Tea Party wingnut Dana Loesch, who on her Thursday show embarrassed herself, Marines, not to mention CNN. From Politico’s Dylan Byers, who now has the job Ben Smith used to do:
“Now we have a bunch of progressives that are talking smack about our military because there were marines caught urinating on corpses, Taliban corpses,” Loesch said during her radio program on FM News Talk 97.1. “Can someone explain to me if there’s supposed to be a scandal that someone pees on the corpse of a Taliban fighter? Someone who, as part of an organization, murdered over 3,000 Americans? I’d drop trou and do it too. That’s me though. I want a million cool points for these guys. Is that harsh to say? Come on people, this is a war. What do people think this is?”
CNN must be so proud. They hired Loesch to do Tea Party “analysis” and she’s seen continually on that channel, giving a bad name to anyone who dissects the political battlefield.
In an interview with Chuck Todd on Friday, Gen. Barry McCaffrey said the four Marines who disgraced their uniform and this country were young kids.
If that’s the case, though it’s not been corroborated, you have to ask if recruiting standards, which were lowered in the last few years out of desperation, had anything to do with this incident.
It’s not Abu Ghraib, and these guys don’t represent Marines (my brother is one), but with Iraq torture as a backdrop it still says a lot.
Isn’t it just another form of water boarding. Cheney said water boarding was just “ a dunk in the water. “ This would just be a splash of the golden shower while dead.
War engenders this type of hatred, and we’ve been at it for a long time in Afghanistan. No adult in America should be shocked by this.
OTOH, we can’t condone it, either. It’s been ten years now, and we’ve killed a whole lot of Taliban since then, not to mention quite a few innocent people. We’re anything but innocent victims here.
That’s what I find objectionable about Dana Loesch’s comments.
I’ve expounded on this a bit more at my place.
This is completely unacceptable bahavior. They should have been pissed on and then killed.
Killing them is ok, but , now, urinating, that is a serious offense.
It’s sadly amusing that some of us over here in safe places have the gall to judge these young men and women over there. This should be a non-issue. War is not a ladies and gentlemen’s game. It’s ugly. and the stuff that happens over there is ugly. Quit trying to make something civilized out of something that is uncivilized and barbaric.
In order to do what they do over there,(as in staying alive, and watching their friends get killed) they need to be tough, heartless and mean.
“It’s sadly amusing that some of us over here in safe places have the gall to judge these young men and women over there. This should be a non-issue. War is not a ladies and gentlemen’s game. It’s ugly. and the stuff that happens over there is ugly. Quit trying to make something civilized out of something that is uncivilized and barbaric.”
You could not be possible more wrong cjoblak. Each branch of the military upholds core values. Each military member is answerable to the UCMJ. The US is answerable to the Geneva Accords.
What that sniper team did was cover the USMC in opprobrium and shame; they dishonored the Corps. Marines are supposed to uphold and reflect the core values of Honor, Courage, and Commitment. The Helmand sniper team did nothing of the sort.
Marines are supposed to be professionals, more than that they are supposed to be the very tip of the spear, the elite of the military, warriors par excellence. What they became were street thugs– just like the Taliban. There is no excuse for what they did, no reasoning away. The chain of command is going to do a tap dance on their heads, and they have earned it.
http://wiskeytangofoxtrotoscar.blogspot.com/2012/01/helmand-incident.html
Those five Marines will be held accountable for their actions. Brother, are they going to be held accountable. But they are only the tip of an ice burg. Our endless war against terrorism is corrupting and corroding our military. From the black site prisons run by the Air Force, to the farce that is Guantanamo Bay, run by the Navy, and beyond to the shadow drone war fought in too may places to enumerate, we are tasking our military with ever more dirty deeds. Is it any surprise that when the mission boils down to “act like Visigoths on the rampage” that our military acts like, well, Visigoths on the rampage?
More at : http://wiskeytangofoxtrotoscar.blogspot.com/2012/01/helmand-incident.html
Like Allen West says, “if you haven’t been shot at by the Taliban, SHUT YOUR MOUTH! WAR IS HELL!
I’ve served, have you?
Without good order an discipline the military is nothing more than a gang with really cool weapons. To swear an oath to the nation is accept the rules and regulations that come with military service. Those rules are in effect when a servicemember is at war or peace; swabbing a deck or engaging in a fire fight. They are not optional, they are not conditional, they are what is expected of every man or woman who puts on the uniform of the military services. To fail to uphold those rules, to ignore or flout them, is to dishonor the oath that man or woman made. It is to dishonor the branch of service that man or woman is in. It is to dishonor the nation that man or woman belongs to.
War is hell. It is a very special hell that we have made on this earth. Because modern war is so brutal, we have laid down rules to make it a little less savage. To be a civilized people and a civilized nation is to follow these rules. To not follow these rules is to be a bunch of barbarians; to be no better than a group of feral savages. It is to ape those nihilist scum who call themselves the Taliban.
If you are OK with our Marines desecrated the Taliban dead, then you are OK with the Taliban doing the same to our Marines. Chew on that thought for a while if the last two paragraphs failed to sink in. Sauce for the gander Mr. Arm Chair General.
You’re so self-righteous, you make me want to vomit.