On This Overblown Pissing/Desecration Thing
A group of Marines have created quite a row internationally for pissing on dead Taliban. Here's a news link at the BBC about it.
People up in arms (ironic, I know) about this incident just as easily ignore the two boatloads of Iranians our Navy and Coast Guard saved from Somoli pirates last week. Boatload 1. Boatload 2.
Was the "Pissing Thing" professional? No.
Was it conduct becoming of members of the United States Marine Corps? No.
But was it a war crime? No.
Do you honestly think the Taliban are going to fight harder because of it? Hell No. They're too busy trying to kill little girls for going to school.
War is hell, and we send our best and brightest to do it for us, while we remain safe here at home.
Rudyard Kipling said it best with his poem, "Tommy."
So, for those of you offended out there, you're entitled to your opinion, but wake up and see both sides of the story, not just what you've been fed.
And Gents, next time some douchenozzle whips out a camera in the combat zone, "counsel" him upside the Kevlar with a buttstroke.
Best, and Semper Fi,
John Bear Ross
USMC, 0331, 95-01
People up in arms (ironic, I know) about this incident just as easily ignore the two boatloads of Iranians our Navy and Coast Guard saved from Somoli pirates last week. Boatload 1. Boatload 2.
Was the "Pissing Thing" professional? No.
Was it conduct becoming of members of the United States Marine Corps? No.
But was it a war crime? No.
Do you honestly think the Taliban are going to fight harder because of it? Hell No. They're too busy trying to kill little girls for going to school.
War is hell, and we send our best and brightest to do it for us, while we remain safe here at home.
Rudyard Kipling said it best with his poem, "Tommy."
So, for those of you offended out there, you're entitled to your opinion, but wake up and see both sides of the story, not just what you've been fed.
And Gents, next time some douchenozzle whips out a camera in the combat zone, "counsel" him upside the Kevlar with a buttstroke.
Best, and Semper Fi,
John Bear Ross
USMC, 0331, 95-01
Comments
This isn’t a symmetrical conflict, it's a war of Civilization vs. Barbarism. We can’t ever forget which of those two concepts we represent.
Respectfully.
True.
Greywing,
Understandable. I appreciate your point.
Best,
JBR
A warcrime is bribing eight year old boys with new toys or some sweets to set up an I.E.D. Or using false colours. Or fighting in civilian dress. Or executing prisoners. Or torturing prisoners. Or forcing Afghan soldiers and police to assassinate their trainers by holding their families hostage.
Get some perspective people.
Brian
British Forces (T.A.V.R) 1998-2005.
No countries armed forces have ever been above reproach. And the Wests history of dealing with the Middle East is primarily of conquest and disdain, maybe they have a little reason to be touchy you think?
And if it was a video posted on the internet of American or British bodies being pissed on would you guys still be preaching calm?
It's hardly a war crime, but it's not something we should just try to sweep under the rug either. Especially since it IS pretty symbolic of alot of people's feelings of dealings with the Islamic world and they know it.
In responce to your point about western bodies being desecrated: yes, I would still be preaching calm. In fact, I frequently do so.
There is a huge difference between pissing on a corpse and tearing a man's balls off on video before posting that same video to the dead man's family. My point is that the label of "war crime" is thrown around too easily these days and that the reporting of such acts is one-sided. In a sense, the term war-crime is being applied by the media to any outrageous or despicable act carried out in war with complete disregard (and complete ignorance) for what is actually a war crime and what isn't.
I don't deny for one moment that urinating on the corpse of a fallen foe is both despicable and disgusting. Yet to call it a war crime only serves to increase the already justifiable outrage with which this act is being regarded throughout the Islamic world. All the more so given Islamic sensibilities with regards to the sanctity of the fallen.
While these Marines have done more for the Taliban's cause than any recruitment poster or extremist funded madraas ever will (and have therefore indirectly placed the lives of their fellow marines and other allies in danger) they have not commited a war crime. Let's keep out outrage -and our reaction to it- in proportion.
here, and if they were under my command they would lose a stripe at the very least but I wish today's generation would at least learn when braking rules don't film it!
"My issue is that the Western Press seem all to eager to report despicable acts by western forces"
Reporting abuses of power and authority is one of the primary jobs of the media. This is getting more play simply because of it's sensational nature, and outrage sells papers. Especially since we're supposed to have the moral high ground in this conflict.
"(while under pressures the media themselves cannot begin to understand)"
Ignoring of course those in the media who are ex-military. And because no one in a 24-hour-news-cycle super competitive business understands what pressure is. Like I said, they're playing to the public, and the public doesn't care that you're under pressure. They've got their own problems, and no expectations for just "a slap on the wrist" should they slip.
The military has plenty of defenders and nothing is likely to happen to the soldiers involved. Please don't try playing the martyrdom card.
"while simply ignoring (for the most part) the transgressions of non-western forces."
Now I have to ask if you've ever looked at the news. There's no end to horror stories about what the Taliban and those like them do. People get tired of hearing it though, and so it doesn't get as much coverage as it should which is a shame.
It's there never the less.
"In responce to your point about western bodies being desecrated: yes, I would still be preaching calm."
That's admirable, but rare, which is the point.
"Yet to call it a war crime only serves to increase the already justifiable outrage with which this act is being regarded throughout the Islamic world."
The extremists are doing that already without our help. A large negative reaction in the West can only help public perception in the Islamic world. Better than trying to say it's a non-issue at any rate.