Last week a video was posted on Youtube, the agent of truth-telling for those who are dim. It showed four US marines in Afghanistan urinating on the bloodied corpses of Taliban fighters. Why don't people understand that if they post their misdeeds on the internet it will likely come back to haunt them in a hurry? In this case the desecration of the corpses was labelled as deplorable by the United States government and the marines were tracked down quickly.
I too think this was despicable and hope most people would, even though these Taliban insurgents were the enemy. Rick Perry, the former Republican leadership candidate defended these marines but had won the nomination (terrible thought) he would probably have urinated on his opponents.
It is all a little perplexing though. War convinces us that it is permissable to shoot other human beings dead, we just can't pee on their bodies. As the Devil's Advocate I ask why not? If we are convinced that they are enough of an enemy to destroy them when they are alive, why do we care what happens after they are dead?
We do find ways to uphold our causes and even sanctify them, but the whole bloody enterprise is disheartening and barbaric, don't you think?
Maybe not. What do you think? What was your reaction to this pointless act of desecration?
2 comments:
"Pointless act of desicration" pretty much sums it up. It's almost like something a bunch of good ol' boys would do before Friday night football - they look like they're at a tailgate party, for crying out loud.
That said, you raise an interesting point: if they're good enough to shoot, then ... (?) I had never considered the inherent contradiction with surrounding this episode.
Wrong all around, then?
When I saw the news about this last week I was upset that in all the articles I read not one of them mentioned it was wrong to kill another human being. It was like the men were nothing in life but in death they should be treated with respect, Huh? I don't get the upset over the soldiers urinating on the corpses, why aren't people upset about their deaths??
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