Think before you you tube

[KARL THE GRUNT]

Some Marines were dumb enough to post a you tube of them pissing on a dead taliban..this sort of thing embarrass the Corps and the Gunny will not like it.

karl

[ClutterbusterNY]

Good advice Karl. That's not the way the Corps treat the dead...anyone's dead!
A few years back, a Marine got in trouble for tossing a small animal (can't remember whether it as a kitten or a puppy) off a cliff. His friends taped it and put it on YouTube. It got lots of hits, and his career was in the toilet.

[KARL THE GRUNT]

Don't misunderstand the gunny won't give a rats rear that it was done.
What will annoy him or her is that they were dumb enough to post it.

For a young grunt killing is not all that easy..you have to think that the foe is a swine and deserves it...it is not easy for the young ones to switch that off, especially if some of your mates were killed or hurt. The Gunny knows that.

After a while it becomes "another day at the office" and a sort of professional respect develops.

The kids tend to put everything on the net today..thank God we did not have it.

Tossing a kitten of a cliff..that is beyond the pale..too bad they closed Portsmouth.

Karl

[ClutterbusterNY]

The thing that makes me angry is that this is an embarrassment to our country and creates even more hatred toward the USA. Just like the Abu Garib photos, this puts our boots on the ground in even more danger and makes it easier for the Taliban and A-Q to recruit even more nuts as suicide bombers!

[KARL THE GRUNT]

As far as that goes **&& hate us anyway.

I know it wont happen, yet.

But the thing to do is unleash the Corps ...use Iwo Jima ROE's kill every thing that moves..fight to win or declare peace and come home.

The pols or either party won't play that way as it upsets too many apple carts..

Back in 02 or 03, I read a report from Afghanistan.
Seems that some Northern Alliance types were tossing wounded taliban under a tank to save ammo. Well, the British and Americans were horrified and made them stop...what stuck in my mind was what one old NA guy said: You don't understand us..these are the taliban..the foe..if we don't
kill them now..in 5 years they will be killing us.

Seems the old fella was right.
Now the damn Sec of Defense is involved...dam it this should have been a problem that never got past the Gunny or Top.

Karl

[Vulture6]

Got me to thinking...


45 some odd years ago, we had Marines and Soldiers collecting ears and fingers from enemy corpses - or worse.

65 to 70 some odd years ago, we had Marines and Soldiers prying out gold teeth, cutting off ears, noses, fingers and the like.

2000 years ago legionaires would crucify enemy combatants, drag their bodies behind their chariots, or place their heads on pikes.

And let's not comment on what the enemy do to American corpses if they fall into their hands...

Combat tends to desensitize the combatant, and dehumanizes the enemy. That, as unfortunate as it may sound, is essential to combat, even in this day and age. If we don't inculcate "hate" into the equation - hate of the enemy that we are sent to kill, then combat - rather than transforming into a sanitized necessity - can quickly become sociopathic. Treat your enemy with respect, right before... and right after you kill, wound, or maim him and destroy his home. Shit like this is going to happen - that's part of the price that society has to bear when it elects to send its citizens off to war. The unfortunate fact is that it is so easily broadcast - and that our enemies are so much better at fighting (and winning) the propaganda and information wars that go along with this current conflict.

The difference, in my opinion, is that most of those types of "atrocities" weren't broadcast to those protected folks safe back home.

Should be, these men (and their direct supervisors) should be quietly reprimanded. Unfortunately, that is no longer an option.




Of course, we also need to factor into the equation the recent discovery of how U.S. servicemembers' remains were being (mis)handled at Dover.