Posted on 01/12/2012 6:01:56 PM PST by smokingfrog
Alex Lemons, a former Marine sergeant who deployed to Iraq three times – including once as scout sniper – reflects on the video of four Marines urinating on the corpses of three dead Taliban in Afghanistan:
This is all very painful to me on so many different levels. Back in 2004 one of my fellow snipers shot someone in a mosque in Fallujah. You will probably remember it getting on TV. It was very confusing. I have tried stopping things like this before or I’ve been a coward and let them happen.
In my eyes, there are several discomforting or significant things about this event:
– If you aren’t surprised and disgusted by this as a combatant, veteran or as a civilian whose country has been at war for a decade, then maybe you need to take a look in the mirror. Have you become this callous?
– I’d like to know how many tours those grunts have been on. Do we know what condition they are in mentally? Are any on medications?
– This happened a lot in Fallujah II 2004 and I have a couple explanations. There were a lot of kids who imitated things they saw or read in Vietnam War films or literature. You always look back on the last war to explain your own.
Sometimes, Marines needed to take pictures and laugh about the death swirling around them because if they took it seriously and grieved then they would not be able to function and continue the fight.
(Excerpt) Read more at battleland.blogs.time.com ...
Piss be upon him.
Our guys are being betrayed by our own government.
Our guys are being betrayed by our own government.
Perhaps a good article but I’m not enlightened by it. Seems obvious what can happen with men at war, and why. Best that our troops naintain perfect order in extreme conditions, but reality is this stuff happens.
My father cut the ears off of the gooks he killed in Vietnam, and he eventually started keeping the ears in jars. A new guy showed up to join their group, and he gave him a couple of jars so he wouldn’t feel so different from everyone else. He said they also liked to take them up in helicopters, throw them out, and shoot them as they were falling. He don’t talk much about it, but get a couple of beers in him, and every once in awhile he loosens up.
It’s war... Awful and appalling shit happens. Stuff that shouldn’t really be talked about in wide circles on the home front.
It would be nice if all the young men we send to kill men who are trying to kill them were noble warriors who honored the fallen foe.
It would also be nice if there were no war.
In the meanwhile, maybe we can settle for them not being dumb enough to make videos.
For our nation to give more than a token apology is to grovel before a people not known for their delicacy in refusing to desecrate the dead.
MAYBE THE POOR BASTARDS WERE ON FIRE!
Jackasses in charge dump remains of our soldiers in the land fill yet give a mass-murdering goat humper a “muslim approved” burial-at-sea with honors. They have the gall to condemn our soldiers for pissing on the corpses of dead terrorists when they can’t provide our fighting men a proper burial?
If I had the opportunity I would piss on the Taliban too.
2004........they get to blame Bush again.
Those Marines need a good talking to and then a 3 day pass.
The way I see it, the resident terrorists had two options with what we were going to deal them.
Option A: Our snipers and ground troops weed out the taliban, and the taliban take their medicine with little fallout to the locals.
OR
Option B: We pack a couple of B-2’s to the max with ordinance, and bomb Fallujah right off the face of the map.
All in all, I would say the residents of Fallujah got off rather lucky.
There is always a line between military discipline and the realities of war. Either left unchecked prove detrimental to the military’s overall effectiveness.
Troops pissing and defecating on corpses is a sure sign that order is breaking down. The same emotionalism that you laud in your post will manifest itself in other ways and get someone killed.
The real story here is that our troops are obviously doing too many combat tours, and yet our president has proposed cuts in military personnel. All this when it’s obvious that we need more troops with longer breaks between combat tours.
It’s Time magazine. Who cares what they print?
I’d want to piss on them while they’re alive myself.
ping
“It’s Time magazine. Who cares what they print?”
Seriously...all 10 pages of that magazine suck.
Me too...and I'm a girl.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.