Posted on 10/21/2005 4:34:10 PM PDT by blogblogginaway
The desecration of Taliban dead prompts outrage in Afghanistan
There simply wasn't enough room on the rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan for the U.S. platoon and the corpses of the two Taliban fighters. The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier, and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence, soldiers who were present have told TIME. Nor was the U.S. Army unit about to leave — the hilltop commanded a strategic view of the village below where other Taliban were suspected to be hiding.
Earlier, Lt. Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon leader had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused — probably because the dead fighters weren't locals but Pakistanis, surmised one U.S. army officer.
It was then that Lt. Nelson took the decision that could jeopardize his service career. "We decided to burn the bodies," one soldier recounts, "because they were bloated and they stank." News of this cremation may have remained on these scorching hills of southern Afghanistan, had the gruesome act not been recorded on film by an Australian photojournalist, Stephen Dupont. Instead, when the footage aired on Australian TV on Wednesday, it unleashed world outrage. A Pentagon spokesman described the incident as "repugnant" and said that the army was launching a criminal investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Come on, if stench was truly a factor they would be burning arabs alive over there.
I'm sure their eternal souls are burning hotter than their bodies did.
Guess they couldn't find a dead pig to bury the bodies with, eh?
(Worked for the British against Islamic rebels in the 19th century...)
I'm thumbing through my copy of the Geneva Convettions and...nope, don't see the signature of anyone representing the Taliban, or Talibanistan, or, for that matter, Al-Quaedastan.
LOL!!
Lefties are wailing like banshees about this.
What I think about that, would get me banned.
Not that im defending the people involved but what were they supposed to do with bodies nobody wanted?
An old football will due in a pinch.
Uh, what happened to "An eye for an eye"? Isn't that in the Q'uran as well?????
To hell with Mooslems and what they think. Let them riot and kill each other.
But .. why didn't they just bury them ..?? After all, if the bodies were stinking already .. it wasn't going to smell better when they were burning.
I just don't understand why burn them .. why not just bury them ..??
Worldwide outrage?? Give me a break! How many times have I seen old footage of Japanese soldiers and concentration camp victims being buried with bulldozers? Why didn't the "outraged" muslims claim the bodies of these dead "freedom fighters"??
Rocky hilly terrain makes for hard digging of graves. Plus bloated bodies tend to....explode.
Yeah, why not set up a fund for the funerals of the dead terrorists and bury them with full military honors?
I sincerely hope that this doesn't hurt this Lt's career. I completely fail to be outraged at any of this. What they did was eminently practical and useful in the situation and if it hurts some enemy feelings... well... too bad.
Please, no! We wouldn't want the Muslims to get mad at us as well as hate us, would we?
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