Posted on 10/22/2005 6:17:26 AM PDT by AliVeritas
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 ...
Bump
The folks at "Time" must live in a parallel world...
My world didn't give a damn if they burned some terrorists....dead or alive.
Semper Fi
I would think the rotting corpses would present a health risk as well. Burning might have been the expedient thing to do, but it certainly wasn't the best recourse from a PR standpoint.
They were either going to oxidize fast, or oxidize slow. Either way, the result would have been the same.
*Sigh* We will never stop appeasing, will we?
The folks at "Time" must live in a parallel world...
In the other dimension they are conservative.
Allowing it to be videotaped wasn't the best PR. The burning was fine.
Bump
"My world didn't give a damn if they burned some terrorists....dead or alive."
I agree.
My world didn't give a damn if they burned some terrorists....dead or alive.
After seeing what I have seen terrorists do to innocent people I am thinking the same thing. My little part of the world is not outraged a bit. I am more outraged that some journalist once again takes advantage of the situation in order to try to make our military look bad. Perhaps next time we could force the journalists to handle the proper burial of the bloated and stinking carcases.
Maybe Johnny McCain will introduce the proper body disposal legislation.
I think the UN would be the perfect institution for this job description.
Gruesome? Gruesome is having hands, arms and legs chopped off for various offenses. Gruesome ...is horrific rape and torture. This was a sanitation effort. They were already dead....and they sure didn't drag the burned corpses into the village to parade them around in celebration. These limp-wristed journalists need to grow up.
Again with the stinking Journalists and their stories mean more than us winning this war. When is the Military going to get smart and keep the Got dam stinking journalists away from the troops. Patriotism means nothing to these people they would screw their mother for a by-line or a picture with their names on it.
Nothing stinks worse than a rotting corpse of a Taliban , unless its a liberal journalist from any country.
They stink bad enough when they are alive. I cannot imagine what they would smell like when dead. They needed to be rid of one way or another and burning was the expediant way at the time. We really sorry that feelings were hurt. Screwem!
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