Macabre Photos Disgrace German Military

Der Spiegel ^ | 2006-10-25

[cartan]

Five photos threaten to stain the German military's reputation just as the country debates its role in international security operations. The images, showing German soldiers posing with a skull near Kabul, have sparked outrage from the government and may increase public reluctance to keep troops abroad.

The photos are unmistakably crass, ranging from a shot of a skull mounted over the headlight of a jeep to a close-up of a soldier holding his penis in his left hand and the skull next to it in his right. These are just two of five photos published Wednesday by the German daily Bild, showing members of German security forces in Afghanistan desecrating human remains evidently found while on patrol near Kabul. Two other photos show the skull affixed to a metal pole—a “cable cutter”—that extends vertically like a flag mast from the jeep's front bumper. Another shows a German soldier holding the skull and grinning.

[cartan]

Germans once more proving their moral superiority to the world…

[A_perfect_lady]

What is it about Germans....??

[ansel12]

This the normal GI stuff, big deal.

[Fighting Irish]

Shhhhhhhhhh....don't tell Shakespear!

[SlowBoat407]

Just following orders?

[Caesar Soze]

a close-up of a soldier holding his penis in his left hand and the skull next to it in his right

Bush's fault. They're just emulating Skull and Bones.

[Red Badger]

Are they schocked that he was holding a skull or that he was holding his own penis?........

[patton]

Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well.

[Liberty Valance]

LOL!

[2banana]

Wonder when they are going to print a photo of a partial birth abortion...?

[bluetone006]

Oh spare me.

You go to war. Scum tries to kill you. You kill the scum. You diminish the scum as people (like calling them scum) both as a coping mechanism and because they f***ing are scum.

It's called war. Its not a game and it isn't played in a nice civilized western society. If you think you can do better then join the f*** up and show the world how civilized you are.

Interesting but I have observed that those who squeal the most about brutality are usually the most unreasonably bloodthirsty when they get backed into a corner.

[Bon mots]

What on earth is it with Germans?

[Bon mots]

Over the last 60 years or so, Germans have had a knack for being proudly photographed with skeletal remains and piles of bodies.

[Gingersnap]

I'm pretty sure that young soldiers have been playing around with enemy body parts for several thousand years. It may be tasteless but it's hardly shocking.

[evets]

Was it a red skull? Call Capt. America!

[cartan]

I agree, but it's all over the news over here. Quite amazing…

[Paradox]

No doubt, the ultra-liberal media in Germany and/or Europe will have a stroke over this event.

[Redcloak]

Alas, poor Yasim! I knew him, Horatio; a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

[Map Kernow]

American soldiers in the Pacific during WW II kept the skulls of Japanese soldiers as souvenirs. Life magazine during the war published a full-page photo of an attractive blonde posing with the skull of a Japanese soldier she had been sent as a "souvenir"---the photo was presented merely as human interest, with no condemnation of the soldier's act. A Baltimore Sun article of 1943 publicized the fact that a GI's mother had asked her son fighting in the Pacific for the ear of a Japanese soldier so that she could nail it to her front door. US marines made a speciality of collecting Japanese soldiers' ears. American generals voiced concerns in their diaries about abuse of enemy remains by US troops.

There's no reason for you to single out Germans, if gathering war trophies from enemy corpses is worthy of condemnation.

US Navy lieutenant lets Japanese skull have a smoke

[No Truce With Kings]

In 1944 Life magazine ran an article about a Marine that sent his fiancee the skull of a Japanese soldier killed in the fighting over some Pacific Island.

Big full page spread -- had the smiling girl with the skull on her desk at work. I remember that the office staff had nicknamed the skull "Tojo."

The article did not disapprove, either. It ran it as an example of the healthy overexuberance of our boys oversees fighting an inhuman enemy.