Posted on 01/14/2012 6:41:26 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Candidly, the story of a handful of Marines videotaping themselves urinating on dead Taliban fighters is a subject I’ve feared to broach because it is heart-breaking to think those men so lost their sense of shared humanity — if only for those minutes — as to do what they did. Rep. Allen West has given me a way to write about it, though, by saying it all better than I ever could. In an e-mail to The Weekly Standard, West wrote:
I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.
All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?
The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.
As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.
Without excusing the vulgar, distasteful, disgraceful (insert your adjective here) desecration committed by the Marines themselves, West reminds us that civilians can never fully understand the magnitude of the sacrifices they ask men and women to make on their behalf.
Words of support for the troops are needed now as always, but they’re hardly forthcoming. The Republican presidential candidates, for example, have made no statements of support for the predominantly well-behaved troops as a buttress against the effects on public opinion of the administration’s eager denouncement of the few. William Kristol highlights their silence:
Give me a break. More importantly, give our troops a break. Yes, the Marines who appear to have done what they did should be reprimanded or punished, as they would have been in the normal course of things once their deed came to light. I will even grant that some higher-ups might have felt it prudent to deplore what happened, based on realpolitik considerations of depriving our enemies of excuses to whip up sentiment against us in the region (though Im doubtful the effort to do this isnt more counterproductive than not). But the administrations reaction is over the top. And it smells of cheap self-righteousness and moral posturing from an administration that, to be honest, hasnt devoted a whole lot of time to thanking our troops for what they’ve been doing in very difficult and dangerous circumstances.
Maybe it was too much to expect senior officials to make the common sense points that 1) this incident is not something to get hysterical about, and 2) it needs to be put in the context of the admirable behavior of 99 percent of our troops 99 percent of the time. But aren’t there Republicans around who might want to make this point? I gather, for example, that there are several people running for the Republican presidential nomination. Maybe one of them could say a good word about our troops?
Those who do dare to speak up are promptly attacked for it. Big Journalism’s Dana Loesch describes the backlash she’s received for a few statements she made on her radio program yesterday to the effect that the reaction to the incident has been overblown:
This is nothing but an exercise in situational, exploitative outrage, and it completely proved the point I was making. The phrases defile and desecration popped up in my replies on Twitter every minute or so. If desecration is a concern for progressives, where was their outrage when the remains of over 200 Air Force members were dumped in a landfill? Ive seen more outrage towards our troops over this incident than I have ever seen towards the Taliban themselves whove beheaded soldiers (American and Afghan), raped and tortured women, sent out suicide bombers, and carried out horrific attacks.
The disproportionate anger on the part of progressives is fueled by their dislike of our military. That['s] what this proves. The left is attacking me so they can give the Obama administration a passunlike what they did with Bush and Abu Ghraib. Like it or not, Ill stand up for our troops no matter which president is in charge.
The situation has never called for histrionics, but it has always called for a sober recognition that the reality of war is unfathomable to those who’ve never experienced it, and it is up to us, who remain in comfort while others fight our battles, to sing the praises of those who bear with the unbearable in a brave and noble manner — and to help however we can to restore to those veterans who’ve lost it a deep, abiding conviction in the dignity and worth of the human person.
LCOL West said what most Americans are thinking -- those b@stards were trying to kill the Marines, but the Marines beat 'em to the draw. Desecration is cutting off someone's head because he is a Jew, stoning a woman because she walked down the street without a male relative, or sending a child with a bomb strapped to him into a marketplace.
Every word that the leftist media used to describe these 4 heroes should be applied to the islamists around the world -- particularly here in the US: in the media, in our armed forces, in our Congress and legislatures, and especially in the White House.
The men deserve a liberty for doing their job well, not a punishment for reacting normally.
West is introducing good judgement, perspective, and proportionality into the discussion, which so far has been lead by the weeping and gnashing of teeth in the liberal media.
Had I been there, I would have done worse to the body and I appreciate what the marines were doing. The fact that this is a lad media story for days indicates how much of a need liberals have to bash the country and raise every fart to the level of a major scandal.
lad = lead
God knows what our Soldiers have seen in their tours of duty but I'll bet peeing on corpses would be considered child's play to what they have seen Al Qaeda and the Taliban do.
Dana Loesch is a fierce defender of our troops and I'll proudly stand with her anywhere, anytime!
Beverly Perlson
The Band of Mothers
Isn’t it amazing how people who have never been in the military, let alone a combat situation are always the first to denigrate our troops? Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Leon Pannetta, etc., you should be ashamed of yourselves. If I was there, I would have covered them with pig blood.
Rep West is a voice of reason. I could care less about this incident. Let them handle it in the field, not the MSM.
couldn’t care less........dang slow computer leaves me too much time to spot my mistakes.
Thank you for posting this and God Bless You and God Bless Our Marines!!
Thanks SeekAndFind.
Thank you for posting this and God Bless You and God Bless Our Marines!!
Sgt Wuterich is the last Haditha Marine to be tried in a debacle fueled by Ex-Marine Murtha, who called our Marines cold blooded killers, for killing terrorists!! All the other Marines charged were exonerated and after 6 years and all the time and money spent prosecuting this most honorable Marine, the only charge that will probably stick is dereliction of duty!!! Disgraceful!! This was a 6 year witch hunt, as Sgt Tim says in the interview (below) with Tammy Bruce.
As this administration releases terrorists, our Soldiers continue to sit in Leavenworth. lst Lt Michael Behenna and the other cases of the Soldiers in Leavenworth should be fully reviewed by the incoming President! Some are there due to the insane “catch and release policy.” All of these cases should be reviewed by an incoming President and candidates should campaign on this issue! It is time the Presidential candidates spoke up about this abuse of our military Heroes.
I firmly believe this is an issue that can propel a Presidential candidate to the White House. There is a HUGE number of Americans in the military support community who are outraged over this issue!
Click on the link below. Tim Sumner of the 911 families, is interviewed by Tammy Bruce, regarding the prosecution of Sgt Wuterich, the last Haditha Marine on trial. His commentary is excellent and insightful!
Sgt Tim on last Haditha Marine on trial, Sgt Wuterich: “He is fighting for his life, his freedom and his honor.”
Tammy Bruce calls the Haditha trials an “obscenity”.http://tammybruce.com/2012/01/public-podcast-tim-sumner-of-911-for-a-safe-strong-america.html
C’mon Candidates, speak up!
Beverly Perlson
The Band of Mothers
www.thebandofmothers
www.defendmichael.com
RIGHT ON!
Post # 44 is a MUST READ, right along with EVERY post on this thread in support of our Military!
Make that post # 55 is a MUST READ!
Notice how the the hands of the marines are blurred? Looks like a photo alteration to me. For all we know, our Marines were standing there with folded hands in a prayer for the terrible evil souls of the Islamic terrorists!
Question remains...WHO shot the video?
Preferably in the Oval Office.
He had the same reaction I did to them.IMHO anything that helps our troops deal with the psychology of war is fine with me and who ever brought these to the masses needs to be smacked really hard.This would’ve never been a big deal in WWII.
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