printOOPS, GI JOE’S BEEN BAD, AGAIN. Corpse desecration and other crimes against the occupied were said to be the purview of a “few bad apples” in an otherwise stellar American military. For a rarity, the body-parts pornography appears to be quite common. Naturally, every rational individual knows (NOT!) that blame lies with … the L.A. Times for exposing the latest incident of beastly behavior. All the better to deflect from the perps and the King’s comitatus that keeps them in blighted and benighted Afghanistan.
So what exactly are we talking about? Over to the LA Times:
The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification.
The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held — and others squatted beside — the corpse’s severed legs. …
As was remarked upon in “To Pee Or Not To Pee is Not the Question,” “…the truth about the people we are pissing on and pissing off in Afghanistan is quite simple. America’s indisputably brave soldiers have been ordered to, at once, woo and war against a primitive Pashtun population. These Pashtuns disdain the central government we desperately want them to obey. So it goes: We help local groups believed to be patriotic, but, at the same time, end up establishing an authoritarian protectorate they despise.”
War is primitive by nature. The French-Indian war surprised the early Puritans with how rapidly civilized Christians could drop to the level of savages. They had thought they were better than their enemy;however, I think every war we have been in has contained its share; but, there has always been good coverups. Few people read ‘real history.’ I would venture that if our schools taught the true horror of war, it would go out of fashion immediately. This year we are getting a look in the mirror.
Did Dickens invent this all – Colonel DRINKWINE and his abusive wife!
Let’s see – – gutless lying politicians who don’t have the brains or guts to leave Afghanistan — politico-flag-officers who emphasize that the military’s biggest needs are: “diversity”, “green energy”, gay rights, and Moslem outreach — an emasculated officer Corps trained more to stay out of trouble than to fight — and post-traumatic enlisted men knowing they are on their 3rd/4th/5th tour of duty in this Neanderthal Tribal Pisshole where our “friends” hate us as much as our “enemies” do! The enlisted men lack the skills to get decent jobs in the civilian sector so they are stuck in Afghaniquicksand. Then when they catch Explosive-Man-Abdul who probably was responsible for maiming/killing their best friends, they agree to pose with his corpse as part of the “suck up to the natives” outreach….
Ten years of Bush/Obama are doing the same demoralization and wreckage to the military that the ten years of LBJ/Nixon did in Vietnam. Plus ca change, c’est la meme chose.
U think this is awful? Just a preview of the Empire’s upcoming, attempted “occupation” of Iran.
Not for the first time has Mr Pauli echoed my sentiments even before I made them. Well said on his part. I’ll just add: The troops are dumb to keep letting these things get photographed, but who cares? We should worry more about the well being of the troops and not be spending time about their etiquette.