Undoctrination.org

There has been quite a bit of reporting and editorializing on the subject of the video of U.S. Marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban terrorists a few days ago.  I was told that upon hearing of the incident the President was relieved to hear that it was not our Navy Corpsemen that were pee’d on.  The act itself has not intrigued me as much as the reaction to it has, and I don’t mean from the far left or the jihadis.  Their reaction is predictable and expected.  My interest has been piqued by the reaction of conservatives, libertarians, ex-military, currently-serving uniformed servicemen and pundits on the right.

Upon first hearing of the incident my initial reaction was “meh, big whoop”.  I personally thought it was a bit crude but couldn’t really criticize those brave young troops who are daily engaging an enemy with no sense of honor or humanity.  There is no doubt in my mind that the subhuman filth that were assuming room temperature in the video would have done much worse to our dead as they have shown repeatedly in the past.  So I was a bit surprised at first to hear criticism of our servicemen from the right side of the aisle.  After hearing the critics explain their positions I better understand where they are coming from.  Their concerns are that “we are better than that” and that the left and the bad guys will automatically point to this episode as further proof that we are the barbaric baby killers they claim we are.  And of course that it will serve as a recruitment tool for the Taliban and al-Qaeda and further outrage the “Arab Street”.

In my honest opinion, it really doesn’t matter.  The liberals don’t need any more proof to make up their minds that our military is made up of a bunch of uneducated Hitler Youth.   And the “Arab Street” is already 100% saturated in unhinged psycho self-righteous outrage anyway so this neither adds to nor subtracts from their hysteria.  In regards to the “we are better than that” argument, yes, perhaps we are.  However, the frustration of the young men and women of our military that have worked diligently over the past decade to provide a better life and path for the people of this region is understandable. The fact is that they are still attacked and maimed– or worse– tortured and killed by an un-uniformed, un-civilized barbaric enemy that continues to receive widespread public support in spite of all the humanitarian efforts we have made.  Peeing on corpses doesn’t “lower ourselves to their level” any more than burning Qurans would have.

Yet another side of the argument is that “this is war”.  The meaning I assume is that in a situation where hot steel is hurtling through the air constantly threatening to rip your body to shreds and possibly visiting sudden death upon you at any minute, perhaps a little well placed urine is a pretty minor thing in the big picture.  While it is hard to argue with that position, the problem is this is not a war.  From a legal standpoint it never has been.  Congress has never declared war and we have not ever stated that we are at war with a country and its people.  Our mission, as described, is to go out and round up and kill off those fanatics that would do us harm around the world.  An argument could be made that we should have declared war and waged a “total war” on the persons and the countries that harbor and support them.  But the fact remains that we never did that.  Now as far as the average Mark the Marine out there goes, he does not struggle with the concept of whether or not we are formally at war.  From his perspective there are people out there trying to kill him in the most hideous ways.  I cannot doubt that he really does not care what the status of the conflict is.

Bottom line, I can’t condemn these servicemen for their actions.  In the heat of combat with buddies killed and wounded, unfair and uncivilized tactics being used by the enemy and a confused message from our political leaders about the mission, anything they do to relieve some steam like this is no big deal.  Now there is some question whether or not any real urination took place.  A friend of mine sent me the following video and for the life of me I cannot “see the pee”.  (warning graphic content)  The only criticism that could possibly be leveled is that, just like at Abu Ghraib, the idea to bring a camera to the party was not very bright, and for that little indiscretion, unfortunately, they will be court-martialed and quite possibly face jail time.

(video provided by Darwin Teague)