By now you've probably seen the video of U.S. Marines urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan. (In case you missed it, we embedded it below.) It's unclear whether the corpses were Taliban or "collateral damage," but Defense Department spokesman Capt. John Kirby says, "Whoever it is, and whatever the circumstances — which we know is under investigation — it is egregious, disgusting behavior." Yeah, this kind of thing isn't exactly ideal for winning hearts and minds, but on the plus side, it's making John McCain feel bad.
"It makes me so sad," McCain, a Navy veteran held prisoner during the Vietnam War, said on “CBS This Morning" today. "The United States Marine Corps, I would argue, is one of the finest institutions in the history of this nation, and here is a handful of obviously undisciplined young people—and of the hundred and some thousand Marines that we have and it makes me so sad. And there should be a complete investigation and those young people should be punished but it does great damage. It is so saddening to me."
The person who first posted the video to YouTube Tuesday identified the men as an elite sniper team from the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. "A video recently posted on a public Web site appears to show U.S. military personnel committing an inappropriate act with enemy corpses,” NATO said in a statement. "This disrespectful act is inexplicable and not in keeping with the high moral standards we expect of coalition forces."
In response to the video, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said, "The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video that shows American soldiers desecrating dead bodies of three Afghans... We expressly ask the US government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime." The Taliban, however, seems to be taking a "what else is new?" approach. "This is not the first time we see such brutality,” Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid said, according to the Times. "We know that our country is occupied."
In the scheme of things, is this desecration all that shocking when compared to all the other innumerable war atrocities committed throughout human history? (Water cure, anyone?) But in the annals of Stupid Things Soldiers Do And Document, this is definitely up there. America, Fuck No Please Stop Doing And Videotaping Things Like This.
