What War Does.

New York Times 1/12/12

“Video Inflames a Delicate Moment for U.S. in Afghanistan”

During a critical time as America seeks to begin a dialogue with representatives of the Taliban, a video surfaced showing four United States Marines urinating on several Taliban corpses.  Members of the Karzai government and of the Taliban quickly condemned the video.  The U.S. also condemned the activity and has identified the Marines involved, now stateside.  The Geneva Convention calls upon signatory states to treat the bodies of the fallen “honorably”, and many view this as a violation. 

One notion of this story that is frustrating rests on the notion that four Marines denigrated the service of thousands of Americans – maintaining honor and integrity on the battlefield regardless of brothers and sisters lost or multiple deployments.  That being said, this aspect of war, its ugly underbelly, must be considered prior to our next deployment of forces.  Stories like this one (and others certainly exist) represent the apprehension felt by those of us opposed to the invasion in Iraq.  These same apprehensions were glossed over by an administration and media hell bent to see the exciting parts of war.  “The oil will pay for this thing… we’ll be out in no time… they’ll greet us as liberators…”.  All of the hubris leading up to our decade of war failed to foresee war-weary young Marines losing their humanity, the traumatized vet wreaking havoc on Mt. Rainier, and an economy unable to provide the jobs for a group to whom we owe so much.  There is very little good that might come from such stories, let us ensure that an informed, comprehensive debate leading up to our next ground deployment be that benefit.

Another infuriating angle of this story involves AM Talk Radio coverage of this incident.  Often one must conduct a bit of counter intelligence to hear what the opposition is arguing.  Many on the AM side of the band predictably defended the actions of the Marines – creating jokes around the incident or draping themselves with the flag behind the claim that none of us can understand the stress.  As mentioned previously, this argument simply denigrates the service of those who’ve avoided desecrating bodies during deployments.  I do not expect this group of pundits to see this peripheral argument, and know connecting dots isn’t high on their agenda.  Even more galling were the angry rants as to how the NCO’s could allow this to be filmed and as to how someone could actually post it online!  Forget about the actual act of urinating on the dead – how could they film it and who would tell?!  It saddens me to see that we must still fight to be the good guys – in a country who was instrumental in the creation of the Geneva Convention we now must fight for its legitimacy.  In an attempt to gain understanding regarding conduct in uniform, it is appropriate to listen to one who has actually worn one.  The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, tells us that “Actions like those are not only illegal but are contrary to the values of a professional military and serve to erode the reputation of our joint force”.