Gee, why do these Afghans, Iraqis, etc. dislike us so much? Could it be our endless occupation of their countries? How about our rendition and torture of mostly innocent people who apparently have no right to ever be seen again? Or our covert wars and targeted assassination programs? Or how about the fact that we have likely killed over 100,000 civilians since the beginning of the Afghan and Iraq Wars? OR perhaps it’s our jaw-dropping hypocrisy when pointing the finger at “hostile” nations like Iran while we blow up their military bases and kill nuclear scientists?
Nah, they just hate us for our freedom and because they want to spread a global Islamic Caliphate and wipe Israel off the map!! Well, at least according to the NYT, WaPo, Fox News and our fearless leaders, ie. Foreign Policy for Dummies.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai and US defence secretary Leon Panetta have led a chorus of condemnation of American soldiers filmed urinating on the bodies of dead Afghans as “inhumane” and “utterly deplorable”.
The Pentagon said it is attempting to identify the soldiers responsible for the latest in a series of abuses by US forces which is likely to further inflame hostility to Nato troops in Afghanistan and reinforce the perception that there is an institutional problem in the American military.
Panetta said he had viewed the graphic video of four US marines urinating on three bloodied corpses. As they are filmed by a fifth soldier, the marines sigh with relief, laugh and make comments including “have a great day, buddy” and “golden, like a shower”.
“I have seen the footage, and I find the behaviour depicted in it utterly deplorable,” said Panetta. “Those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent.”
The soldiers in the undated video, which was posted anonymously on the web, appear to be members of Scout Sniper Team 4, a US marine unit based in North Carolina that served in Afghanistan as recently as last year…
Oh, I know, it’s just a few bad apples, right? Just like this was? Or this? And this?
No, the problem is that the apple is rotten to the core- this sort of mentality is created by perpetual war with troops spread waaaaaay too thin and the dehumanization of the people we are killing and whose land we occupy. Thus, we are ALL responsible for this.
US FoPo & the Middle East 
January 12, 2012 at 2:54 pm
Hearts and minds baby!
Hey, when the US does something, it’s ok but when an evil nation like Iran or Syria does the same thing, well, it’s a terrible injustice that justifies us bombing and overthrowing their leaders!
Watch out Iran, you’re next on our hit list.
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/12/iran_and_the_terrorism_game/
Did you see the State Dept’s hysterical statement about the latest murder of the Iranian scientist? They “deplore the loss of innocent life” but when asked if the US would categorically deny killing the guy they demurred. In other words, the operative words are “innocent life” and thus the Obama admin. can issue a statement saying they deplore when such life is extinguished while secretly engaging in these assassinations (with Israel) under the grounds that these people aren’t “innocent.”
Talk about pathetic.
If there is a hell, every last person in the Obama admin should go there for these lies, war crimes and obfuscations.
January 12, 2012 at 3:34 pm
Their families must be so proud.
Stacy is right. This is the mentality of some (many?) after over a decade of totally unecessary war. The War on Terror is nothing more than a new fear tactic to bolster the defense industry. We are creating more enemies with each passing day. We are making ourselves LESS safe, which in turn will be used to justify continuing the endless wars and on and on.
January 12, 2012 at 3:40 pm
The behavior is deplorable of course but I wonder if the video was posted by someone who wouldn’t mind disrupting whatever fledgling peace process we have going with the Taliban.
January 13, 2012 at 1:08 pm
Could be. But who took the video? It seems more likely that a soldier or civilian videotaped it- who knows, maybe the soldiers in the video had it videotaped for posterity like the idiots at Abu Ghraib who took photos of themselves abusing prisoners.
As an aside It’s interesting we have a peace process going on with Taliban so-called “terrorists” who are killing American servicemen and women but we can’t talk to Hamas. I guess Israeli Jewish life is more valuable than American or Afghan lives? I don’t hear the foreign policy hawks screaming about how “we can’t talk to those murderers!” with respect to the Taliban.