video of US Marines urinating on Taliban bodies

Not everyone wants to copy us, mostly just those who are from former Western European colonies, because the values are broadly similar. Some just come for economic opportunities, however. Not defending Islamic extremists so I don't want to steer the thread down a xenophobic path, just wanted to put a little perspective on the matter. Appreciate the exchange of ideas, though.

 

FUCK THEM!

 

They are being programmed to kill (Marines & Army many) ... BUT ... they have always been trained killers and until recently, we never heard of anything like this happening (not saying it didn't, just that we didn't hear about it). That shouldn't be an excuse though. If we are training these guys to be so ruthless and such bad-ass killers, why are we letting them leave the service alive? I mean, if they are so ruthless that they have to do things like that, what are they going to do in civie life? While they are getting trained to kill, they are not trained to such a point that the animal instincts take over and the human is gone ... if we were ever to do something like that I wouldn't want to be around any of those service men because who knows when they will flip out and kill (not talking of PTSD, strictly talking about the training; not the resulting mental health issues).

I agree 100% that an improved version of the draft should be put into place. A lot of military members feel that way. The number of Army is so low that they were deploying the same members 4 and 5 times for more than 16 months at a time. My best friends husband (Air Force) was deployed 5 times for more than 12 months each time. My own ex-brother in law was deployed 4 times for more than 8 months each time. They are also reducing the amount of "R&R" time allowed. It used to be that if you're deployed for more than 12 months, you got 2 weeks R&R around your 6th month ... not happening very much anymore. There aren't enough men & women to fill the blank left during those 2 weeks they are gone.

 

exactly :smt023

 

The Taliban are not warriors, or even the military. They are terrorists. What training, what rituals? they have no code or honor - they mass murder young girls because they dare to go to school. They blow up churches, villages, schools, slaughter women who get out of line, and run a heroin trade that provides 80% of the world's supply. They kidnap and decapitate Government officials who dare to make change for the better, they blow up their country's Military brass and fellow soldiers - they aren't soldiers of their country - they are murderous cockroaches.

 

FUCK THEM

 

x 2

I found this comment elsewhere....me likes.

 

I think they should be found....

...have their weekends taken away. No partying or drinking for 7 days. And sent back to work.

 

for filming it.

 

Ghadaffi's body was also desecrated (and filmed)..by his own people, no less. No outrage from fellow leaders. Just applause.

 

I hate to say it, but the Taliban are considered a government with a military wing. Al Qaeda are terrorists. Like it or not, there is a difference. I'm not supporting their actions - I think they're definitely barbaric. As for the abuse of women - that was universal (in Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and atheist societies) until the last 200 years or so, so the Taliban hardly have the market cornered on that. Wife beating was legal in this country as well until just before the Civil War (a period that is farther along in the developmental process than present-day Afghanistan). The Taliban consider themselves a government fighting a foreign occupation, no matter how vile we consider them. Let's remember they had a prime minister, cabinet, etc until the invasion. They even attempted to negotiate handing over bin Laden to the US prior to the invasion until talks broke down.

And as for the heroin trade you rightly deplore, let's remember that the Northern Alliance was involved in this in close collaboration with the US Government (remember Ollie North and Iran/Contra?) when it suited our own ends. I'm not saying the US government is the same as the Taliban, just pointing out a few facts. It helps me avoid xenophobic rage and keeps me focused on the primary objective - ending international terrorism and the murder of innocents - that I think we can all support.

You're right. Just another extra-judicial killing. He should have been tried, and then hung, if that was the verdict. That part of the world is a joke when it comes to the judicial system.

 

I whole-hardheartedly support and agree with your last line.

As for the Northern Alliance, I recall that our Govt was in collaboration with the growers of poppy, in which they would pay them for their crops and the Govt then burned it or used it for trade other than heroin. The Taliban have since retaken hold of the land.

The Taliban are not considered a Govt, nor are they recognized as such. They are a self-imposed militant movement, a terrorist group with no ties to its people except to reign over via terror tactics. In addition, Al Qaeda publicly aligns with them 100%.
I'm not sure why you are comparing the current Taliban to historical universal abuses from over 200 years ago. If anything, the fact they unilaterally continue to uphold such dark-age barbarism exemplifies the further need to expunge them. (also too, your example of legally beating wives....it's not the same as murdering them, or little girls trying to learn their abc's).
BTW, The Taliban is led by a Mullah, an Emir...they have no PM or "real" cabinet - where did you get that from? In fact they are considered a threat to their Government.

In regards to Bin Laden, prior to our invasion they not only ignored an edict from Muslim clerics to oust him from Afghanistan, they demanded proof from our Govt that Bin Laden was even involved. Only when we began bombing them repeatedly did they "consider" negotiating (which frankly I believe was a ploy to buy B/L time to flee to Pakistan to hide).

However, in case you still feel that The Taliban "consider themselves a government fighting a foreign occupation", consider this....

So you can see why I have zero respect for the Taliban, and as such am not overtly "outraged" at these soldiers as some are. Do I think they should be reprimanded for unbecoming behavior - sure, but again, I find it ironic that people are easily ignoring the fact that they killed the men...but to pee on them? - "how dare they".

It was paraded through the streets, spat on, and in another instance, as he lay almost dead, one soldier suck his foot on his neck as they drove him through the towns people, who cheered.

 

The US/Northern Alliance collaboration goes back much farther than that. They were an active part of the CIA covert drug sales used to generate money to purchase weapons for insurgent movements that Congress would not authorize. The government did not "burn it", unless you are referring to the addicts who may have smoked it, lol. This took place throughout the 1980s during the Reagan Administration, the well-documented "Iran/Contra" scandal that saw several key government officials called before Congress for testimony. Ollie North was publicly the fall guy for it, but it was a multilateral effort.

As for the Taliban, let us remember that they are a creation of the US' erstwhile ally, Pakistan and were armed and trained by the US government as a component of their anti-Soviet efforts in the region.

My reference to the abuse of women was designed to illustrate that they are in no way unique in their abuse of women. They only stand out as an anomaly because of the times in which we live. Considering the actual developmental level of Afghanistan (approximately 1200 A.D.), they are actually not out of the ordinary. But the abuse of women and treatment of them as property is a worldwide universal phenomenon. That was my only point in raising that. I couldn't agree more with your call to expunge them, as I am sick of all these 2,000+/- year-old dogmas being fundamentally interpreted and being used as license to behave the way people did 2,000 years ago.

And on the peeing issue, my concern is that death in combat is part and parcel of the taking up of arms. However, defiling corpses fits into a much larger motif that serves to undermine our efforts at outreach to people in that part of the world. Islam has very specific concerns about the body (as does orthodox Christianity and orthodox Judaism) and these images are used to delegitimize the US, its troops, and more disturbingly, the concept of democracy in the minds of even well-meaning muslims. The propaganda line is that we are a godless, sinful, evil nation and that every thing characteristic of our way of life is 'haram' or 'unclean'. The idea that people in this country have an almost Satanic opposition to God (I'm not even a believer, but I understand the power of these concepts to deeply religious people, as much of the Islamic world is.) makes everything we are trying to foster (read: women's rights, the rule of law, democracy, despite my many disagreements on policy) appear godforsaken.

As for Libya, because of Libya's officially secular state-sponsored faux-socialism, the societies of North Africa (with the exception of Egypt) are generally far less religious than the Arab societies of the Middle East. And the uprising was not religious in character.

I am not lamenting the death of religious fundamentalist madmen, but I think that how we win the fight can be as important in some respects as winning.

Here's a great official resource on the Taliban and their functioning:
http://www.cfr.org/afghanistan/taliban-afghanistan/p10551

 

Fool, shut the fuck up. If they were black, you'd want them fools to get a Medal of Honor or some shit.

 

And what these dudes did was fucked up. I hate terrorists too, but once they're dead, just let them rot there.

 

Hopefully they're dishonorably discharged. And from what I've read desecrating a corpse is a violation of military code punishable by dishonorable discharge anyway. They probably endangered the lives of troops even further engaging in disgusting behavior like that. Not to mention making a fucking video of it for the world to see.

 

seriously?

kid rasta must be smoking some really good shit lately. White guys have died in the same mud as black guys, all in the name of our country and values. I've seen some ignorant comments before but he's taken the crown with that one.

why isnt this dude restricted yet?

not one white girl here uttered the word nigger in a post, in reference to someone black acting like an idiot. Some lines you just don't cross in this type of setting.

come on now, this is some bullshit

 

if Dre is on housre arrest, this fool needs to be exiled to the damn moon. Has he ever been banned before?

 

all i know is Dre got singled out on some dummy shit

mothafuckas around here be flamboyant with their racial terminology like no one's paying attention

if a WW here referred to a black guy as a nigger for doing something stupid, she'd be banned before the first round left the chamber.

 

Yeah, this shit is crazy and never ceases to amaze me.