Marines Behaving Badly

So, my friend Matt–who was my best friend in the Marines (and is still a pretty awesome guy)–asked me for my reaction to the news that Marines were seen on video apparently urinating on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

As with all of these types of stories, my initial reaction is the same: What a bunch of dumbasses. Really, I think you have to be a special kind of stupid to think that this was ever a good idea, in any stage of the process, especially in shooting a video of it, and posting it online. Dumb dumb dumb. It’s completely counterproductive to the hearts-and-minds/counter-insurgency mission they’re working over there, and as I’ve pointed out before, the mission is having enough trouble over there with the clash of cultures and NATO troops being needlessly antagonistic toward the Afghan people (troops and civilians alike).

Beyond that? I think this is another good place to open the discussion of the effect of combat on people, especially in this prolonged (TEN YEARS!!) environment we’re in. The problem is that combat and its aftermath can negatively impact emotional and mental health to the point that people do some stupid stuff. It’s also a good starting point for the discussion of the lack of value in dehumanizing the human; I’ve argued with plenty of hawkish types who see nothing wrong with that particular tactic, from whatever depths of anger they’ve nurtured for the last decade. I’m not terribly interested in having those conversations right now, mostly because I’m burned out from work and con-planning, but also because I feel like I’ve had them too many times.

And, well, it comes back to what I said above. Dumbasses. There’s nothing about this that was a good idea, beginning to end. Anyone making excuses is just… making excuses. Traumatic stress sucks, but it’s not carte blanche to be a dumbass.

Mirrored from Bum Scoop.