All these arguments about how the Taliban and Al-Qaeda have done worse to Americans and their own people is a bunch of bull****. The enemy does not define our morality, nor our standards. Being on the righteous side of war means exactly that, we are better than all the time, not some of the time, not most of the time, all the time and that is the standard. That is the quality of Soldier, Sailor, Airman, and Marine that this nation deserves and by God the people should demand. Being right doesn't mean not committing a heinous act, then all is fair game, it means NEVER committing them. It means being that medic who will save the life of a Taliban fighter taken prisoner just after he killed the medic's buddy. That is the kind of quality and righteousness needed and should be demanded of the military. It's that attitude of respecting your enemy even when he does not respect you, for the simple reason that he's another human being and you are better than that, you have a high standard of action.
How can we claim to be the good guys when stuff like this is done? Certainly in the grand scheme of things we've done less horrible acts than our enemies, but that's not good enough, we won't be the "lesser evil" and call it good enough, we should always strive to be completely free of these kinds of acts. Of course it will be impossible, of course mistakes will be made, Soldiers will act in ways they should not, of course there will be situations where someone has to die in a horrible and it will be unavoidable, but that doesn't mean we should give up on that standard.
The Uniformed Code of Justice, Article 134 reads as follows:
Quite clearly this action on the part of these Marines brings discredit upon the armed forces, it is a clear violation of our standards and discipline.
And your argument is exactly why we are still in Afghanistan. Instead of going over there, taking it to the enemy, we are sitting back claiming the moral high road. War is immoral. That's why no one likes to do it. I don't like killing people, I don't like seeing kids dead because some terrorist decided to run in a random house and I called an airstrike in on it. That's what happens in a war though. When you sit back in Washington and put expectations upon our guys that aren't realistic, we end up being in theater for going on 11 years. We need to take the kid gloves off and take it to them. We need to stop caring what Karzai, Pakistan, and especially the Taliban care about us. If Karzai and Pakistan cared about getting rid of these terrorists, they'd have done it already. That's why we will never win that war, and why I think we should just leave. Screw an enemy laying on the ground bleeding out. I'd rather save my field dressing, Quikclot, and tourniquet for someone I actually care about, not some dirtbag that just tried to kill me or killed one of my buddies. Instead, we take care of him, he goes to "prison" for a couple of weeks, and there he is again, shooting at me. Do I think its right they pissed on those guys? No. Do I care, NO. At most they should get a Company NJP and leave it at that.
There is a difference between taking it to the enemy and literally pissing on them. The act these Marines committed has nothing to do with being tough on the enemy. Yes war is immoral, innocent people will inevitably die, tragedy will happen, children will be killed as you point out. However there is a difference between leveling a house a terrorist is shooting at you from, and killing a child inside that building, and pissing on the bodies of the dead. Defeating the enemy is part of the mission, pissing on their bodies does not help that mission. Part of the mission is convincing the citizens of that country not to take up arms against us, pissing on them is not part of it. If you destroy a building and inadvertently kill a child, you didn't destroy the building to kill the child you did it to defeat the enemy inside, to save the lives of your comrades who were under fire. What does pissing on a body accomplish? It has no positive affect on you, only negative consequences can follow. THAT is the critical difference you need to realize.
You may not agree with the mission or its parameters, but its your duty to follow it through to the up-most of your abilities. Its not your place to decide what the mission is or what it should be. You are not the decision maker for that kind of decision, you are given your parameters you are given your resources and you are given your mission and you execute it within those parameters.
Now when you do something that involves the entire executive branch of government, when the President, SecDef, SecState, ambassadors, etc. You better have done something like won a Medal of Honor to justify individual attention at that high of a level. And regarding Article 134, if you do something that wastes all these people's time, that wastes your command's time dealing with your bull****, it takes time away from your buddies who need their attention for more positive reasons. Tell me what would you rather have your leadership doing, worrying that you have the resources you need to accomplish your mission safety, or worrying about what is going to happen because you decided to piss on a corpse? Or if these Marines are taken out the fight by higher command to stand trial by court martial, is that really worth whatever you accomplished by pissing on some bodies now that your unit is weaker for your comrades loss? No, NJP is completely out of the question.
You can argue all you want that "Well thats not how it should be" but fact is, that's
how it is. You can argue that all day, but it won't change what will obviously happen when you commit an act like this and you should know the kind of consequences that will come from it. You're still going to get busted, your mission will be damaged, your unit will be weaker, and it won't matter a damn how right you think you are, that's whats going to happen to your buddies. And not only will you hurt your mission, but you'll hurt the mission of the entire threatre and make it that much harder for people you've never met but are still your battle buddies to accomplish their mission. You must accept that as the reality.
WIth the threads merged, be aware that multiple people have been infracted and/or thread banned. No personal attacks, no offtopic comments, keep it civil.
