12 January 2012

Afghanistan is officially finished

Today I am now 200% certain that the Afghanistan is done. It is over, finished, send the troops home, or maybe for some, off to jail. 
By now I am sure many of you, if not all of you, have at least seen the headline about some US Marines urinating on the dead bodies of some poor Afghans. 
This sort of "conduct" is beyond disgusting. It is a huge propaganda win for the Taliban and every other group, people, or country that opposes the US. 
In war you do not like your enemy, but you sure as hell had best respect that enemy. These damned fools have shown to the world that they have no respect at all for their foe. I cannot understand the sort of "leadership" that allows this to happen. Is there an NCO among these troops? If so, did he ever go to NCO school? Did the NCO or squad leader ever get any leadership training ? Do they no longer teach anything in boot camp about the UCMJ and other rules of war? Has the military gone that far down hill since my days in uniform (1968-72)?
These goddamn idiots need to be brought up on charges for this behavior. Even so, the damage is done. It is one thing to commit  so sort of outrage, but to video it is something else entirely. And of course, once they get a photo or three and some video, hat do they do? Why, they post it on the net. How else would any of us ever know that they did this "act"? We would never have known if they had not posted it on the internet. If they had done this and kept quiet, it would still be a very vile, inhuman act, but the world might never know that it happened.
No, I am NOT saying they should have kept it off the net. I AM saying they should have known that this is NOT what one does to an enemy. This is more like the very bad old days of the Mongol hoards and the Huns rampaging across the fields and hills of our distant past. I know that war is very barbaric, but this sort of "act" is not forgivable, no way, no how. 
The sad thing is, we have no way of knowing how many times an "act" like this has happened in any of the damn fool wars of choice that the US military is in.
Some will say that in war, all sorts of nasty things happen and that this one is no worse than some other "act" in some other war. That misses the point. The point is that even in war, you have to respect the enemy. You have to have certain standards, morals. 
That this happened is so sad. It shows to me that there is no real leadership in the military. At some point in these troops basic training they should have been taught that this sort of thing is a crime. They should have had a basic lecture in the UCMJ and the rules of war. 
America claims to be a "Christian" nation. And yet, we turn out troops like these goddamn assholes. Or, maybe I am just too stupid for words and this "act" is OK fine by "American Christian" standards. No matter, I just know for certain that this sort of vile behavior cannot be allowed to happen. Not only do these morons need to answer for their actions, their superiors need to be held to account also.
These damn clowns make me ashamed to have been a Marine. They make me ashamed to be an American.