Oh, I forgot--- it was America's fault.
Posted on 10/21/2005 4:34:10 PM PDT by blogblogginaway
The desecration of Taliban dead prompts outrage in Afghanistan
There simply wasn't enough room on the rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan for the U.S. platoon and the corpses of the two Taliban fighters. The Taliban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier, and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence, soldiers who were present have told TIME. Nor was the U.S. Army unit about to leave — the hilltop commanded a strategic view of the village below where other Taliban were suspected to be hiding.
Earlier, Lt. Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon leader had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused — probably because the dead fighters weren't locals but Pakistanis, surmised one U.S. army officer.
It was then that Lt. Nelson took the decision that could jeopardize his service career. "We decided to burn the bodies," one soldier recounts, "because they were bloated and they stank." News of this cremation may have remained on these scorching hills of southern Afghanistan, had the gruesome act not been recorded on film by an Australian photojournalist, Stephen Dupont. Instead, when the footage aired on Australian TV on Wednesday, it unleashed world outrage. A Pentagon spokesman described the incident as "repugnant" and said that the army was launching a criminal investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Ok, let me see if I have this straight now. Killing terrorists is ok, burning the dead bodies is not. Kind of irrational reasoning IMO. Also, I think the pentagon spokesman who said the idea was repugnant should have his butt kicked for him along with any other American politician or official that speaks against this Lt. for burning the bodies. Don't want to be burned? Don't be a terrorist, AND don't kill civilians and burn their bodies while they are hanging from a bridge.
Oh, I forgot--- it was America's fault.
How does that explain the bacon that was sizzing on Johnny Taliban?
One more thing to add. This is part of the process of getting people's minds off of the good news coming out of Iraq about the elections and so forth. Can't have people feeling good about the Iraqis starting to govern themselves can we?
Just once I'd like to see an official spokesman say, "Yeah, we burned 'em. So what? Yeah, we flushed their filthy Koran down the toilets. Screw 'em! They murdered 3000 innocent Americans!"
A man can dream. . .
Well, this is a good lesson for our soldiers. If you're going to do something like this, shoot the journalist who is embeded with you first.
LOL! ;)
Yeah .. I wish our kids would realize there are people all around them taking pictures. That's the way it should be, but I think they get wrapped up in the day to day battles and forget there is some guy lurking with a camera.
But .. where was the leadership who allowed them to do this. That guy needs to get off the battlefield.
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be offensive. I write replies like I would talk to a friend in my kitchen.
And .. here's another one with a snotty remark.
Thanks, but your comment is arrogant!!
Well .. I've seen the video of the area - and it looked to me like there were several places where they could have burried the guys, instead of burning them.
Rocky hills or not - I know what I saw.
I can imagine being there, from past experiences, and given the conditons I would dump fuel on the bodies and burn them just for simple expediency.
"Thanks, but your comment is arrogant!!"
Thanks, but your comment was stupid!!
It was not "stupid" - I saw the video of the location where the body burning took place - there were plenty of places where they could have buried the bodies.
Don't call me stupid just because you are trying to make some arrogant point like I don't know anything.
But .. our military has rules against this .. so why would the leader of the group allow them to do that ..??
We have to fight monsters .. but we don't want to turn our precious warriors into monsters too. Just because the terrorists burned our guys on the bridge in Baghdad, that doesn't make it okay for us to burn them. No matter how much we dislike them. We're there to kill and break things - not become butchers and monsters.
Regardless of whether they were scum or desrved a 21 gun salute, who says that cremation is not respectful?
What next?
"U.S. sailors desecrate body by using it for crab food!!!!"
I am still at a loss as to why the press thinks that burning terrorist corpses is a bad thing.
Of course, I still am wondering why we are not burning live terrorists...
"I love the smell of napalm in the morning!"
If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
I really do think it was done for expediency. Bloated, stinking bodies, high heat, other tactical considerations...all conspire to make it far easier to burn them than bury them. I really don't see what the big deal is, the guys were already dead and if some jerk hadn't photographed it, it never happened.
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