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Macabre Photos Disgrace German Military
Der Spiegel ^ | 2006-10-25

Posted on 10/25/2006 11:39:15 AM PDT by cartan

Five photos threaten to stain the German military's reputation just as the country debates its role in international security operations. The images, showing German soldiers posing with a skull near Kabul, have sparked outrage from the government and may increase public reluctance to keep troops abroad.

The photos are unmistakably crass, ranging from a shot of a skull mounted over the headlight of a jeep to a close-up of a soldier holding his penis in his left hand and the skull next to it in his right. These are just two of five photos published Wednesday by the German daily Bild, showing members of German security forces in Afghanistan desecrating human remains evidently found while on patrol near Kabul. Two other photos show the skull affixed to a metal pole—a “cable cutter”—that extends vertically like a flag mast from the jeep's front bumper. Another shows a German soldier holding the skull and grinning.

(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Germany; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan
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To: No Truce With Kings

It was definately a different time back then.


21 posted on 10/25/2006 12:01:58 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: cartan

If they were French soldiers, they would have surrendered to the skull.


22 posted on 10/25/2006 12:04:14 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: cartan

Folks, this is what liberals do. Some soldiers took some wacky photos, so the liberals say the nation's entire foreign policy should be called into question. Huh??? What the hell does one even remotely have to do with the other? If you need to punish some soldiers for a photo, go ahead. You don't abandon your foreign policy commitments.


23 posted on 10/25/2006 12:07:54 PM PDT by Williams
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To: ozzymandus; All

Being from balkans, and knowing what SS troops did to my people and rest of Europe, im not surprissed what I saw on that photo from Afghanistan.

Never liked Germans never will.


24 posted on 10/25/2006 12:09:11 PM PDT by kronos77 (www.savekosovo.org and www.kosovo.net Save Kosovo from Islam!)
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To: Map Kernow

Some folks are racist ... It's just that simple.

Some racists hate XXXXXXXX (insulting word fo people with dark skin)

Some racists hate XXXXXXXX (insulting word for descendants of Abraham)

Some racists hate XXXXXXXX (insulting word for people of Teutonic ancestry)

etc...


25 posted on 10/25/2006 12:09:17 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilisation is aborting, buggering, and contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: cartan

Is this the same media that show snipers killing "LIVE" US soldiers?


26 posted on 10/25/2006 12:11:07 PM PDT by LZ_Bayonet
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To: dfwgator
No, humans were the same then we just weren't listening to the leftists. My reaction to the reaction to the German photos was "Grow Up". They send young men far away to kill or be killed but then want to be outraged over a guy holding his penis and a skull. Big deal. If there is a punishment give it out. The left is trying to use this to get Germany out of the war on terror.

I say we need a few more troops who want to show off a skull, and a few less mindless leftists who will get millions of innocent people killed. Our troops did nothing wrong in WWII on this, either.

27 posted on 10/25/2006 12:12:12 PM PDT by Williams
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To: cartan

I'm cool with it, just as long as they didn't put panties on the skull.


28 posted on 10/25/2006 12:13:54 PM PDT by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: Fighting Irish

29 posted on 10/25/2006 12:14:40 PM PDT by Salamander (And don't forget my Dog; fixed and consequent.......)
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To: kronos77

I am proud of my German ancestry.


30 posted on 10/25/2006 12:15:16 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: kronos77
Troops from anywhere, in the thick of killing and being shot at, are going to dispense with Sunday School niceties. I remember that when we were being blown up in Lebanon, one of the groups tried kidnapping a Soviet. The Soviets got the terror leader, cut off his penis and sent it back to the group. They never messed with the Soviets again.

I hear soldiers swear and drink, too, and they have been known to go with prostitutes. It's a war they are killing and being killed.

31 posted on 10/25/2006 12:16:12 PM PDT by Williams
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To: Joe 6-pack

Or handle a Koran without gloves. Now that would be an outrage. Lets recap:

Skulls and penis's, no problemo.

Gloveless infidel hands on a Koran, reason to behead, riot, and be outraged.


32 posted on 10/25/2006 12:16:35 PM PDT by corlorde (New Hampshire)
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To: cartan

1943 Life magazine photo of woman contemplating skull of Japanese soldier sent by her fiance in the Pacific

33 posted on 10/25/2006 12:17:41 PM PDT by Map Kernow ("I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing" ---Thomas Jefferson)
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To: cartan

Soldier humor. This has been around since armies were invented.

So what.

Sheesh.


34 posted on 10/25/2006 12:19:26 PM PDT by roaddog727 (BullS##t does not get bridges built)
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To: cartan

Far be it from us to impose our own Judeo-Christian morality on others. That would be soooo judgmental. (sarc)


35 posted on 10/25/2006 12:19:52 PM PDT by Spok (He who bites the hand that feeds him will also lick the boot that kicks him.)
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To: ozzymandus

I ment German state politics, history and SS. Germans are decent people.


36 posted on 10/25/2006 12:22:15 PM PDT by kronos77 (www.savekosovo.org and www.kosovo.net Save Kosovo from Islam!)
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To: ArrogantBustard
Some folks are racist ... It's just that simple.

Naah, it's probably just that the soldiers collecting Japanese skulls and ears in WW II were German-Americans---I think that explains everything... :P

37 posted on 10/25/2006 12:24:32 PM PDT by Map Kernow ("I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing" ---Thomas Jefferson)
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To: bluetone006
This issue is beyond ridiculous. The only thing that is bothersome is the skull in one hand, penis in other. But that's not really a military issue, it sounds like a personal problem.
38 posted on 10/25/2006 12:25:05 PM PDT by technochick99 ( Firearm of choice: Sig Sauer....)
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To: Map Kernow

< Snort! > Of course they were! Silly me ... I should have thought of that.


39 posted on 10/25/2006 12:26:03 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilisation is aborting, buggering, and contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: patton
Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well.

------------------------------------------

Drop the 'well' and you've got it, the start of it anyway. The next word is 'Horatio'...

40 posted on 10/25/2006 12:27:34 PM PDT by wtc911 (You can't get there from here)
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