Pissing On The Dead
As I was driving today, I listened to National Public Radio (NPR) and heard a discussion of the Marine sniper team members who urinated on the corpses of dead Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Being NPR, the prevailing sentiment from their pundits, and the callers calling in, seemed to be that it was a shame that those brutish Marines were desecrating the bodies and, hey, people around the world will think badly of America because of these guy’s actions.
All I could think, as I listened to the discussion, was, “A Marine sniper most likely using a .50 caliber sniper rifle blew these Taliban away—probably from three or four hundred yards out, which is some excellent shooting—and these people are upset about the bodies being pissed on?”
I came of age during the Viet Nam conflict and lived, as did other young American males of that era, with the more or less constant thought that I might end up drafted into that war. Mind you, I was, I suppose, as patriotic as the next teenager, but I failed to see how spending a year or more killing people in Viet Nam was going to improve the cause of freedom in the world. I might have been more convinced of the rightness of our involvement if I had thought for a minute that our leaders were interested in actually winning the freedom of the Vietnamese people. However, that seemed to be merely a con, given our unwillingness to invade North Viet Nam. With such self-imposed limitations, we were never going to win the war. At best, we could have ended up with a Korean-style partition and that didn’t seem like much for us to fight for since it would require that we wage an interminable war of attrition against an enemy that would continue to terrorize the South Viet Nam populace until the end of time. Even at seventeen, I had figured out that you shouldn’t go to war without the willingness to do whatever it takes to win. There is no such thing as a humane war.
All I could think, as I listened to the discussion, was, “A Marine sniper most likely using a .50 caliber sniper rifle blew these Taliban away—probably from three or four hundred yards out, which is some excellent shooting—and these people are upset about the bodies being pissed on?”
I came of age during the Viet Nam conflict and lived, as did other young American males of that era, with the more or less constant thought that I might end up drafted into that war. Mind you, I was, I suppose, as patriotic as the next teenager, but I failed to see how spending a year or more killing people in Viet Nam was going to improve the cause of freedom in the world. I might have been more convinced of the rightness of our involvement if I had thought for a minute that our leaders were interested in actually winning the freedom of the Vietnamese people. However, that seemed to be merely a con, given our unwillingness to invade North Viet Nam. With such self-imposed limitations, we were never going to win the war. At best, we could have ended up with a Korean-style partition and that didn’t seem like much for us to fight for since it would require that we wage an interminable war of attrition against an enemy that would continue to terrorize the South Viet Nam populace until the end of time. Even at seventeen, I had figured out that you shouldn’t go to war without the willingness to do whatever it takes to win. There is no such thing as a humane war.
I realized then, and I still believe now, that the unwillingness to move against North Viet Nam was due to a fear of nuclear war between the USA and China/Russia. The ground war in Viet Nam was a “proxy war” that was limited on purpose to avoid the more frightful eventuality of nuclear devastation. That said, our politicians stupidly churned through the wealth of these United States and, worse yet, cost the lives of some 58,000 Americans in a foolish adventure of little benefit to anyone. Oh yeah, excepting, of course, the military/industrial complex. They benefited greatly!
So, the country instituted a lottery system for calling up draftees by the time I was eligible. As I recall, the first lottery took, I believe, the first 75 birthdates drawn. Luckily, my birthdate was number 214. I never got drafted, and I sure didn’t volunteer to go to that war.
Since that time, I have known many Viet Nam veterans, including some family members. I honor their service and respect their faithfulness to the call of the nation—even if that call was, in my estimation, foolish.
What does this have to do with Marine snipers in Afghanistan? Simply this, the vast majority of those who are wringing their hands over the desecration of the Taliban bodies are like me, they never fought for their country. Because I am a history buff and because I have some sense of human behavior as it actually is, not as I wish it to be, I am well aware of the fact that atrocities of all kinds happen in war. Prisoners are killed after surrendering, civilians are slaughtered by both sides either as a means of quelling partisan revolts or through “collateral damage” and, even when the violence is contained to the combatants, horrific death and destruction result. How do we dare sit in judgment of those who have volunteered to put themselves in harms way so that we can stay safe at home?
Sure, we can wail about the strategic value of our troops not giving the enemy a picture of us disrespecting the dead but, on the other hand, do we think it is lost on the enemy that those same Marines shot the dead guys? Does urinating on the bodies make them more dead? No, this is the kind of controversy that is stirred up by those with an agenda of stopping our involvement in this war in Afghanistan. While I generally applaud the idea of getting our troops out of there, I do not wish to do so by means of court-martialed Marines who foolishly played into the propagandists’ hands!
Besides, do we also think it is lost on the enemy, or the local population they are seeking to control, that the Taliban do far, far worse things to their enemies? When has the USA videotaped the beheading of our captives for broadcast on Al Jazeera Network or the internet? When have we raped women in front of their families just to ensure that the entire family is shamed? How many times have we sent suicide bombers into marketplaces, wedding celebrations, funerals, etc. to indiscriminately kill whoever is there?
No, our snipers, and even our drone attacks, work with specific targets in mind and much effort is expended to try and make sure that no one is killed other than the intended target(s). We may not always succeed in this effort, but at least we try to minimize the mayhem visited on the general population.
It would be nice if young men trained in the ways of combat were also trained in the ways of media control; however, that appears to not be the case. Therefore, those who have never served, and never will, are now feeling entitled to hurl condemnations on those who have served—and served well, I might add. This is a travesty.
So, the country instituted a lottery system for calling up draftees by the time I was eligible. As I recall, the first lottery took, I believe, the first 75 birthdates drawn. Luckily, my birthdate was number 214. I never got drafted, and I sure didn’t volunteer to go to that war.
Since that time, I have known many Viet Nam veterans, including some family members. I honor their service and respect their faithfulness to the call of the nation—even if that call was, in my estimation, foolish.
What does this have to do with Marine snipers in Afghanistan? Simply this, the vast majority of those who are wringing their hands over the desecration of the Taliban bodies are like me, they never fought for their country. Because I am a history buff and because I have some sense of human behavior as it actually is, not as I wish it to be, I am well aware of the fact that atrocities of all kinds happen in war. Prisoners are killed after surrendering, civilians are slaughtered by both sides either as a means of quelling partisan revolts or through “collateral damage” and, even when the violence is contained to the combatants, horrific death and destruction result. How do we dare sit in judgment of those who have volunteered to put themselves in harms way so that we can stay safe at home?
Sure, we can wail about the strategic value of our troops not giving the enemy a picture of us disrespecting the dead but, on the other hand, do we think it is lost on the enemy that those same Marines shot the dead guys? Does urinating on the bodies make them more dead? No, this is the kind of controversy that is stirred up by those with an agenda of stopping our involvement in this war in Afghanistan. While I generally applaud the idea of getting our troops out of there, I do not wish to do so by means of court-martialed Marines who foolishly played into the propagandists’ hands!
Besides, do we also think it is lost on the enemy, or the local population they are seeking to control, that the Taliban do far, far worse things to their enemies? When has the USA videotaped the beheading of our captives for broadcast on Al Jazeera Network or the internet? When have we raped women in front of their families just to ensure that the entire family is shamed? How many times have we sent suicide bombers into marketplaces, wedding celebrations, funerals, etc. to indiscriminately kill whoever is there?
No, our snipers, and even our drone attacks, work with specific targets in mind and much effort is expended to try and make sure that no one is killed other than the intended target(s). We may not always succeed in this effort, but at least we try to minimize the mayhem visited on the general population.
It would be nice if young men trained in the ways of combat were also trained in the ways of media control; however, that appears to not be the case. Therefore, those who have never served, and never will, are now feeling entitled to hurl condemnations on those who have served—and served well, I might add. This is a travesty.
I understand that we like to think of ourselves as the people who generously aid others in need around the world. We are the ones who don’t start wars but, if provoked, finish them! I, too, want to think of my countrymen in this way; however, the last decade has been fraught with poorly thought out expeditions into foreign lands where we initiated conflict in Iraq, slaughtered hundreds of thousands of civilians there and in Afghanistan, and have recently expanded our efforts into Pakistan. As if that wasn’t enough, we are now actively provoking the paranoid fantasist leadership of Iran. This is madness and it has, and will continue to, cost the lives of our men and women in uniform, as well as untold thousands of civilians.
Young men are a rough and tumble bunch. The vast majority of young men seem to need to test themselves in some form of competition. That is why, I suppose, there always seems to be a great supply of young men ready to pick up arms and go to war. I am not particularly bothered by this—it is the way of the world. Given that this is true for American men and foreign men, it is to be expected that wars and rumors of war will continue, just as Jesus asserted in Matthew 24:6. It is, quite literally, the nature of men to fight. What is unnatural is the progressive utopian belief that these kinds of conflicts can be made to cease through the right mix of governmental programs.
It is for this reason that I wasn’t particularly concerned when we invaded Iraq to get Saddam Hussein or invaded Afghanistan to get the Taliban. Mankind is constantly looking for a fight and these kinds of conflict arise pretty regularly between nations. In the case of the United States of America, it seems that about once every ten years we have to take down some tin-pot dictator to remind the rest of the tin-pot dictators that they can only push us just so far before we rise up and stomp them. That said, I certainly didn’t expect us to still be fighting in these places a decade later!
So, I hope that we get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. I hope that the young men on those sniper teams are quietly shuffled aside once the public hue and cry lessens and court martials never occur. I hope that we remain ready to attack the Taliban again should they attempt to resume training terrorists to attack us. I hope that the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, who have suffered so much, may find peace, prosperity and a thoughtful, effective government. I hope that the arm chair critics of the Marines shut their mouths and silently thank God that they weren’t sent to Afghanistan or Iraq. My penultimate hope is that the United States of America might find its way back to being a country that doesn’t start wars but does, in fact, finish them with determined alacrity. Finally, I hope that the peace that passes understanding, given through Jesus Christ, reaches every heart on the planet and causes us to love both Him and one another.
Thomas A. Hall
Young men are a rough and tumble bunch. The vast majority of young men seem to need to test themselves in some form of competition. That is why, I suppose, there always seems to be a great supply of young men ready to pick up arms and go to war. I am not particularly bothered by this—it is the way of the world. Given that this is true for American men and foreign men, it is to be expected that wars and rumors of war will continue, just as Jesus asserted in Matthew 24:6. It is, quite literally, the nature of men to fight. What is unnatural is the progressive utopian belief that these kinds of conflicts can be made to cease through the right mix of governmental programs.
It is for this reason that I wasn’t particularly concerned when we invaded Iraq to get Saddam Hussein or invaded Afghanistan to get the Taliban. Mankind is constantly looking for a fight and these kinds of conflict arise pretty regularly between nations. In the case of the United States of America, it seems that about once every ten years we have to take down some tin-pot dictator to remind the rest of the tin-pot dictators that they can only push us just so far before we rise up and stomp them. That said, I certainly didn’t expect us to still be fighting in these places a decade later!
So, I hope that we get out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. I hope that the young men on those sniper teams are quietly shuffled aside once the public hue and cry lessens and court martials never occur. I hope that we remain ready to attack the Taliban again should they attempt to resume training terrorists to attack us. I hope that the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, who have suffered so much, may find peace, prosperity and a thoughtful, effective government. I hope that the arm chair critics of the Marines shut their mouths and silently thank God that they weren’t sent to Afghanistan or Iraq. My penultimate hope is that the United States of America might find its way back to being a country that doesn’t start wars but does, in fact, finish them with determined alacrity. Finally, I hope that the peace that passes understanding, given through Jesus Christ, reaches every heart on the planet and causes us to love both Him and one another.
Thomas A. Hall
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