Remember, it's not important that we did torture these people. What's important is that we are not the kind of people who would torture these people.

Here's the video of the Taliban corpses being burned by US forces.   I'm posting it because of the interview with an eye witness to the event that's included.  His position is that the soldiers thought they were incinerating the bodies for hygeine purposes and that psy-ops used the video footage for their own purposes.  The witness thinks that they were trying to "smoke out" the Taliban with the video, which would be sure to enrage them.  He says that the Americans are frustrated by "fighting shadows" in Afghanistan.  Quel suprise.  I'm sure nobody could have predicted that a war in Afghanistan would go badly, would probably be unwinnable and at the very least would require every military resource at America's disposal for decades.  But I digress.

Here's the official buzz regarding the body burning from the State Department:

Fearing a Muslim backlash against Australian television images of the apparent desecration, on Thursday the State Department sent US embassies instructions "to engage on this issue" and to stress that the pictures do not reflect US values or the actions of "the vast majority" of the US military, said a department spokesman, Sean McCormack.

Ruh roh.  Sounds just like the palaver that came out of Team BushCo in the wake of the Abu Ghraib:

24 May 2004:  In a speech at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, President George W. Bush announces: "A new Iraq will also need a humane, well-supervised prison system. Under the dictator, prisons like Abu Ghraib were symbols of death and torture. That same prison became a symbol of disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonored our country and disregarded our values.

Watch for the coming investigation of the corpse desecration to either absolve the soldiers who did burned the bodies while ignoring the psy-op people who misused the footage for propaganda purposes and the people who ordered them to do it  OR drop the whole thing on the soldiers who burned the bodies while ignoring the psy-op people who misused the footage for propaganda purposes and the people who ordered them to do it. 

Why would they change a winning plan?

Comments

[KathyF]

The title says it all.

[eRobin]

Yes. God bless the Daily Show.

[Bagley]

"Watch for the coming investigation of the corpse desecration to either absolve the soldiers who did burned the bodies.."

From the journalist who reported the story (as quoted at http://newsbusters.org/node/2427)

“I actually believe that the guys who were involved in the burning did it with honorable, you know, reasons. They did it through their orders, or they did if for hygiene. I had no doubt in my mind that they were telling me the truth. If they were doing something that was problematic or controversial, there’s no way they would have shown me this. There’s no way they would have let me go up there and film this.”

Yep,a MAJOR cover up going on here.

Why is the left so determined to bash the US military.

Never mind answering, it is a rhetorical question.

[eRobin]

I don't usually waste my time responding to anything Bagley writes but this lie is important to clear up.

In the first paragraph of the post I made it clear that I linked to the video because of the interview that Bagley refers to and, in fact, specifically for the line he cites.

I know the rest of the people reading this got this point without any help but let's go slowly for the benefit of any other Bagleys out there:

If this latest scandal gets investigated, the question will be who takes the blame. It already looks like the soldiers who followed possibly reasonable orders based on hygeine concerns are being set up to take the fall. That's how the GOP supports the troops.

[DavidByron]

Wouldn't want you to mis this story.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/22/wirq122.xml

One American burned to death, the other three also killed variously. As the article says it sounds just like the Faloojeh incident where four US thugs were caught and killed that led to the genocidal attack to raise the city.

but this time instead of using the deaths as a hype to encourage jingoism, the US government is covering it up. What does that say about how the balance of power has shifted in Iraq?

[Bagley]

Well, eRobin, thank you so very much for deigning to come down from so high to respond to my humble post.

But if I may...

No one would [have to] " take the fall" if it was not such a cause on the part of the left to hysterically proclaim that the burning of the bodies was such an evil thing.

What was it that Kos posted about the desecration and burning of the bodies of the contractors that were kiled in Iraq? The post was removed shortly after he wrote it, but I think that it was siomething to the extent: "screw them."

Hmmmm. Most people would think that there is a disconnect on the left in terms of descrating dead bodies.

I personnaly do not find any inconsistencey. As far as the left is concerned: desecrating dead Americans - good!

That is how the left supports the troops.

Disposing of dead Islamofacists - quick, make it look like an evil was done, play it up for all it is worth, and blame Bush...with the tangential benefit of slamming the US military.

[eRobin]

Hi David: Jeebus. That was bad. In Fallujah it was corpses of contractors that were burned (not US service people and so not technically "troops" that need all the mindless car-magnet support that the GOP likes to say is all they need to win wars). The story at your link is talking about one of the four dead contractors being burned alive. Very upsetting for about a million reasons.

[Bagley]

"... so not technically "troops"..."

But ex-military. And in the company of the military. And killing the bad guys. And making sure that the military are well supplied.

But I agree with you, not "technically, troops.

[Bagley]

I re-read the post.

I missed this on the first reading:

"... where four US thugs..."

In your mind, did they get what they deserve?

Perhaps you can send hate mail to their survivors. It would just make your day, I am sure.

[DavidByron]

What they deserve?

Let's see. About 250,000 dead Iraqis divided between 145,000 US troops plus afew tens of thousands of other nations troops, mercenaries and support staff. I guess they probably deserved to be shot again about 50%.

Close enough.

Justice however would not demand the death penalty. But you asked if they gor what they deserved not what was justice. They'd all deserve to die even if no Iraqis had ever been killed in this war. When you go along with 100,000 other thugs with the intent of murdering innocent civilians and you end up dead yourself I think most people would call that poetic justice. Straight from the dumb crooks file. The thugs hoist by their own murderous desries....

But as it is they did kill tens of thousands of people so they deserve death just from the point of view of "an eye for an eye" too.

I think as a matter of justice they probably should serve time for a year or two assuming they are not guitly of any specific war crimes --- which they probably are/were. That's for the grunts. For the officers I'd give them 5-10 years each even if they never fired a shot.

Actually what sentence did the American court hand down to the Nazis it tried at Nurnburg? Wasn't it death?

[eRobin]

Okay, let's tone down the terrible swift sword talk. Soldiers don't pick the wars they fight. It would be peachy if everyone threw down their arms and hugged across the trenches but it ain't gonna happen. This post was in defense specifically of the soldiers ordered to burn those bodies and a condemnation of the president and his minions who put them in that position.

The morality of what soldiers do during wartime is way too big a topic for me.