Afghan leader Karzai condemns 'US Marines body desecration' video

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**ShumaGorath**

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16524419

Afghan leader Karzai condemns 'US Marines body desecration' video

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned a video that appears to show US Marines urinating on the bloodied corpses of several Taliban fighters.

The Taliban has also criticised the video as "shameful" but said it would not derail attempts at peace talks.

The US military is investigating the authenticity of the video and the Marine Corps said the actions were not consistent with its core values.

The origin of the video is not known, nor is it clear who posted it online.

The footage shows four men in military fatigues appearing to urinate on three apparently lifeless men. They have brown skin, bare feet and are dressed in loose-fitting outfits. One appears to be covered in blood.

A man's voice is heard saying: "Have a great day, buddy."

The men in military fatigues seem to be aware they are being filmed.

'Wild action'
In a statement, President Karzai's office said: "The government of Afghanistan is deeply disturbed by a video that shows American soldiers desecrating dead bodies of three Afghans.

"This act by American soldiers is simply inhuman and condemnable in the strongest possible terms. We expressly ask the US government to urgently investigate the video and apply the most severe punishment to anyone found guilty in this crime."

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told the BBC that this was not the first time Americans had carried out such a "wild action" and that Taliban attacks on the Americans would continue.

But a different Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the video "is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage".

Last week the Taliban said they were working to set up a political office, possibly in the Gulf state of Qatar, that could help jump-start peace talks with the Afghan government and its Western allies.

Washington has been considering releasing several Taliban prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay jail as a confidence-building measure, Associated Press news agency says.

The video has not yet circulated widely in Afghanistan but there are fears of a backlash against the foreign presence in the country once it does.

"The US soldiers who urinated on dead bodies of Muslims have committed a crime," Kabul resident Feda Mohammad told Reuters news agency.

"Since they've committed such a crime, we don't want them on our soil anymore."

Afghan Member of Parliament Fawzia Kofi said ordinary Afghans, no matter how they felt about the Taliban, would be upset by the video.

"It's a matter of a human being, respect to a human being," she told the BBC.

"I believe that the brutal acts that the Taliban did here during their government and even now is condemned by Afghans. So is watching a brutal act by international forces. We condemn that as well," she added.

The Taliban are known for applying a ruthless brand of Islamic Sharia law in areas they control and have carried out many suicide bombings and attacks which have killed civilians.

Investigation
The US military said it was "deeply troubled by the video" and was investigating it.

Marine Corps headquarters at the Pentagon said in a statement: "The actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps. This matter will be fully investigated.''

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said it "strongly condemns the actions depicted in the video, which appear to have been conducted by a small group of US individuals, who apparently are no longer serving in Afghanistan".

In a separate case, the US military has been prosecuting five soldiers from the army's 5th Stryker Brigade who are accused of killing Afghan civilians during their deployment in Kandahar province in 2010.

The US has about 20,000 Marines deployed in Afghanistan, based mostly in Kandahar and Helmand provinces. In total, about 90,000 US troops are on the ground in Afghanistan.

The US and its partners in Afghanistan have said they plan to hand over security of the country and withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014.

American pee is the freest and most righteous pee in the world. They should of been honored.

**mattyrm**

Extremely unprofessional.

**Frazzled**

mattyrm wrote:Extremely unprofessional.

You're right. Karzai is completely unprofessional...

**mattyrm**

Hey it may be a fake... remember the famous British pee video? It was a pack of scousers trying to make an easy buck.

I hope so. I dislike unprofessional soldiers almost as much as the Taliban.

**Ouze**

mattyrm wrote:Extremely unprofessional.

Thread over in one, in my opinion.

**Monster Rain**

mattyrm wrote:Extremely unprofessional.

Yeah, totally.

This is disappointing. On the plus side, these guys are most likely going to be in some pretty deep gak.

**d-usa**

Undoing months of building goodwill and cooperation in the area with one quick piss...

**Frazzled**

Well, when you have to go...

**d-usa**

I can only imagine how much the Internetz would be aflame if the video was of some taliban blokes taking a leak on the US flag...

**WARORK93**

.

**Easy E**

I believe the US attacked Fallujah after some contractors had their bodies desecrated.

I like to think there were other reasons to, but that seemed to highlight the issues in Fallujah.

**Asherian Command**

If they did desecrate a body. They just dishonored themselves.

**Samus_aran115**

d-usa wrote:Undoing months of building goodwill and cooperation in the area with one quick piss...

Yes.

**MeanGreenStompa**

Well, gods forbid that you should send young men into combat, to engage and kill other men, that you should encourage them to hate those others to improve their killing capability and then, when a picture of them pissing on the corpses of those they have been trained to fight is 'leaked', we all scream outrage. How many of those brave and sainted veterans of the older wars committed as many such acts and far worse but then social networking wasn't around was it. How many of these brave old boys lining up for Remembrance Day took body trophies or killed unarmed enemy soldiers or anything else on a much greater scale than this? I'll wager a goodly amount.

If someone just spent a few hours trying to shoot my head off and I tried to shoot his head off and I won, I might also pass water on him out of spite, defiance and adrenaline. Spend years in training to take the lives of your nation's enemies and then be vilified for becoming the very killers the nation wanted in order to win. The guys on the other side don't share such gentle and dignified view of warfare.

And really, how many times have we been told of the 'other side' in this ongoing shitstorm parading around dismembered heads and chanting and whooping and singing about how their god's better than your god etc.

It was unprofessional, but it's understandable.

**JEB_Stuart**

This is just a sad, sad affair. Clearly the military is not doing enough to ensure that its members are properly disciplined and trained in matters of common decency. Please keep in mind that I wholeheartedly support the men and women who serve our country, and I have many family members and friends in the Armed Forces, but this is deplorable.

**Samus_aran115**

Isn't treating the dead with respect part of the marine corps creed or something? Isn't it just implied that you should'nt desecrate the remains of the fallen?

Given the nature of war, that sounds easier than it is though, I'm sure.

**Frazzled**

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Well, gods forbid that you should send young men into combat, to engage and kill other men, that you should encourage them to hate those others to improve their killing capability and then, when a picture of them pissing on the corpses of those they have been trained to fight is 'leaked', we all scream outrage. How many of those brave and sainted veterans of the older wars committed as many such acts and far worse but then social networking wasn't around was it. How many of these brave old boys lining up for Remembrance Day took body trophies or killed unarmed enemy soldiers or anything else on a much greater scale than this? I'll wager a goodly amount.

If someone just spent a few hours trying to shoot my head off and I tried to shoot his head off and I won, I might also pass water on him out of spite, defiance and adrenaline. Spend years in training to take the lives of your nation's enemies and then be vilified for becoming the very killers the nation wanted in order to win. The guys on the other side don't share such gentle and dignified view of warfare.

And really, how many times have we been told of the 'other side' in this ongoing shitstorm parading around dismembered heads and chanting and whooping and singing about how their god's better than your god etc.

It was unprofessional, but it's understandable.

**Mr Hyena**

I don't quite understand. How do you 'desecrate' something thats less than dirt? (terrorists in general)

**Monster Rain**

Samus_aran115 wrote:Isn't treating the dead with respect part of the marine corps creed or something? Isn't it just implied that you should'nt desecrate the remains of the fallen?

Given the nature of war, that sounds easier than it is though, I'm sure.

Honor and professionalism are pretty important, yeah.

Of course, there's donkey-caves in every group of people that do stuff like this and now we hear about how "US Marines" are desecrating bodies and not "a few rogue dildos that happen to be Marines."

**ShumaGorath**

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Well, gods forbid that you should send young men into combat, to engage and kill other men, that you should encourage them to hate those others to improve their killing capability and then, when a picture of them pissing on the corpses of those they have been trained to fight is 'leaked', we all scream outrage. How many of those brave and sainted veterans of the older wars committed as many such acts and far worse but then social networking wasn't around was it. How many of these brave old boys lining up for Remembrance Day took body trophies or killed unarmed enemy soldiers or anything else on a much greater scale than this? I'll wager a goodly amount.

If someone just spent a few hours trying to shoot my head off and I tried to shoot his head off and I won, I might also pass water on him out of spite, defiance and adrenaline. Spend years in training to take the lives of your nation's enemies and then be vilified for becoming the very killers the nation wanted in order to win. The guys on the other side don't share such gentle and dignified view of warfare.

And really, how many times have we been told of the 'other side' in this ongoing shitstorm parading around dismembered heads and chanting and whooping and singing about how their god's better than your god etc.

It was unprofessional, but it's understandable.

That's a cop out. Having tough job and a rough life isn't an excuse. If it was we wouldn't be bombing the Taliban or shooting child soldiers for doing bad things. That's morally and intellectually lazy.

**MeanGreenStompa**

ShumaGorath wrote:

That's a cop out. Having tough job and a rough life isn't an excuse. If it was we wouldn't be bombing the Taliban or shooting child soldiers for doing bad things. That's morally and intellectually lazy.

I didn't say it was an excuse, what I was saying was that this is all part of warfare and it's just a bit that we'd rather not acknowledge that 'our side, the good guys' does. And I'm sure the muslim world will scream about it, just like they don't scream about US soldiers heads being mounted on sticks and touted about whilst the 'freedom fighters' chant and whoop.

We all cheer on and parade about and flag wave at our WW2 vets, a good number of whom did far worse than this. This is just noise and news because they got caught. It is not on a scale with abu ghraib. These were defeated enemy combatants, it was not a massacre of civilians.

We sent people to kill other people, then get all fist in mouth when they don't do it in shining armor and halo. This was not torture, it was not rape of a civilian, those things I deplore, this was just stupid.

**Do_I_Not_Like_That**

I'm with meangreen on this one. It reminds me of that story about airmen in the Vietnam war who got into trouble for writing abusive messages on the bombs they were dropping on the North....

I'm anti-war, but to complain about a minor crime rather than the far greater crime of actually killing somebody (regardless if they were good or bad) is double speak at its worst.

The argument should be about should the troops be there, not the minor details

**LoneLictor**

Here's my stance: If it's okay to frakking kill someone, then its okay to pee on their corpse.

**Howard A Treesong**

d-usa wrote:I can only imagine how much the Internetz would be aflame if the video was of some taliban blokes taking a leak on the US flag...

Yes, but they are supposed to be the bad guys, our troops are supposed to be better than that. It just fuels opposition to western troops.

**Pacific**

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Well, gods forbid that you should send young men into combat, to engage and kill other men, that you should encourage them to hate those others to improve their killing capability and then, when a picture of them pissing on the corpses of those they have been trained to fight is 'leaked', we all scream outrage. How many of those brave and sainted veterans of the older wars committed as many such acts and far worse but then social networking wasn't around was it. How many of these brave old boys lining up for Remembrance Day took body trophies or killed unarmed enemy soldiers or anything else on a much greater scale than this? I'll wager a goodly amount.

If someone just spent a few hours trying to shoot my head off and I tried to shoot his head off and I won, I might also pass water on him out of spite, defiance and adrenaline. Spend years in training to take the lives of your nation's enemies and then be vilified for becoming the very killers the nation wanted in order to win. The guys on the other side don't share such gentle and dignified view of warfare.

And really, how many times have we been told of the 'other side' in this ongoing shitstorm parading around dismembered heads and chanting and whooping and singing about how their god's better than your god etc.

It was unprofessional, but it's understandable.

What a dead-on post

We expect those men to kill, the most debased act a human being can commit on another (with perhaps the exception of rape), and put themselves in harms way on a constant basis. Then we try and apply a yardstick of morality which, lets face it, is probably passed by dozens outside kebab shops in the UK every weekend.

I'm with meangreen on this one. It reminds me of that story about airmen in the Vietnam war who got into trouble for writing abusive messages on the bombs they were dropping on the North....

haha right, the whole thing just reeks of hypocrisy

**CT GAMER**

Is this really that shocking?

I have heard of things like this and far worse from friends and family that have served.

**dogma**

Monster Rain wrote:
This is disappointing. On the plus side, these guys are most likely going to be in some pretty deep gak.

Mostly for video taping it, presuming the video is real.

As my grandpa once said, "Never leave evidence."

Automatically Appended Next Post:

MeanGreenStompa wrote:...just like they don't scream about US soldiers heads being mounted on sticks and touted about whilst the 'freedom fighters' chant and whoop.

You can fight for freedom, and behead people. Having a laudable cause doesn't mean not being brutal.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:
This is just noise and news because they got caught.

Well, obviously, but getting caught is basically the cardinal sin of the information age.

**purplefood**

LoneLictor wrote:Here's my stance: If it's okay to frakking kill someone, then its okay to pee on their corpse.

Yeah that makes sense to me...

**CT GAMER**

purplefood wrote:
LoneLictor wrote:Here's my stance: If it's okay to frakking kill someone, then its okay to pee on their corpse.

Yeah that makes sense to me...

Gotta agree.

If you've already decided its ok to kill, maim and burn people, blow up everything in their country, etc. then a little urine is the least of their problems...

**mattyrm**

I think people are missing the point. Nobody actually cares about pissing on Taliban fighters. They are already dead so who gives a feth?

We care about helping the enemy though. That's why people are pissed.

Long story short.. piss on people all you like, but don't be stupid enough to get caught.