Thursday, January 12, 2012

Marines Urinating on Taliban Fighter

I haven't seen the video;  I only know what it is said to portray.  I am not out to court martial anybody over that.

The guy is dead.   Could be piss, could be flowers and medals, doesn't make any difference to him.  Dead is dead.   And as for respect for the dead, that is an empty quantity, with significance only for survivors.

How much respect ought one to feel about the body of an enemy who was out to kill you?   

The natural human reaction is tear into the body with teeth and fingernails, to defile it, to burn it, shit on it, piss on it, throw it in the garbage dump.

For that matter, isn't one's own prestige enhanced by the hatred and lack of restraint shown by an enemy?   So what happened was in the screwy way of war an honor to the Taliban fighter.

As a practical matter, a diplomatic matter, it is not a good idea to be caught urinating on a fallen warrior.   Poor propaganda for us, good propaganda for the other side even if it was all meaningless.   And with more negotiations between invaders (us) and invadees (the Taliban) in store, this doesn't help.

Problem is, of course, that the Taliban is an idea and not a person.   You can kill a person or persons but it is much harder to kill an idea. 

In the war of ideas this counts as a lost battle.

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