Piss on War January 13, 2012
Posted by rogerhollander in Iraq and Afghanistan, War.Tags: abby zimet, Afghanistan, Afghanistan War, hamilton nolan, marines, roger hollander, U.S. imperialism, urinating marines, war
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by Abby Zimet
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta calls the video of U.S. Marines urinating on dead Afghans “utterly deplorable”; a Marine commander calls it “wholly inconsistent with the high standards of conduct and warrior ethos that we have demonstrated throughout our history.”
But Gawker‘s Hamilton Nolan calls it a crock.
In a furious screed, he blasts the “outrage contest” underway, the “unceasing industrial strength violence being carried out in our names” that most of us ignore most of the time, and the hypocrisy of politicians who “sit in office chairs and start wars and wave flags as young men and women go off to kill and die” – and are never brought to account for their “monstrous, monstrous crime against humanity.”
“Do you know what is worse than having your dead body urinated upon? Being killed. Being shot. Being bombed. Having your limbs blown off. Having your house incinerated by a drone-fired missile that you don’t see until it explodes. Having your children blown up in their beds. Having your spouse killed. Having your hometown destroyed. Being displaced. Becoming a refugee. Having your entire life destroyed as a consequence of political forces far, far beyond your control.”
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Way to go guys, were you trained by Cheney or McCain?
watch, these guys will be five years. manning will get twenty.
Not sure who Hamilton Nolan is (I’ll check) but my sentiments exactly.
Very strange that if you simply blow these guys away you are a noble Marine, but if you add the puerile coup de grace (and videotape it) — you have politicians blowing their minds from Kabul to Washington.
Essentially, we must respect the dead but not the living.
Slaughter women, children, their uncles, their pets — but for goodness sake no souvenirs and no kinky monkey business with their corpses. (Or at least don’t record it.)
Bazaar country the U.S. — or is it the species?
Ancient antecedents include the legendary battle for Troy:
“Achilles, choosing with his eye a vulnerable part where the armor leaves the neck uncovered, aimed his spear at that part, and Hector fell, death-wounded. Feebly he said, “Spare my body! Let my parents ransom it, and let me receive funeral rites from the sons and daughters of Troy.”
“To which Achilles replied, “Dog, name not ransom nor pity to me, on whom you have brought such dire distress. No! trust me, nought shall save thy carcass from the dogs. Though twenty ransoms and thy weight in gold were offered, I should refuse it all.”
It is testimony to the humanity of Homer’s tale that eventually Hector’s father, King Priam, persuades Achilles to relent and return the body for a proper burial.
Anything faintly Homeric among the leaders of the Amerikan Empire?
Panetta? Barack? Hillary? More a Dickensian flavor….
“Essentially, we must respect the dead but not the living.”
Man you nailed it with that comment. Maybe we could make that the Pentagram’s I mean Pentagon’s motto.
Muslims behead their captives in russia, Indonesia, Thailand, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, etc. Then proudly post their vids online and the global MSM ignores it. Marines piss on their corpses and everyone knows about it. Fucked up no matter what…
was this a pees demo?
These fine geniuses will be cops in our home towns soon.
reminds me of accounts of the victorious u.s. cavalry parading with native amerivan women’s vaginas stuck to thair hats…my country ’tis of thee…
Fruit of the machinations of Mr. Bush and Ms. Condoleeza Rice, Mr. Dick Cheney, Mr. Donald Rumsfeld, Mr. Powell, Mr. Karl Rove and Mr. Paul Wolfowitz, and their minions, I Lewis Libby, Ari Fleischer, John Ashcroft, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, Mr. Zalmay Khalilzad, Douglas Feith and James Woolsey, and Bill Pryor–and of course, their current best friends, Mr. Obama and Ms. Palin. In May last year, President Obama said on a Monday at Arlington National Cemetery that his “most solemn responsibility as president [is] to serve as commander in chief of one of the finest fighting forces in the world.” Answering a question about Memorial Day, Palin said, “This is the greatest fighting force in the world, the U.S. military. It’s not just one of the greatest fighting forces. And I sure hope our president recognizes that. We’re not just one of many. We are the best.” The triumph of Bradley Manning over these forces is like the Seraph Abdiel, among the faithless, faithful only he (Milton, Paradise Lost).
Not to justify the pissing dysfunction, but Nolan’s point is spot on. The people who start the wars, continue them, fund them, and profit from them via their war investment portfolio, never set foot on a frigging battle field. Nor have their kids, or grand kids. They don’t give two shits about PTS, multiple deployments in hell, or the worth and value of the men and woman fighting their wars; much less the psychological issues that result. Furthermore, the outrage ought to be directed at self indulgent (it is all about me) Amerikan public who cares even less how many innocent Afghanistan children or woman get blown to smithereens via Obama’s drone strike policies. Nor how many villages are wiped off the map. Nor do they give two craps about the increase in poverty, suffering, or marginalization of our elders whose social security is being dismantled. This country is the most addicted, selfish, and greed driven country on the planet and the worst pond scum is the ENTIRE POLITICAL ESTABLISHMENT of bottom feeders one can find anywhere. And then they wonder why their collective poll numbers are in the shit bowl.
I must tell you I agree with the author completely, peeing on me wouldn’t be bad at all when compared to killing me! Meanwhile politicians of all sides who order the fighting/killing will now show their extraordinary humanity, their outrage, demand punishment and jail the despicable marine grunts who perpetrated this vile and uncivilized act before retiring to their next swanky social gathering paid for by the citizenry of their individual nations.
What are people going to do to stop the carnage? Obama and Romney are nothing but a couple of “politicians who ‘sit in office chairs and start wars and wave flags as young men and women go off to kill and die.’” The very least one could do is vote for the politician who wants to bring an end to the suffering and humiliation.
But, no. It’s better to let Obama/Romney incinerate infants than to vote for someone who makes us feel a little uncomfortable about social issues. When you have the chance–no matter how small–to end the bloodshed, you take it, or the blood is on your hands.