US Soldiers Desecrate Bodies

This is one of the main stories being covered today on news sites such as CNN, the UK's Guardian and Signs of the Times, among others.

James Sturcke writes in the Guardian article:

Senior US military officials launched an investigation today into claims that US soldiers desecrated the bodies of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan as part of a propaganda campaign.

Australian investigative news programme Dateline broadcast a film which appeared to show US soldiers burning the bodies of two fighters and using their charred and smoking corpses as a taunt to nearby Islamic militants.

The programme, which aired last night, depicted what was described as a US psychological operations team broadcasting over a loudspeaker toward a village thought to be harbouring Taliban fighters and sympathisers.

According to a transcript of the program, the soldiers faced the bodies towards Mecca in a deliberately provocative move and set them on fire. One said: "Wow, look at the blood coming out of the mouth on that one, fucking straight death metal."

A message was then broadcast over a loudspeaker in the local dialect which, according to the freelance cameraman, Stephen Dupont, embedded with the 173rd Airborne Brigade, said: "Attention, Taliban, you are all cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to come down and retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be."

Now, if that isn't clear provocation, I don't know what is. These folks certainly seem to get a kick out of their jobs. Get their thrills ensuring that as much bloodshed and destruction as possible takes place. What kind of maniacs do and say things like this? What kind of a world is it that sits back and allows it to happen?


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