Goota love the Afgan sense of sensibilities

They aren't ambassadors. Ambassadors have diplomatic immunity. Swedish are no different. Every nation is capable of going out of bounds in conduct. Remember what Swedish troops did in Poland in the 1650's?

 

There was no Geneva Conventions in the 1650, Hoyt.

Maltreatment of dead bodies is a War Crime. It is even mentioned in the U.S. Army Field Manual 27-10 par.504 (internet is a marvellous thing: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/27-10/Ch8.htm).

However, I'm pretty sure that lawyers will find a way to demonstrate that those soldiers were not maltreating the enemy corpses, they've actually just tried to clear and disinfect their wounds by natural methods in hope of resurrecting them, or something similar.

Anyways, a behaviour which one wouldn't expect to see by professional and disciplined soldiers.

 

I'm pretty sure sawing off heads violates Geneva convention.

Maybe one of the Taliban bodies was giving off smoke so they were just practicing fire prevention.

 

Whatever you do, you have to live with it.

-Tom

 

Hoyt, imagine those were Serb paramilitary soldiers in the video. Would you still be defending their pissing on the dead bodies? Because the behaviour videotaped resembles that seen during the Balkan wars, only the uniform has changed.

I mantain that this is unprofessional and immoral behaviour, not in line with what U.S. army is supposed to represent in that part of the world.

 

Well now there's an interesting question:

What is the US Army supposed to represent?

-Tom

 

My guesses, but I might be wrong:
- Higher moral and human values, than those practiced and preached by Taliban
- Discipline, order, professionalism.
- Modern civilization, as opposed to medieval life conditions imposed by Taliban.
- Freedom, contrary to living in fear under Taliban rule.

Anyways, I believe that this video shows an exception and not the ordinary reality of U.S. Army on the battlefield. I have faith that those soldiers will be properly punished for their behaviour.
This video shows, more than anything else, their parent's failure in educating them and teaching them the difference between good and bad.

 

I've got a lot of friends who are vets, a lot of them decorated combat vets. I know one guy with two purple hearts and a bronze star. I think that guy did four tours. What I notice is its pretty difficult to walk away from active combat without having a few ghosts in the closet. From what I can see although the military might teach you how to fight and kill just fine, it doesn't teach you squat about how to cope with the sites, sounds, smell, fear of combat. These guys watch things happen to there friends I'm not even remotely going to try and describe. If they act like they've got a few screws loose while standing on a battle field while the echo's of that last shell are still hanging in the air, its because they probably do. I don't think we should be to hard on them. I'm positive worse things have happened.

My ancestors would have dismembered the corpses so there enemies wouldn't find them in the afterlife.

I say don't judge them till you walk a few miles in there shoes

 

I am not defending their actions. I think they hurt the reputation of the U.S. military and by extension Americans in general with their actions.

I feel no sympathy for the planters of IED's or throat cutting purveyors of terrorism who, by the way, are not signatories to the Geneva Convention. Why? Because they are savages who brought down or assisted in the bringing down of the Trade Center in Manhattan.

 

As for the Serbs. They had suffered as an occupied land since the Ottoman Turks took it, only to have it taken again by the Eastern Bloc. Their actions (which I am also not defending) were reactive to centuries of atrocities perpetrated upon them.

Maybe take a moment to find the causality of their acts.

 

Its not the soldiers desecrating the dead..its the YOUTUBE video that is disturbing.

 

The job of our military is to kill people and break things. Every human needs to take a p155 every now and again.

 

Their military careers will be dead for sure. Probably more jail time than they deserve will be in the works.

 

I know the causality of that war very well. It is a complex issue, much more complex than the official media has depicted it over the years. It always takes at least two to make a war, and to share a guilt for it.
Funny to read what you have written, it is so far from your (and other western) government's official stance about the Balkan war. Don't you have a TV in your home?

 

I do have a TV. I also read. I also know what atrocities have been visited on the Serbs for being Christian and not Muslim or for being the wrong kind of Christian (Eastern Orthodox instead of Roman Catholic). I am neither.