Film Rolls as (US) Troops Burn (Afghan) Dead

[Hobarticus]

US soldiers in Afghanistan burnt the bodies of dead Taliban and taunted their opponents about the corpses, in an act deeply offensive to Muslims and in breach of the Geneva conventions.

-snip-

It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be harbouring Taliban. According to an SBS translation of the message, delivered in the local language, the soldiers accused Taliban fighters near Kandahar of being "cowardly dogs". "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," the message reportedly said.

"You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Taliban but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."

The burning of a body is a deep insult to Muslims. Islam requires burial within 24 hours. Under the Geneva conventions the burial of war dead "should be honourable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged".

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1019-05.htm

What a bunch of fucking animals. Not in my name.

[saigon68]

1. What else do you expect from a gang of THUGS and HOODLUMS

[0007]

6. If you haven't already, check out this video saigon68

it goes hand in hand in what you're about to see on this video.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3267.ht...

Pass it on!

[Massachusetts]

2. "What a bunch of fucking animals"

C'mon its only AmeriKa spreading Freedumb.

Let us NOT heap the majority of the Soldiers and Sailors who DON'T represent OUR country like this, in with these few animals.

[Hobarticus]

4. I understand, but still, this is what the world sees of our armed forces..

Sgt. Joe Sixpack who does what he can to put on a good face for us, given the huge shit sandwich he's been asked to take a bite of, doesn't get on the news....these assholes do.

This puts a couple of my friends in Iraq right now at risk. God help them if they're taken alive.

Sorry, but damn, this sickens me.

[0007]

8. ck. out link in post six.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[JoFerret]

15. War corrupts and corrodes

...war is about the business of death and killing and power.

[tmoore]

57. I agree...

I have an 18yr old neighbor who just graduated from the Marines boot camp. He is a great kid who just what's to make something out of his life. I hope that All our sons and daughters will not come to harm for the sins of a few.

[Demit]

17. I can't see where the poster did what you say

--heap the majority of soldiers & sailors in. Why are you putting words in his mouth?

[The_Casual_Observer]

20. "in with these few animals."

A little too optimistic I would say.

[jayfish]

33. Like We Heaped The Majority Of Falluja...

in with the animals that hanged burnt corpses from a bridge? What's good for the goose is good for the gander?

Jay

[DJ MEW]

3. Why doesn't the rest of the world do something about this

I am guessing here that we are getting away with doing this because no one calls that a war zone anymore. Therefore we are acting like this.

The rest of the world needs to step up and force sanctions on us to try to force our war policies to follow the Geneva Convention.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. And how would that happen? We can defeat any resolution that

comes before the UN. The rest of the world, combined, lack the military we have to resort to force. Isn't that why we try so hard to make sure other countries can't have nukes?

Ain't it great to be the bully of the world? The only 'super power'? Or the fascist state?

[zbdent]

7. In the guise of taunting our enemies

we are insulting the religion of the people who we're trying to win over.

Ask any (informed) Catholic about a religion's "tolerance" of an insult . . . (Galileo vs the Pope) . . .

[godai]

9. I'd like to believe that this can't be true but

there's film?? Have 'we' sunk this low to do these things? And when the 'enemy' retaliates and maybe chops up soldiers and burns them, that's OK? This is insane and a long term problem when these soldiers return to the US with these horrible memories. They will never be normal again.

[converted_democrat]

56. They just showed part of the video on MSNBC, and it was really bad.....n/t

[Inland]

10. It's a video "Bring it on!" nt

[ewagner]

11. Why does this remind me

of Kurtz from Apocylpse Now?

When Kurtz related the story of the enemy amputating arms of children innoculated for smallpox he marvelled about how perfectly evil the enemy was and wondered if WE could be that evil.

War, I think, is an escalation of evil. Each side commits greater and greater atrocities in order to intimidate the other side. It's inevitable and why, precisely, war should be avoided at all costs.

[Sabriel]

13. Whew. Good thing these behaviors won't offend anyone important.

I hate to think these acts might provide enemy combatants with indicators for how they're supposed to behave toward US troops....

[daleo]

14. Winning hearts and minds

You can't prevail (in the long run) if you stoop to this.

[Tight_rope]

16. You took the words right outta my mouth!

[anotherdrew]

42. not prevail, they want to stay forever, it's their private blooding field

eventually all new recruits will cycle through iraq or Afghanistan, and their bosses will make damn sure they don't leave 'til they've killed a few rag-heads to get the taste for it.

Wild animals have taken over, our culture is dead, our warriors know nothing but unleashing their most base instincts.

[democrank]

18. Sickening.

Let`s hear some more about moral values.

[leftchick]

19. and condiliar wants Afghanistan as the Iraq model!

whoopeeeee! Here we go again!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

21. How did the U.S. armed forces...

... become BuschCo's private militia? The invasion of Iraq was illegal. The occupation of Iraq is illegal. The acts of senseless brutality occurring there are certainly illegal. While I do sympathize with and support what I believe to be the horribly exploited individuals who make up our troops serving in Iraq, I cannot and will not support what, as a group, they have, through no fault of their own, become: BushCo's Militia.

http://www.karlandkinggeorge.com/The_Few_the_Proud_the_...

[tatertop]

23. Right on. I saved your post for future use.

[Rex]

22. Repeats of Vietnam.

Break the enemies moral, destroy his confidence in his ability to fight. Of course all they've done is EMBOLDEN the enemy to fight harder. Didn't work in Vietnam and it won't work in the ME.

[tanyev]

24. And how many naive Bush-loving 18 year olds know enough about

the Muslim faith to come up with these ideas? Don't tell me this isn't being directed by someone much further up the chain.

[Taverner]

25. Not as concerned about Geneva as I am that this is a STUPID MOVE!!

This will get the rest of the world to hate us even more, jeez this is dumb

[Rebel_with_a_cause]

26. My hope is that I stay out of the cross-fire of the aftermath

[superconnected]

27. That will end terrorism,

Not.

[bixente]

28. Disgusting

With all the human rights abuses captured on video or photographed I shudder to think what hasn’t been filmed.

To add insult to injury one of the soldiers burps while the bodies are devoured by the flames. Absolutely disgusting.

Censored photos from the video here: http://dave128.blogspot.com

[thebigidea]

29. "Lady Boys"? Is Alan Partridge doing our propaganda now?

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

31. BWWWWAHAHAHAAAHAA!!!! N/T

[Uncle Joe]

35. Lady Boys sounds a lot like Girly Men to me.

I wonder if they were influenced by Arnold?

[IndianaGreen]

48. Military homophobia

which attracts men that are insecure about their own sexuality.

[TheModernTerrorist]

30. no, no, no

you got it all wrong. This is just an isolated incident involving a few bad apples. Just some boys having good ol' fun. </sarcasm>

[Alien8shon]

32. "Bring it on!"

In Afghanistan?

Again?

(Oy.......... they will.)

[cascadiance]

34. Watch some of Aidan Delgado's presentations...

He was a conscientious objector that served over there and speaks in a lot of places detailing a lot of this abuse. Try some of these video links... We need more of our soldiers to start efforts like he has!

http://www.archive.org/stream/ConscientiousObjectorAida...

Berkeley presentation
Part 1: http://websrvr20.audiovideoweb.com/avwebdswebsrvr2143/n...
Part 2: http://websrvr20.audiovideoweb.com/avwebdswebsrvr2143/n...

[kostya]

36. Film rolls as troops burn dead (Afghanistan)

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/film-rolls-as-troops-b...

US soldiers in Afghanistan burnt the bodies of dead Taliban and taunted their opponents about the corpses, in an act deeply offensive to Muslims and in breach of the Geneva conventions.

An investigation by SBS's Dateline program, to be aired tonight, filmed the burning of the bodies.

It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be harbouring Taliban.

<snip>

"You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Taliban but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion, and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are."

[Fridays Child]

37. Hideous empire, aren't we?

[cantstandbush]

38. We can never beat the insurgents. We will just make more.

The insurgency is made by us.

[Disturbed]

39. Turning an Imperial takeover of Afghanistan into an.

assult on Islam will bring more vengence upon Amerika. Is the Bush Admin. trying to inflame the entire Muslim population around the world? Is this US Military out of control and this action was not a direct Neo Fascist policy? Does it matter to Amerika's imgage around the globe?

Mosques being defiled by Amerika's troops has occurred in Iraq many times such as the photo below.

[nguoihue]

50. Marines in the mosque

Arrogance and ignorance. Dehumanize the enemy and all who look like him. Same same Viet Nam.

[0007]

49. What is a better way for organized crime to rip us off?

[mom cat]

40. At what level was this policy approved?

[anotherdrew]

41. so what will they do with our dead when they get the chance?

then we can get mad and do worse to them next time, the cycle continues...

[DemoTex]

43. Your question begs a question ..

Why are there no POWs and MIAs in a cluster-fuck like Iraq? Why? It is TOP-SECRET, Code-Word (and CRYPTO), EYES-ONLY THE PRESIDENT. He, and he alone, kills the sadist stories of this fucked-up war. There have to be MIAs (kidnappings on Baghdad streets, for example). There have to be POWs. It is impossible for there not to be! It is war. Another impeachable lie. A big impeachable lie! Fuck these liars. It has become so much like Viet Nam that I am nauseated. Fuck these lying mother-fuckers!


Lying mother-fucker. This asshole would not lay down his life for a Vietnam veteran's spit. He, indeed, hates the veterans of Vietnam because of what it reminds him of .. and that ain't good. His very AWOL and desertion .. the President of the United States. DemoTex shakes head.

[anotherdrew]

44. I fear for bush's health after he pulls out of the oval orifice.

It's ALL going to come out, and spin from rush ain't going to do him much good. I hope the Rethugs can keep good watch on all those lone-wolves they've cultivated. I'd really like to know what they think is going to happen, what the hell are they thinking? Almost makes me think they don't plan on ever being out of power, and if the bird flu hit's in time, who knows, maybe they won't be.

[anotherdrew]

47. everytime I start to think about why no POW/MIAs...

it seems to oddly slip out of my mind and I forgett about it for a while longer. That's weird. So the official tally is POWs: 0 MIA: 0 ?

that is kinda hard to believe

[enigma000]

55. The resistance takes no prisioners n/t

[Nihil]

60. The question is, when it happens, ...

... will it be shown to America or not?

Will any subsequent atrocity (e.g., burned upside down on a cross)
be used as fuel for the "crusade" meme or would it be covered up
to keep to the "we're in control" meme?

[Igel]

62. What their tradition dictates.

Which is what they've done since before the Taliban fell.

What we do seems to have had little effect on what they do: what they did before we captured our first Talib is what they do now, given the opportunity.

[IndianaGreen]

45. This is evidence of the racism, misogyny, and homophobia of US military

Think of the sick perverted minds that would come up with something that puts down women and gays in just a couple of sentences:

You attack and run away like women.... come and fight like men instead

I don't support the troops or their criminal mission. I will support the individual soldier that wants to leave the war.

[MH1]

46. Big Headline on MSNBC.com right now

Desecration Charges

U.S. probes Afghan body desecration charges
If true, incident would apparently violate the rules of warfare

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9755213/

[Tesha]

51. What curous rejoinder to this thread...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Tesha

[DemonFighterLives]

52. They showed this article on C-spn this morning

I added a post to GD this morning.
I was sure it would already be here. You Late Breakers don't miss a beat.
Isn't this some of the sickest crap you have ever heard?
They faced the burnt corpses toward Mecca.
God Forgive Us!

[WinkyDink]

53. Oh, come on!

This was nothing more serious than a fraternity prank.

[Jacobin]

54. Well, at least we know what Herr Rumsfeld has been up to

[RedEarth]

58. Here's a Guardian article on it as well....... sick

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."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1596...

[tmoore]

59. I just don't know whom I'm more pissed at..

*bush , the soldiers who performed the atrocities or the one who filmed it. This is just the type of thing this country doesn't need.

[noonwitch]

61. I could see burning the bodies if there is a disease issue, but otherwise

It's disrespectful under any other circumstances.

[norml]

63. US troops burned bodies in Afghanistan because 'they stank'

US troops burned bodies in Afghanistan because 'they stank'
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-22 10:36


US soldiers burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters in Afghanistan because villagers had not claimed them a day after they were killed and the bodies "were bloated and they stank," a US magazine reported, citing soldiers who were present at the incident.

Australian television reported on Wednesday that soldiers had burned the bodies of two suspected Taliban militants and afterwards used the incident to insult villagers and try to provoke them into attacking US-led coalition troops.

The incident has prompted a US military investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights.

It also further clouds the United States's reputation, already tarnished by the sexual humiliation of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of "war on terror" inmates at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.


snip


http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/22/con...