Photos show US soldiers posing with Afghan corpses

reply to post by Exuberant1


No I am not frustrated.

This thread is about the actions of soldiers during an armed conflict. It's nothing to do with protecting your own children in your own home, the analogy has no value whatsoever and no basis in the reality of the situation.

Killing someone who is directly threatening your own child has nothing to do with killing a stranger that happens to be on the opposite side from you during a war.

reply to post by marg6043


You talk about humanity...why do some men still commit rape? Why do some women murder their children? Why do men and women get involved in physical fights?

Violence and aggression has not been bred out of the human race yet - in war or out of war.

There are always bad apples.

www.independent.co.uk...

reply to post by davespanners


You absolutely hit it on the head, people not in the thick of it have not a ounce of right to make morality comments about the goings on in a war zone, regular people put in serious people shooting at you situations, these people sent to fight were driving buses working in offices etc and put there to kill people, thats what the sergents and officicers are there to do, control the situations and personell should they get out of hand.

Sometimes I do see things that make me go WTF, but I have to believe that everyone deals with the sites they see and definitely don't deal with the stresses all the same.

I also think we don't take care of our veterans as they deserve to be either.......

The dozens of photos, ... were seized by Army investigators and are a crucial part of the case against five soldiers accused of killing three Afghan civilians earlier this year.

www.cbsnews.com...

The issue is not that photos were taken. It is that they were taken of "civilians" shot -- as trophies?

The people are on trial for killing civilians. The photos they took are evidence. The photos are not of enemy soldiers shot in the course of battle.

Anyone who supports what is going on in Afghanistan or Iraq in any way, or who attempts to make excuses for the nonsense needs their head examined.

Originally posted by ofhumandescent
reply to post by marg6043

 

I'm not even Christian and I realize that "Thou shalt not kill" is relevant.

Nobody should be killing anybody.

War of any kind is wrong.

You don't have to be Christian to know that. The Bible even says God writes His laws on the hearts on men.

Secondly, that verse in the Hebrew says: "Thou shalt not MURDER." Not "kill". God is against you or I killing an INNOCENT person. War doesn't apply there.

Originally posted by stellify
reply to post by marg6043

 

You talk about humanity...why do some men still commit rape? Why do some women murder their children? Why do men and women get involved in physical fights?

Violence and aggression has not been bred out of the human race yet - in war or out of war.

There are always bad apples.

www.independent.co.uk...

violence and aggression are the only reasons we havent been invaded yet.

reply to post by marg6043


i don't see any pics.

i would say, US soldiers posing with afghan corpses, is really true!

who killed them?

It will take just one 'macho' soldier to start such stupid pictures. Probably the most popular guy in the platoon....full of jokes. Next his buddies will join the idea and also want to be in the picture because its kindda cool...and do not want to be made as a concious sissy.

reply to post by marg6043


I work at a consignment store. A gentlemen brought in a photo album that was given to him by his father. The photos were taken by soldiers during, I believe, the Korean war. There is one particular picture where two soldiers are standing in a field of human bones. There are so many bones that the ground cannot be seen. The soldiers are smiling, each holding a skull and two bones, crossing in the center to give the "skull and crossbones" look. Both soldiers look amused.

There is more in this album that leads me to believe that such happenings are common in war. The soldiers have to try and make light a lot of dark times.

reply to post by zatara


watching alot of movies, are we?

you put your feet on the ground there and tell us.

Originally posted by fooks
reply to post by zatara

 

watching alot of movies, are we?

you put your feet on the ground there and tell us.

Sorry....I do not understand...what movies are you taliking about and why should i be there and tell you what?

reply to post by Modern Americana


The pictures were e-mail between the soldiers involved and the families, they were taken out of the internet by the government and banned, now they are part of the prosecution against the soldiers.

In other words unless somebody have underground access we may never get to see them.

reply to post by abrowning


When my husband was in Kuwait he took pictures, I mean "pictures", now none of them are in the internet as they are private.

Is nothing wrong with taking pictures of death, chaos and devastation, but what you do with them is another thing, obviously the soldiers been charged were showing them because they posed with the death.

It's a fact of war, it happens on all sides................
And yet again America is the inly country held responsible.............
I guess pics of troops hanging from a bridge after being killed and set on fire are o.k.............afterall, the
enemy does no evil....................just another America bashing thread.........color me surprised.

reply to post by adifferentbreed


Actually nobody is bashing the soldiers here, the only thing been bash is the response of the Government toward the soldiers, as usual our government will prosecute two of the soldiers to appease the enemy that they were told to kill.

In Iraq and Afghanistan is not such thing as and "enemy" that can be identified as they all look the same without uniforms, the only ones wearing uniforms are our soldiers, everybody else is suspected enemy or civilian.

Originally posted by marg6043
I want to understand why in modern times of warfare, something as ancient as trophies of war are still used. I mean, is this type of conduct ingrained in our brains that we turn into gruesome activities while on a killing rampage.

One thing is the believe that in war battler field is going to be death, but keeping body parts as trophies?

Are we as modern human beings have a brain switch that makes us forget about our humanity?

Now two of this soldiers will be facing criminal charges, but then again isn't their job to kill the enemy?

It is natural, and always has been, for a human to objectify those who are from another culture. This is good, because it helps us conquer them more easily. It's pretty easy to understand why its happening here because you have two cultures from two vastly different time periods. One one hand you have westerners from 2010, on the other you have afghanis from 1200AD...

This has always been the way humans are, and always will be. It doesnt matter what color you are or where you are from... even Native Americans were like this... for example Cherokee law only applied to cherokees... anyone else was just an object...

In this setting, its understandable... because it's like putting a male and a female teenager together naked... they're going to have sex... You put two vastly different cultures together in a situation of war, and you will have this...

not sure why anyone would expect otherwise... perhaps the naive.

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
It is natural, and always has been, for a human to objectify those who are from another culture. This is good, because it helps us conquer them more easily. It's pretty easy to understand why its happening here because you have two cultures from two vastly different time periods. One one hand you have westerners from 2010, on the other you have afghanis from 1200AD...

And the 2010 dude is the one doing the 1200AD trophy of war stuff.

Originally posted by blackcube

Originally posted by HunkaHunka
It is natural, and always has been, for a human to objectify those who are from another culture. This is good, because it helps us conquer them more easily. It's pretty easy to understand why its happening here because you have two cultures from two vastly different time periods. One one hand you have westerners from 2010, on the other you have afghanis from 1200AD...

And the 2010 dude is the one doing the 1200AD trophy of war stuff.

You didn't read what I said... It is HUMAN... meaning... it doesn't matter what time you are from.. Only thing matters is that difference in cultures and the context in which they are encountering eachother...

This will ALWAYS happen when two cultures are at such odds with eachother... it is very natural.

reply to post by marg6043

In Iraq and Afghanistan is not such thing as and "enemy" that can be identified as they all look the same without uniforms, the only ones wearing uniforms are our soldiers, everybody else is suspected enemy or civilian.

It has been well noted that Afghani insurgents blend into the populace when not actually fighting. Anyone could be a potential insurgent but that is not the same as saying that everyone in the whole country is suspected of being one.

What percentage of the mothers and children could reasonably be suspected? In reality, what percentage of the grown men are insurgents, or conversely, what percentage are just ordinary people trying to make a living and protect their family? Surely many of them are just citizens, but you guys are blowing them all up indiscriminately.

It is their country for Christ's sake. In their country American soldiers are the enemy. You have no business being there. You cannot justify the murder of innocents in the name of a war your country arbitrarily decides to wage without just cause.

It is time to get out of there and save face, and avoid killing any more innocents. You are only making things worse the longer you stay. You are personally responsible as long as you continue to support the presence of your troups in their land.

reply to post by wayno


Trust me I agree with you one hundred percent, but I can not ignore the hypocrisy of our corporate run government that is punishing our soldiers for doing the job they are trained to do, peace keeping and humanitarian missions are for the UN, the red cross or the red crescent our troops are in those two countries to fight.