I haven't written a diary in quite awhile, I haven't written many in the first place. For those of you who don't recognize my username (probably all of you), I have been lurking this site for years, but only got an account I think a couple years ago. I don't login or comment much. I probably should comment more, I am not sure about diaries. I am not much of a writer, but I enjoy reading all the quality diaries by so many much better writers.
First of all, my apologies because this is going to be a bit of a rant. I have been having migraine trouble again, life and finances are just fine, but still stressful, if that makes sense. Mainly because of not feeling good, it's hard to do simple things or feel take joy in simple things when you are in chronic pain. But enough about my problems, there are many people with much worse to suffer through, and I will get over it. Rather it is background to explain that my patience is rather short at the moment, and I heard about an incident involving US Marines that made my blood boil. But you see, while the incident was bad enough, the justifications by the apologists are about a thousand times worse. It made me so angry I felt physically ill.
When I get really angry at stupid, obnoxious, dangerous, inflammatory and obviously disingenuous commentary from right wing blowhards trying to push a radical agenda, and defend the indefensible, I go after each and every single one of their stupid points one by freaking one and demolish it as thoroughly as humanly possible. These dangerous arguments from the right need to be shut down immediately, and I will fully explain why. I am obviously not the first person to write about this, and I tip my hat to all those who already have. Those who have already written about it are probably more qualified to do so than myself, but I need to get this off my chest.
So for those of you who haven't heard, there is a video now circulating where four United States Marines urinate on dead taliban soldiers. That anyone is defending these actions is so beyond the pale, that I find myself wondering if I even want to live in this country anymore. Of course there are tons of reasons why I also am not sure I really want to live in this country anymore, such as us not offering healthcare to our citizens when most civilized countries do, like still continuing the barbaric practice of the death penalty, when most civilized countries have abolished it, like not taking care of our poorest citizens, like letting people starve to death or die in the cold and saying that we shouldn't help them because they should be able to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. And the list goes on. I should add, for any right wingers who might stumble upon this, criticizing my country does not mean I do not love my country. Love of country does not mean you are a cheerleader for everything your country does, it doesn't mean you want to maintain the status quo. Right wingers have a mistaken notion that love of country means believing America is the greatest country in the world, and hardly ever criticizing the country for anything (unless it's done by Democrats, of course.) I want my country to do better because I love my country.
Anyway, I digress, back to the main point. I am going to list the main points espoused by the right wing blowhards who think supporting our troops means never criticizing them even when a select few behave like absolute barbarians. Before I begin I want to make it clear. I support I troops, I want them to come home safe, and stop fighting unnecessary wars, I respect them. I do disrespect the marines in the video and find it totally unconscionable. I cannot support that kind of behavior, period. I will not defend their actions. Now, I will say that their might be some mitigating circumstances, how many tours of duty have they done since the war started? How well did their commanding officers train them? These things are being investigated by the top brass right now, and I await the results before I comment more on that. However, no matter how badly they were trained, no matter how many tours of duty, their actions are still not okay. Period. Their actions are not justified, or defensible, and defending their actions is quite frankly dangerous. Trying to justify such actions makes them seem more acceptable, makes it more likely such things will occur action. Defending it makes it seem more okay, it doesn't just make the terrorists angry at us and give them more of a recruiting tool, it doesn't just make us look bad in the eyes of the rest of the world, it dehumanizes us, and defending it makes it more likely such inhuman actions will occur again. So I suppose I am digressing again, finally to the main points.
The first argument I heard is so incredibly ridiculous we shouldn't even have to explain what is wrong with it, but unfortunately it is necessary.
Argument #1: "Patton urinated in a river, so therefore it is okay for our Marines to urinate on dead enemy soldiers.
To begin with, this is a classic example of a false equivalency. I don't give a damn how symbolic it was, or how much of a finger in the eye it was to Hitler, or Nazism, pissing in a river is not the same thing as urinating on a dead body. They do not compare, they are not even close to the same thing. This argument from the right is such grasping for straws it makes my head spin. I shouldn't even need to explain this. Also, just because Patton did something, doesn't make it okay. Was Patton a saint? Fuck no. He was a flawed human just like everyone else. He was a good general, but he wasn't the nicest guy in the world either, war made him a bit crazy. But even so they dishonor his memory. He urinated in a river, I find it extremely hard to believe he would be in favor of pissing on dead bodies, taping it, and then showing it to the world. I have a simple piece of evidence for it. He was a general, if he wanted to urinate on dead bodies, and have it filmed, he could have. Instead he chose a river, because he was not a total barbarian. That this even has to be discussed is mind boggling to me.
Argument #2: "What the Taliban does to their own people, and to our soldiers is way worse, therefore, this is okay."
Again, that this is even being argued makes me want to bang my head against a wall, and it already hurts enough to begin with. In essence it boils down to "That guy killed, tortured, and/or raped some people, so desecrating his corpse is just peachy". I can't believe I even have to explain how ridiculous this is, but I suppose it's necessary. What ever happened to the simple maxim "two wrongs don't make a right"? Just because someone else did something bad doesn't justify immoral behavior towards them. This is why so many countries have signed on to international laws to treat prisoners of war with respect. Those who make this argument are basically saying "revenge is okay, it's just a fine way to behave". This is extremely dangerous thinking. In war enemies are already dehumanized just by the very act of being at war with them. If this is not kept in check it can lead to a downward spiral. Dehumanizing behavior and rhetoric leads to more dehumanizing behavior and rhetoric. And then we become just as bad as those we claim to be fighting for the sake of freedom. We become the enemy we are fighting, we live long enough to see ourselves become the villain. Sometimes, such as recently, after seeing the people trying to justify these heinous actions, I wonder if that has already happened. Desecrating human corpses dehumanizes the enemy and turns them into monsters. I do not care how many people they have killed, yes, what many of them has done is horrible. It still does not justify us behaving in an evil manner it return, it does not justify us lowering ourselves to their level, because that is what this action was. Are we on as low a level as many Taliban soldiers? Perhaps not, but if we take steps down toward their level of actions, and justify it, and instead of condemning it, we will continue to slip downwards.
Argument 3: "It is disgraceful and disrespectful to criticize the United States Marines who put their lives on the line for us".
This just baffles me, it's such crass jingoism I can hardly believe anyone actually thinks this. But they do. I have seen it from multiple people. I am not criticizing the Marines as a whole. These people seem to think the entire US Marine Corps is on trial. They also use this ridiculous "support our troops" argument as a bludgeon to fight off any valid criticisms of abusive actions by soldiers abroad. Supporting our troops does not mean letting them do whatever they want. This is like saying that if you punish your child for misbehaving, you are not supporting them, you should clearly be their cheerleader no matter what they do wrong. This kind of thinking is perhaps the most dangerous at all. Their is really need to argue against it because it isn't an argument, per say. Rather, it is simply pure indoctrinated, brainwashed, grade A malarkey. These people are so brainwashed into believing that they should never criticize what their military does, that there is probably nothing they would condemn. This kind of thinking leads to fascism, I am no saying we are becoming fascist, or that those espousing this thinking want fascism. Simply that this sort of thinking is one of the major stepping stones toward such. This is historical fact. I am grateful to any soldiers who fight for us, I respect what they do, I think they are great people. However, if they do something inhumane, you bet your ass I will call them out on it.
Argument #4: "It wasn't stupid or wrong of them to do it, what was stupid was to videotape it".
......................................................................................................Really? Really? At this point I wanted to yell at my computer screen. How can anyone, in good conscience, even put forth such an argument (for lack of a better word). This is the old "It wasn't wrong you did it, it's wrong you got caught". They don't care that corpses were desecrated, they don't care that we are disrespecting and dehumanizing the enemy. They don't care that we are lowering ourselves to behave like barbarians. All that matters is that they got caught doing it. This misses the point so badly it's unbelievable. It doesn't matter who sees it, an action that is bad, is still bad, even if no one ever finds out. This is stuff we learn when we aren't even in grade school yet. I will agree filming it was incredibly stupid though, and even more disrespectful, and damaging to our reputation. And because many soldiers can see it, it could lead to copycat incidents. And because it is being justified now, because it is out, it is leading our discourse and behavior in a downward spiral. So yes, filming it and putting it online was definitely a stupid and horrible thing to do. But it wasn't the only thing done wrong, or even the main thing. The main thing was doing the act in the first place. This should be obvious.
Argument #5: "The only bad thing about this is that now the United States Marine Corps will be on trial in the court of public opinion".
These people do not think there is anything wrong with the actions, not at all. They only dislike it being videotaped and put online because it could mean people will criticize the Marines. This misses the point even more than the last one. For starters, those against these actions are not criticizing the entire US Marine Corps. We are criticizing those involved in doing it, and in filming it. And we are reserving criticism for those above them who might be partly responsible based on further investigation. To put simply, we hold those who are responsible, responsible. Simple. This should not be horribly difficult to understand. However, that isn't the worst part of that thinking. The worst part is how badly they miss the point, this isn't about protecting the Marine Corps reputation, this is about treating others with respect, this is about treating others as human, and not being barbarians. This is about basic civility, and being better than the enemy we are fighting. This is about not losing our way in times of war, and becoming the thing we hate. It's a classic strawman, we are not attacking the entire Marine Corps. We are criticizing horrible behavior by a few and saying it is not acceptable. This argument goes hand in glove with #4, "It's only bad because they got caught".
Argument #6: "Desecrating an enemies corpse isn't a big deal, because we kill the enemy in war and that's worse than desecrating a corpse."
I was scratching my head at this one. This one is a classic nonsensical argument. You start by mentioning something bad that is done, which is worse than the thing you are trying to defend. You say the worse thing is common practice, and hence claim the not so bad one is justified. This is completely nonsensical. Just because one thing is worse doesn't make another okay. But to demolish this faulty reasoning, let's look at this clearly. This is a war, in war enemy soldiers die. This is evil, some would claim it is a necessary evil. Some, like me, would say we need to leave Afghanistan and bring our soldiers home, and that we shouldn't even be fighting this war anymore. However, to put simply, if a war IS justified, then yes, some of the enemy soldiers will die. This is regrettable, death is never a good thing. However, it is something that happens in war. But this is where the nonsense part of the argument comes in. In a just war, killing is necessary. So while it is evil, it is something that kind of has to happen in warfare. However, it is not necessary to desecrate someones corpse. Just because one action is evil, doesn't mean we need to take more evil actions on top of it. It's like they are saying "We are already doing bad things anyway, so let's go for broke!". Utter nonsense. Bad on top of bad is not defensible. Killing is a necessary evil of a just war (for arguments sake I will not get into the justness of this particular war), desecrating a corpse simply isn't. Doing something evil, when there is no need, is simply wrong. Plain and simple, this shouldn't even need to be discussed.
There are probably others, those are the main ones I have come across. I needed to get this off my chest. I read some comments on a few news articles, and on redstate (I made the mistake of seeing what they had to say about this). And it really made my blood boil. We need to be above that sort of behavior, we cannot let protracted war turn is into the villains. We must make supporting our troops about not wasting their lives, and bringing them home safe. We must not fall into the trap of jingoism where we refuse to criticize anything our country or army does, out of a sense of false "patriotism". We need to treat others as we want to be treated. Yes, partly it is about not giving the enemy valuable recruiting tools and screwing up negotiations. Yes, part of it is not looking bad in the eyes of the world. But mostly, it is about basic respect for our fellow man, and basic decency. I do not care how many evil things that Taliban soldier has done, it does not justify desecrating their corpse, or torturing them, or humiliating them. They may be enemies, but they are people first. Fellow human beings, we do not know their intentions, we do not know their story, we do not know why they fight, perhaps they are not so different from you and I. But even if they have mostly bad intentions, they are still human, and still deserving of basic respect, it is simply not acceptable, period. We need to love all others, love mends the world in a way nothing else can. Hatred tears it down. Revenge creates wounds and lasting scars that lead to bitterness, anger and more violence. Love, tolerance and respect lead to peace, kindness and understanding. Through love we can bring peace to the world.