The paratroopers had their assignment: Check out reports that Afghan police had recovered the mangled remains of an insurgent suicide bomber. Try to get iris scans and fingerprints for identification.
The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held — and others squatted beside — the corpse’s severed legs.
A few months later, the same platoon was dispatched to investigate the remains of three insurgents who Afghan police said had accidentally blown themselves up. After obtaining a few fingerprints, they posed next to the remains, again grinning and mugging for photographs.
Two soldiers posed holding a dead man’s hand with the middle finger raised. A soldier leaned over the bearded corpse while clutching the man’s hand. Someone placed an unofficial platoon patch reading “Zombie Hunter” next to other remains and took a picture.
The Army launched a criminal investigation after the Los Angeles Times showed officials copies of the photos, which recently were given to the paper by a soldier from the division.
“It is a violation of Army standards to pose with corpses for photographs outside of officially sanctioned purposes,” said George Wright, an Army spokesman. “Such actions fall short of what we expect of our uniformed service members in deployed areas…
U.S. military officials asked The Times not to publish any of the pictures…
Times Editor Davan Maharaj said, “After careful consideration, we decided that publishing a small but representative selection of the photos would fulfill our obligation to readers to report vigorously and impartially on all aspects of the American mission in Afghanistan, including the allegation that the images reflect a breakdown in unit discipline that was endangering U.S. troops…”
RTFA for lots of unpleasant details. Unpleasant graphically. Unpleasant politically – for folks now busy making excuses.
When I come to this site I really don’t expect nor want to see body parts right there on the front page. Maybe a click through to see the image, with a warning?
In poor taste? Yes
Criminal activity? No
My thoughts exactly. Actually, I give credit to the soldiers for being so reserved about it.
War is HELL.. as it should be.
Perhaps if 40 smiling virgins were holding the legs it would be better?
“It is a violation of Army standards to pose with corpses for photographs outside of officially sanctioned purposes,”
Wait… there’s “officially sanctioned” – “me and the dead guy” pictures? I guess that must be the “Weekend and Bernie’s” rule.
Screw the little Taliban shitheads. Blow people up this is what you can expect. The only thing better is if the pics were of them pissing on the parts after rubbing pork grease all over them.
Now I feel better.
It is war. By the very definition it is brutal. By the very definition you can’t fight it with some high seated chivalry (last time that have been attempted, Turks came in and attacked in the middle of the night instead of European agreed time and place… [Battle of Maritsa]). Even current Commander in Chief fails to understand that (hence “clean” drone strikes as preferred methodology). Hence, the image on the site is highly welcomed and instructional – learn what the war really is.
These soldiers of ours go overseas and see their comrades blown up, shot, killed, dragged through the streets and have their heads cut off.
Tell me you wouldn’t have “issues” after having this happen to yourself.
Let it go. This is nothing.
HOO-RAH!!!!
War: killing people and blowing things up.
You were expecting …… what?
These guys have become a bunch of gouls. It’s time to get out of
that business.
All in good fun! The deceased would do the same or worse if the shoe was on the other foot.
Of course, I’m still partial to parading through the streets with heads on pikes.
I don’t have a problem with this. Medals for the soldiers and a promotion for their leader!
I recall some med students playing baseball with an arm and a heart from a cadaver, I’ll try to dig up that YouTube for you. BTW, Pedro should donate his body to science……………..fiction.
Damn!! Choking on my water. How about a warning next time……(about Pedro)
Yea: “science……fiction”>>>perfectly said. Putting the conjugal back into animal husbandry.
What was this war about again? Oh yeah…something about evil-doers. Or is it the poppy fields? Just believe what Washington tells you, sleep well. As for the image, if your willing to pay for this war….you better be willing to view the results. Even if Washigton thinks you should be cushioned from it.
http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/wh-disappointed-la-times-published-photos-two-years-after-incident_640402.html
Afghanistan……GTFO.
Sometimes I wonder who of the us soldiers or the talibans is the least civilized
Why should it matter? Should we hang our heads low at the loss of another suicide bomber?
They’re not mistreating POWs, just some shrapnel on the side of the road.
Second Look: Could be Caption Time:
“If he had two shoes, maybe he coulda gotten away.”
“Feel the explosive power of Converse…..”
Even though it seems cold and callus, these guys need to things like this to cope with the horrors of war. They can have a laugh or two at the expense of our enemy and avoid some psychotherapy.
Hopefully the soldiers do a lot more of this; it seems like it’s our only hope of getting out of this shithole. Then the locals can do the same thing, but it will be OK, because it’s part of their ‘rich cultural heritage’!
A few bad apples spoil the whole bunch.
These guys knowingly disobeyed military standards and they can be held accountable for these photos.
That said, I have seen a number of pictures people took of dead bodies for whatever reason that compelled them to take those pictures. In every time, those people never advertised the fact that they took those pictures out of fear for the consequences of the wrong person (military-wise) finding out.
The biggest problem pictures like these do is they give a bad perception to the general public of the professionalism of the 99% of the military service members who do follow the standards. It also feeds the liberal frenzy that all military people are like those in the pictures.
Suicide bombers are regarded as heroes/martyrs by their families and the Taliban. Mocking them in death, in public, kind of takes the shine off that concept…. and therefor has strategic value. You can’t make ‘these people’ (suicide bombers, their families and the Taliban, etc.) and their supporters more irrational, angry, or insane than they already are, but you can wipe that smug smile off their fugliness. Leave these soldiers alone. They are not posing/desecrating an innocent person or ideal. They are holding up a piece of meat, the owner of which forfeited his right to any respect whatsoever.
Disgusting.
Clearly it takes a long time to shake off the barbaric attitudes ingrained during the Cheney administration.
Guyver–whats with you and your partisanship?
Just for grins: what do conservatives think of “the enemy” or of pictures like this one?
Or can you only verbalize negative partisan talking points of no value/validity at all?
Give us the good conservative analysis?
I’ll wait.
What partisanship?
My guess would either be they are echoing what I am saying or they are as jubilant as Skeptic who posted right after me.
I’m only speaking from my own personal experiences in the military.
You should ask a conservative. Don’t hold your breath too long. 🙂
The deceased killed themselves while trying to kill others.
I’d think their intended victims would be feeling some rather strong emotions and I’m not critical of them.
I agree.
When they chose to blow themselves up, they showed that they didn’t care for their body. Why should the soldiers who have to “clean up” the mess?
It’s no different from holding up a discarded weapon.
btw–I’ve read that the British “put down” Muslim resistance by burying Muslim fighters with pigs and posting pictures of it all over the place.
Is that true? I’ll accept the Brits did that, but was it effective?
If effective–shouldn’t we be doing that now?==You know, as we lose 1000’s more to trauma as we slowly pull out. Reminds me of that joke about how Train Conductors have sex…….
Ha, ha.
propaganda
Sounds right. I would think such action would only redouble their resolve and hatred……but then, they are religious.
Much like “don’t defile/attack us in our Temples of Faith. We only take that disrespect from our own faith.”
The Russians did that after that Moscow theater hostage business.
It wasn’t us. It was you guys.
At the beginning of the last century, you were facing similar objections to your presence in the Philippines.
The commander, a General Pershing, is reputed to have caused the terrorists to be buried in the skins of freshly killed wild pigs.
22 year olds do something not well thought out. News at 11.
The only difference is that with camera phones and the internet, someone gets ahold of the photo and it becomes news.
Oh well … after hearing 70,000 of these stories Muslims eventually won’t get so mad about them.
Akmed: “The American soldiers took a piss on our dead.”
Yuszef: “Didn’t they do that last week and a couple of months ago.”
Akmed: “We need to kill Americans in retaliation.”
Yuszef: “Can’t we wait a week or something? Something like this fucks up my personal time every week and my 2 wives are starting to get tired of the same ole shit excuse every week. They had to pee somewhere, right?”
This is the milieu of the army. Such behaviour is de rigueur. It is hardly surprising. War is never pretty. Unfortunately the images broadcast to our living rooms during the Vietnam war will never happen again thanks to media reporters acting like corporate shills. This type of thing happens all the time. We are only surprised because it is rare that the media shows it. When it IS shown it is scandalous against the backdrop of what is more normally shown: our troops walking the streets giving out candy to the kids. The juxtaposition presented quite frankly disgusts me. Tell me why the mass media doesn’t show the atrocities that private mercenaries do? If we were REALLY shown everything that goes on, there would be MASSIVE protests all across our school campuses…..just like Vietnam. LOLZ! War is what it is. You are a fool if you think it has changed in our current day and age.
Abu Ghraib, soldiers pissing on dead bodies, burning the quran, posing with body parts.
If that’s how we export democracy then we sholdn’t complain if they do the same to us.
Stupid US citizens continuing to do stupid things.
They’re not citizens…
I do believe the 82nd Airborne is made up of US citizens. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Stupid U.S. Citizens writing stupid comments without first hand knowledge. Let the freedom of empty heads ring. That Ray Guy
As we have seen of late. A more frequent number of questionable events from our troops. Many I think are simply frustrated with the war. After multiple tours, seeing many friends and comrades die and injured. One has to wonder why this has not happened more. My concern is for these men and woman when they finally come home to stay. How much of the war will be with them for ever?
“How much of the war will be with them for ever?”
At least these guys will have pictures to remind them of what assholes they had become.
How sad that men and women who can’t find jobs and are convinced there is honor in serving in the Military are wasting their time, limbs and lives thinking they are protecting unthinking people like yourself. “Citizen, inform thyself and that truth will bring you great comfort.” Millard Filmore.
John, your comments ring true. Add to your rhetorical question – how much of this war will the returning military bring back to the U.S.? They are already killing themselves at a rate of 18 EVERY DAY and nearly half are taking others with them in that final voyage. What devilish deads have we wrought in supporting our government in this war – be it though activism or silence?
I gather that thus-far we collectively and personally would avoid war if at all possible. Isn’t it much easier to talk things out….(ie: the Iran-Contra affair)? These war-mongering politicians frankly leave me me with an uneasy constituency. The problem with our economy is too much reliance upon the military-industrial complex, private bankers (the Federal Reserve), and corporate interests. I think that the U.S. Constitution has a way of dealing with all these problems. The only thing standing in the way are the very things that our founding-fathers (Thomas Jefferson for one) warned us against.
Vote for your freedom; vote for Ron Paul.
How many of you know that Thomas Jefferson got many of his ideas concerning Democracy from John Locke?
Who cares what happens to the Afghan or Iraqi trash over there. I’m more concerned with ending out Middle East “German Partition of the Middle East” and bringing the troops home. It might have work in Europe, but we aren’t dealing with Europeans are we? No cultural context has been used what-so-ever by any of the previous administrations from LBJ to President Hussein.
How many sons/daughters have we lost to the Elitist Globalist agenda of UN Governance, all because we won’t control our borders and keep all the violent trash out of our country.
Whatever, from a second class ‘tax paying’ citizen……………………
Traaxx