More bad news from Afghanistan.
The Pentagon announced Wednesday night that the Army had started a criminal investigation into allegations that American soldiers in Afghanistan had burned the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters and then used the charred and smoking corpses in a propaganda campaign against the insurgents.
In a separate interview posted on the network's Web site on Wednesday, Mr. Dupont said soldiers from an unidentified airborne unit appeared to believe they were doing the right thing in laying the corpses of the two dead Taliban toward Mecca, and then setting them on fire.The video shows flames swirling around two charred corpses, their legs and arms outstretched, and a group of five American soldiers watching from a rocky ledge.
A spokesman for Mr. Dupont, Robert Pledge, said Wednesday night that the incident took place on Oct. 1, and involved soldiers from the First Battalion, 508th Infantry Regiment of the 173rd Airborne Brigade.
Mr. Dupont said the first group of soldiers told him, "We've been told to burn the bodies; the bodies have been here for 24 hours and they're starting to stink so, for hygiene reasons, this is what we've got to do."
But then Mr. Dupont said a second group of soldiers from a psychological operations unit intentionally used the burnt bodies as a propaganda tool. "They deliberately wanted to incite that much anger from the Taliban so the Taliban could attack them," Mr. Dupont said.
In the program, Sergeant Baker's taunt is heard first. Then a second soldier, who was not identified, chimes in singling out several mullahs by name: "Your time in Afghanistan is short. You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs 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."
In the interview with the producers, Mr. Dupont explained that the American soldiers had been trying to bait the Taliban fighters to shoot at them. "They want the Taliban to fight them because they can't find them otherwise."
If you're going to do something obviously illegal, don't you think you should wait until the press has left the area. Damn fools. With all the issues from Abu Ghraib, but these fools couldn't even think that this could look bad in the international press.
2 comments:
Hmmm...
You are right, they obviously shouldn't have done that with the press around, since even our own press seems to be primarily anti-American.
And yet, we're at war. With people who want to kill our civilians just because we're American. And our soldiers, who are risking their lives, committed the horrible atrocity, the unbelievable crime, the incredibly heinous act of... burning corpses. And name calling.
Okay, that's enough time spent on this issue. Can we move on to something that matters? I'm sure our press won't, but can those of us with active grey matter do so? Before I fall asleep?
I agree that doing it in front of the press was a big oopsie. However, it's bodies for Gu's sake. We don't really care what happens to bodies & if it torques up the Taliban & Al-Quaida, cool!
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