U.S. troops posed with body parts of Afghan bombers(warning graphic photos at the link)
Source: LATIMES
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.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-afghan-photos-20120418,0,5032601.story
= new reply since forum marked as read
ending the war. Which happens on DU a lot. Post article about troops doing something very bad, complain this is why the war should end. period. Im not disagreeing that it is long past time when any of my soldiers should die for this war, but this also could have happened in the first months. Typing that now, I would bet that it probably did.
Your reply is really appreciated. I can totally tell you from my experience, "getting some" during the iraq war was in fact, vindication of my/our being there. Because there were very few things to grasp to maintain some mental stability. It's the same mechanism by which people say (and say to me often), "look man we went over there to depose saddamn for reasons x,y and z. Are you really saying SSG XXXX died over there for NOTHING?!" They've marked their belief that something, anything was good about Iraq by equating superior soldiers and superior citizens of this country having been killed in that armpit.
Your reply also demonstrates a LACK of STIGMA that we are all enduring right now. As a veteran, every time I get mad, people think "omg PTSD case." Never mind that my stupid boss at work generated such an unsafe condition that me and my partner could have been killed....never mind that. Clearly Im PTSD. 
LEFT and RIGHT perpetrate this stigma. If nothing else, when you see stories like this, you know someone is a veteran of this or any war and they are yelling about something - try and put yourself in our shoes. YOu DONT KNOW what war is like. YOU dont know how it changes every one of us. As an educated (biology degree) person, when we were mobilizing to deploy, I was "pretty sure" I was intellectualizing and projecting accurately what the experience was going to be like. I was 100000% wrong on each and every count.
anyway, thanks again. Im going to post your reply to my FB page.
Be Cool
SGT PASTO
Breaking through the propaganda and censorship to bring such common features of war to a mass audience, like TV did in the late sixties.
Are these the same photos that Der Spiegel published last year which the Pentagon apologized for?
-- Breaking News -- (was going to post this if maddezmom hadn't)
[font face="New York" size="5"]The armys new photo scandal[/font] (Salon) By Tim Fitzsimons, GlobalPost
Photos released by the LA Times show American troops posing with the corpses of Afghan suicide bombers
The Los Angeles Times released photos on Wednesday showing American troops posing with the mangled corpses of Afghan suicide bombers, leading the Pentagon to issue a strongly worded statement condemning the actions in the pictures, which were taken in 2010.
The photos were provided to the newspaper by a soldier distressed about the actions of his division. (semi-on topic link -- courtesy LG) He sent 18 photos saying they pointed “to a breakdown in leadership and discipline that he believed compromised the safety of the troops,” the newspaper wrote. The Army requested the newspaper withhold the images.
In a statement, the Pentagon said, “The secretary is also disappointed that despite our request not to publish these photographs, the Los Angeles Times went ahead. The danger is that this material could be used by the enemy to incite violence against U.S. and Afghan service members in Afghanistan.” The Pentagon promised to take all measures necessary to protect troops from a public backlash.
“These images by no means represent the values or professionalism of the vast majority of U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan today,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
The LA Times quoted its editor, Davan Maharaj, as saying, “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.”
The U.S. military is still reeling from the January release of a video showing Marines urinating on Afghan corpses, and riots in February following the news that troops burned copies of the Quran, Islam’s holy book. Those riots killed 30 Afghans and six Americans. In March, Army sergeant Robert Bales went on a shooting rampage and killed 17 Afghan civilians, including 9 children. Bales has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, according to the Associated Press.
CNN reported that the paper told the Pentagon about the pictures in March, which resulted in a criminal investigation.
George Wright, an Army spokesman, said, “such actions fall short of what we expect of our uniformed service members in deployed areas,” according to the LA Times.
First of all, publishing these photos is absolutely immature and makes the poster look sick (but conservatives will say it's "patriotic"
. In fact Michael Savage even wrote a whole USA Today column defending the Marines who peed on the corpses of Taliban fighters. (And you thought USA Today was part of the "liberal media"????)
These soldiers KNOW the code of military justice. Why would they photograph themselves like that? Save that activity for military reunion storytime. But still, there is a whole Church of Patriotism whose idea of loving America comes with treating the flag like Muslims treat the image of Muhammad or "America always is right".
Oh yeah, no one would defend Afghan soldiers who killed American soldiers and then posed for cameras with the severed body parts of the American soldiers.
