Urination video: Defiling corpses is disgusting, but nothing compared to what our enemy does to the living

By Charlie Wolf for the Daily Mail
Updated: 22:35 GMT, 13 January 2012

It is one of those screaming tabloid headlines: 'US Marines identify ‘urination’ troops.'

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No, it’s not a red-top headline, though the words 'Breaking News' flash at you in red as if the news is being sped to you by a little red fire engine. Sped to you because it is news that pokes one in the eye of the United States, so it has to be rushed to you for a communal moralistic tut-tut, a ‘the shame of it all’ moment from the liberal left and chattering classes.

And not even twenty-four hours after the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center.

Horrifying: A video posted online claims to show four Marines urinating on dead bodies

Expect long pompous dissertations in the Independent and the Guardian, references to Abu Ghraib, torture and water-boarding... The left will be salivating on high to such an extent you can expect rain in the forecast.

The story concerns four US Marines shown in a video appearing to urinate on Taliban corpses. Nothing is confirmed other than two of the marines have been apparently identified. The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, as well as the Defence Secretary, Leon Panetta, have condemned the incident. Panetta called the acts shown in the video 'utterly deplorable', and vowed a full investigation would be carried out by the Marines and the Kabul-based International Security Assistance Force (Isaf).

The Pentagon has authenticated the videos, so I guess we know these pictures are real and not something leftover from the photo desk of the Daily Mirror from May Day 2004 in a folder marked 'faked torture photos' - a goof-up that would eventually inflict Piers Morgan on an unsuspecting CNN public.

But, if the events portrayed in the video are true, those involved will be dealt with, and harshly, by the United States authorities - as they have done and will continue to do in the future. The Corp take their reputation rather seriously.

Before all the moral posturing takes place it is important to remember this was carried out by individuals, not sanctioned by the chain of command, government, or the people. People, even good people, do bad things. It has nothing to do with whether Barack Obama or George W. Bush are in office.

A spokeswoman for the Marines said: 'While we have not yet verified the origin or authenticity of this video, the actions portrayed are not consistent with our core values and are not indicative of the character of the Marines in our Corps'

I’m not excusing this in the least. It is wrong. But one thing should be remembered. We don’t know the full context of what has happened. All we know is that four marines are apparently shown urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters.

The bodies are dead and bloody. What happened before? Was there a fire fight? Were the Marine snipers shot at? Were any compatriots of the U.S. troops killed or wounded? Was it a case of the condition known as ‘battle rage’ or the effects of battle stress and fatigue? We train and hold soldiers to a very high standard, but we also put them in extreme positions - asking them to kill for us, as well as risk their own lives on a daily basis.

There was a report during the Iraq War of soldiers shooting into what were apparently dead bodies; a war crime. What wasn’t said, was the fact that some of these enemy combatants would either be booby-trapped, or fake death, rising up to attack and kill Allied troops. We also know that our enemy has used ambulances to move troops and armaments - against Geneva Convention rules. When an enemy does not keep to the rules of law it can make it impossible, for their own safety, for our troops to be weighed-down by the same rules.

I am not advocating that we do away with the laws of war, or drop our high standards, but we must also temper this, with an understanding of the conditions soldiers fight under, and a faith in the fact that the fighting forces of democracies (the US, Britain, Israel) are still the most honourable in the world, and will police themselves.

The video was posted on YouTube by someone identifying themselves as ‘semperfiLoneVoice’, an apparent reference to the Marine Corps motto “semper fidelis”, or “always faithful”. According to the caption, the user said that the men were members of a sniper scout team, adding: 'I thought Marines were supposed to do the right thing when no one is watching.'

So, it is a pretty good guess that the whistle-blower was a fellow marine.

Abu Ghraib was the same, a lowly Army Reservist named Joe Darby handed a disk of pictures by accident. 'I’ve always had a moral sense of right and wrong. And I knew that you know, friends or not, it had to stop,' Darby says, who turned the evidence in.

The video adds to a list of embarrassments that includes the abuses from Abu Ghraib, pictured

That’s the point of it. No one can guarantee the behaviour of every member of a troop, just as much as they cannot guarantee the behaviour of every member of society. But the rules, laws, morality and accepted ethos of countries like the United States, separates them from the real barbarians they are fighting. The US and British troops have been fighting under some of the most grueling conditions possible, against an implacable enemy that does not hold to any laws of war.

While we worry about the moral implications of soldiers urinating on the dead, they worry about protecting a local populace, as well as their own, from I.E.D. explosives, suicide bombings in mosques and churches; fundamentalists who rape, behead and specifically target civilians. While our enemies fight to enslave, we fight to free. Our mistreatment of the dead is an issue because it happens so rarely, where for our enemies, dismemberment of the dead and public display of bodies hanging in squares or from bridges is commonplace. While we respect the dead, Islamic extremists do not even respect the living.

Let’s be brutally honest for a minute, urinating on the bodies of the dead, even (especially) an enemy, is callow, undignified and unseemly; it lowers us all as a society. But it is a bit rich for the moralising that comes from the left. While these selfless warriors are out serving others, on the streets of American and British towns and cities, thanks to a morally debased progressivist agenda, we find a society where it is commonplace for self-serving drunk revellers to relieve themselves publicly on our own streets -- on the white picket fences that once represented a society with values. Read the codes and mottoes found in the Marines and other forces and you will see it is there, not here anymore, where values of honour, integrity, fidelity, still have meaning.

For our hard working rough hews soldiers - who have been up to their necks in dreadful living conditions, shot at daily; urinating on the dead bodies of the enemy is in no way comparable with the brutal treatment meted out on innocents by that same barbaric enemy, so let’s keep a sense of perspective here.

Yes, U.S. (and UK) troops mess up at times, grievously. For us it is an aberration, but not for our enemies. They cowardly take the battle to civilians without rules, restraint, honour or purpose. There is no moral equivalence between the two.

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