The marines urination video doesn't show the real war crime
The urination video does not shock me so much as the public's tolerance of
these immoral wars that make criminals of marines
Ross Caputi
* *
* guardian.co.uk, Friday 13 January 2012 13.47 EST
*
Video allegedly showing US troops urinating on bodies of Taliban
fighters (warning: contains potentially distressing images).
Video:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/13/us-marines-video-urination-war-crime
The video of US marines urinating on Afghan corpses does not shock me. Though
their behavior is disgusting and
unacceptable, I find the public's reaction to this video far more
troubling. People are not outraged that there are dead Afghans; they are
outraged at the manner in which the dead are treated. This is
indicative of our culture's tolerance for war and war crimes – as long as they
are done in a gentlemanly fashion.
During the second siege of Fallujah, blatant war crimes were committed, yet
the corporate media reported them with indifference. The siege itself
was a war crime, according to the International Committee of the Red
Cross Summary of International Law, because indiscriminate tactics were
used, constant care was not taken to protect the civilian population, proper
distinction between civilians and combatants was not made, medical personnel
and medical units were not protected, indiscriminate weapons were used, and
recent research about
the current health crisis in Fallujah suggests that poisonous weapons
may have been used as well.
Many of these war crimes were reported by the corporate media, though they were
not described as such. For example, the New York Times reported on 8 November
2004 that American forces "seized" the Fallujah general hospital. An incident
that I witnessed, as did Paul Wood and Robbie Wright from the BBC, was
when my unit fired grenades into a house until it collapsed – with full
knowledge that there were two resistance fighters and a young boy
(roughly 10 years old) inside. Paul Wood interviewed the lieutenant at
the scene, and he acknowledged that they had killed the young boy. In
both of these reports, war crimes and Geneva Conventions were never
mentioned, and the façade of honorable conduct was preserved.
What did not make it into the news was my behavior in Fallujah and the
behavior of others in my unit, which I am certain would have elicited
outrage equal to that elicited by this video of the urinating marines. I
believe that the second siege of Fallujah can correctly be
characterised as an "atrocity-producing situation". Our false beliefs
about who we were fighting, our dehumanisation of Fallujans, our desire
to "see combat" (a cute euphemism) and to get a confirmed kill, and our
longing for revenge for lost comrades against a faceless enemy all
conspired to create a bloodthirsty and lawless atmosphere.
I
witnessed marines stealing from the pockets of dead resistance fighters
and looting houses. I've heard firsthand accounts of marines mutilating
dead bodies, of a marine who murdered a civilian, and of a marine who
slit a puppy's throat. As the days of the siege passed, we used
increasingly indiscriminate and illegal tactics – like "reconnaissance
by fire", which is when you fire into a house to see if anyone is
inside. The violence, the hate and our distorted sense of morality made
many of us sick, including myself. I stole a black ski mask out of
someone's home, because I wanted to take it home as a trophy, as
evidence that I had fought against the "terrorists".
My behavior
and the behavior of others in my unit was despicable, as was the
behavior of these marines urinating on corpses. But we shouldn't let
ourselves be fooled that an immoral mission and immoral war could ever
be conducted in an honorable manner. War crimes were implicit in the
invasion and occupation of Iraq, and they are abundant in the continued
occupation of Afghanistan.
Yet, many of us choose not to see these war crimes, even though they are
right in front of our faces. Only when a shocking YouTube video comes
along, do we choose to look. And even then, what we see is the
urinating, not the dead bodies.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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