Friday the 13th and Other Tragedies

Okay, dear readers. File this post under "it goes without saying;" however, ever since 9/11, nothing goes without saying anymore.  Granted, this is a "softball" pitch, but I'm just getting my blogging feet wet again, so be gentle.

I got an email today from someone who is outraged that there may be punishment coming for four Marines who, if the video is authenticated, desecrated the corpses of Taliban fighters by urinating on them (by the way, I'm unclear as to whether the dead have been positively identified as fighters of any kind).  This bold act of American heroism is made even more impressive by the stark contrast of the heavily armed, heavy booted Marines versus the barefoot locals in street clothes.  The world loves a bully! Apparently that's the new American way, anyhow. 

My multiple counters to the email sender's outrage pointed out: that desecrating bodies is a longstanding worldwide cultural taboo; that these actions violate the Geneva Convention (oh, that quaint old thing again), and the Code of Military Justice (specifically  Article 134 as explained in this L.A. Times piece); that I honor our veterans by donating to worthy organizations like Operation Homefront and supporting IAVA (which also condemned the desecration): that honoring the military does not include excusing criminal acts that inflame the rest of the world, ruin the reputation of the Corps (which has also condemned these acts), and put our other fighting men and women at risk because such acts are despicable and dishonorable.  The sender answered me with a load of irrational, emotional, b.s. that didn't address one of the aforementioned facts.  He did, however, confess that he didn't understand me.  Well.  Duh.

So, here's what happens when you go a decade without enforcing the law at the highest levels.  Why SHOULD four Marines be punished for committing such acts when the likes of Dick Cheney and Torture, Inc. walk free?  And, given that the only reason war is prosecutable in the first place is that young men and women can be trained to dehumanize an enemy, should those young men and women have to answer for that training?  Who's really responsible for man's inhumanity to man in this case?  Now if the sender had countered with either of those points, I honestly wouldn't have had a better answer than "2 wrongs don't make a right."  But a long list of wrongs, followed by outrage over, and punishment for, this lapse of humaneness in combat circumstances certainly makes hypocrites of us all.  The thing is, the sender wasn't concerned with the wrongness of what those Marines may have done.  And I thought liberals were supposed to be the moral relativists. 

Here's the bottom line: if all that matters to you is that you achieve your Toby-Keith-Boot-in-Their-Ass-Piss-on-Their-Dead cowboy hard on - even if it puts our military and American civilians abroad at further risk, even if it dishonors all branches of the service, even if it's ILLEGAL, even if it has the potential to endanger peace talks (Peace - another quaint concept) - I don't think I understand you either.