U.S. Soldiers Posing with the Enemy

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Well….dead enemy.

Like Joe Darby (of Abu Ghraib fame), an anonymous soldier took 18 sensitive photos and “leaked” them to the press. Specifically, to the LA Times.

The photos have emerged at a particularly sensitive moment for U.S.-Afghan relations. In January, a video appeared on the Internet showing four U.S. Marines urinating on Afghan corpses. In February, the inadvertent burning of copies of the Koran at a U.S. base triggered riots that left 30 dead and led to the deaths of six Americans. In March, a U.S. Army sergeant went on a nighttime shooting rampage in two Afghan villages, killing 17.

The soldier who provided The Times with a series of 18 photos of soldiers posing with corpses did so on condition of anonymity. He served in Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne’s 4th Brigade Combat Team from Ft. Bragg, N.C. He said the photos point to a breakdown in leadership and discipline that he believed compromised the safety of the troops.

The only comment I want to make here is to question whether or not this anonymous “whistleblower” bothered to bring attention to these photos by first going through the proper chain of command. What compelled him to give these 2-yr old photos over to the Los Angeles Times? And why now?

Actually, it doesn’t seem that the soldier was offended by these photos having been taken (which violates Army standards). He wasn’t motivated by a belief that these photos were wrong to take. Apparently he’s using them to draw attention to something else.

It would seem that personal security concerns are allegedly his motive, 2010 being a tough year for his brigade:

He expressed the hope that publication would help ensure that alleged security shortcomings at two U.S. bases in Afghanistan in 2010 were not repeated. The brigade, under new command but with some of the same paratroopers who served in 2010, began another tour in Afghanistan in February.

U.S. military officials asked The Times not to publish any of the pictures.

~~~

The soldier who provided the photos, and two other former members of the battalion, said in separate interviews that they and others had complained of inadequate security at the two bases.

And so by making these photos public, security for his brigade will improve…how?! How does that correlate? The photos are 2 yrs old and the brigade itself is under new leadership. Yet he feels that these photos will expose “a breakdown in leadership and discipline that he believed compromised the safety of the troops.” Unless what results is our immediate withdrawal and surrender from Afghanistan, does anyone believe public attention to this will increase the security of our troops?

Times Editor Davan Maharaj explains why he denied the request of the military not to publish any of the photos:

“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.”

And I’m sure they weighed in the potential consequences of whether or not publishing these photos might not be used for propaganda purposes, potentially further endangering U.S. and NATO troops. Surely it wasn’t for macabre sensationalism to sell papers.

Why not simply tell the soldiers’ stories about security inadequacies and personal losses without the publishing of these photos?

Photo: Soldiers from the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, along with Afghan police, pose with the mangled corpse of a suicide bomber. The Army says such photos are a violation of military standards and has launched a criminal investigation.

Soldiers have always done macabre things, along with displaying gallows humor to cope: Trophy body-part collecting, photos with the gruesome, etc. And given that these guys lost about 35 in their brigade in 2010 with 23 from suicide bombers, taking a photo with a failed suicide bomber is a rather tame reaction. Should we demand a higher standard of our soldiers? Certainly, the rest of the world always seems to be holding our soldiers to a tighter microscope.

The soldiers might have used bad judgment in defying Army standards by taking the photos; really poor judgment in circulating them around. The soldier who wanted to make a statement exercised even worse judgment in handing the photos over to the LATimes. But worse than all this? The LATimes going ahead and publishing a couple of them.

WaPo:

The 18 photographs were taken in 2010 in Zabul province by soldiers from the 82nd Airborne’s 4th Brigade Combat Team, the newspaper reported. Although the pictures were dated, the fresh disclosure of misbehavior extends a string of recent incidents in which U.S. troops have disrespected the dead, allegedly killed Afghan civilians and desecrated the Koran.

U.S. officials, concerned that the cumulative impact will further alienate an Afghan public already weary of foreign military occupation,

The Afghan public aren’t the only ones that are growing war weary…

“Our presence by its very nature creates tension between us and the local population,” Smith said in an interview Wednesday. “Past a certain point, a foreign presence is as destabilizing as it is stabilizing, and that’s what these incidents are pointing out.”

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So greg, you think we shouldn’t have responded?
As for who I blame, I blame clinton and the dems for their role in 9/11–making it so easy for the terrorists to pull off.

@Hard Right, #51:

So greg, you think we shouldn’t have responded?
As for who I blame, I blame clinton and the dems for their role in 9/11–making it so easy for the terrorists to pull off.

All the republican right was concerned about while Clinton was trying to sound the alarm about al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden was the Monica Lewinski affair. They even asserted that the August 1998 missile strikes he ordered against al Qaeda training camps were an effort to distract media attention away from the republican impeachment efforts:

Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV):
“‘Look at the movie Wag the Dog. I think this has all the elements of that movie,’ Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said. ‘Our reaction to the embassy bombings should be based on sound credible evidence, not a knee-jerk reaction to try to direct public attention away from his personal problems.’” [Ottawa Citizen, 8/21/98]

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA):
“There’s an obvious issue which will be raised internationally about the response here as to whether there is any diversionary motive involved. … I have deliberated consciously any references to Ms. Monica Lewinsky, but when you ask the question in very blunt terms, the president’s current problems have to be on the minds of many people.” [CNN, 8/20/98]

Former Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO):
“‘We support the president out of a sense of duty whenever he deploys military forces, but we’re not sure – were these forces sent at this time because he needed to divert our attention from his personal problems?‘ Ashcroft said during the taping of a TV program in Manchester, N.H.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8/21/98]

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX):
“I’m very supportive of the strike that has happened, but I will tell you that the timing is very questionable. This was the day that Monica Lewinsky has gone back to the grand jury, evidently enraged. Certainly that information will be overshadowed.” [Dallas Morning News, 8/21/98]

Former Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN):
“Coats (R-IN), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement, ‘While there is clearly much more we need to learn about this attack and why it was ordered today, given the president’s personal difficulties this week, it is legitimate to question the timing of this action.‘” [CNN, 8/20/98]

Former Rep. Dave Weldon (R-FL):
“Although most in Congress rallied around Clinton on Thursday, two Republican U.S. senators and one Central Florida congressman broke with the tradition of standing behind a president during a foreign crisis.Sen. Daniel Coats, R-Ind., Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and U.S. Rep. Dave Weldon, R-Palm Bay, publicly questioned Clinton’s motives in launching the attacks so soon after his public admission of a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky. … ‘The president has, indeed, broken the trust of the American people, and these are legitimate questions that must be answered.’” [Orlando Sentinel, 8/21/98]

Former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA):
“All I’m saying is if factors other than good intelligence, military necessity, being prepared for the consequences entered into it, then it is wrong, and it appears that one of those factors that may have entered into it is to take something that could have been done a week ago and do it today in an effort to divert some attention.” [Fox News, 8/20/98]

The incoming administration didn’t want to hear Clinton’s warnings about bin Laden and al Qaeda after the 2000 elections, either. Not only did they fail to listen to Clinton; they apparently didn’t read the newspapers. As of January 25, 2001, they had to be reminded that there was something called “Al-Qida” out there that maybe they should start paying more attention to: Declassified “Memorandum for Condaleeza Rice”, January 25, 2001, and a related article from the National Security Archive.

This was well over a year after Clinton’s 1998 missile attacks against al Qaeda made international headlines.

Apparently no one in the Bush administration read newspapers. Osama bin Laden’s name was in my mind moments after the second plane hit in New York. When my boss asked “Who could have done this?”, “Osama bin Laden” was my immediate answer. Anyone who had been following the news stories about al Qaeda for the past couple of years probably would have answered the same way.

So greg, I’ll take your evasion as a no, you think we should not have repsonded and invaded Afghanistan.

It would have been nice had the clinton admin warned the Bush admin, but that didn’t happen.
Not to mention the Bush admin was still trying to find their feet when the attack happened. Thanks to the dems trying to steal the election, Bush got a late start on his cabinet etc. Of course propagandists like yourself purposely ignore the 8 years in which clinton made it a point to blind our intelligence agencies while castrating the military. He focused more on covering up his bimbo eruptions and letting bin laden go than protecting America. You know it too.

By trying to find their feet, you apparently mean still not knowing what the hell “Al-Qida” was two full years after President Clinton had launched multiple cruise missiles against six of their training compounds.

If not for dems like you trying to steal the election, they might have had time to assemble a strategy.
Again, you are trying to divert attention from the 8 YEARS in which clinton and co. blinded our intel agencies and deliberately let OBL go free.
Then you have the hypocrisy and dishonesty to whine about obama not having enough time to “fix things”. We see thru your and you lies greg.

Hard Right
you put your finger on something OBAMA is also doing exactly,
he raise the debt so to leave the next many years in big problems for AMERICA,
like a spitfull game player, breaking the the game for the next players to have to repair it before playing, nd that is only one of the spiteful destruction, how about the indoctrination of the children in school by the teachers who belong to the UNIONS WHO BELONG TO OBAMA, how about the propaganda of hate division, he pick so many groups, and separate them against each other, this NATION IS SO SAD AND DEPRESS NOW THEY ARE TOO STUNT TO SEE IT COME FROM HIM THE GREAT DIVIDER IN CHIEF,
HIS PREVIOUS ONE WAS THE WAR ON WOMEN AGAINST OTHER WOMEN, IT WORK ENOUGH TO HAVE ONE WOMAN ACCUSING A MOTHER OF 7 CHILDREN WHO RAISE HER CHILDREN,
AND WHEN IT PLAY DOWN HE CHOOSE ANOTHER DIVIDING WAR,
HELL HE NOW TRY THE DIVIDE ON DOGS, HE MUST BE RUNNING OUT OF DIVIDE.

@Hard Right, #55:

We see thru your and you lies greg.

You don’t seem to be able to see what’s clear as day, right in front of your face:

QUESTION: By now I assume you’ve seen Bill Clinton’s performances. (Nice choice of words, performances. Journalistic integrity at its highest!) How do you respond to his specific accusation that the eight months before 9/11 the Bush Administration, in his words, didn’t even try to go after al-Qaida?

SECRETARY RICE: I’d just say read the 9/11 report. We went through this. We went through this argument. The fact of the matter is I think the 9/11 Commission got it about right. Nobody organized this country or the international community to fight the terrorist threat that was upon us until 9/11. I would be the first to say that because, you know, we didn’t fight the war on terror in the way that we’re fighting it now. We just weren’t organized as a country either domestically or as a leader internationally.

But what we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton Administration did in the preceding years. In fact, it is not true that Richard Clarke was fired. Richard Clarke was the counterterrorism czar when 9/11 happened and he left when he did not become Deputy Director of Homeland Security some several months later. We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida. For instance, big pieces were missing, like an approach to Pakistan that might work, because without Pakistan you weren’t going to get Afghanistan. And there were reasons that nobody could think of actually going in and taking out the Taliban, either the Clinton Administration or the Bush Administration, because it’s true you couldn’t get basing rights in Uzbekistan and that was the long pole in the tent.

“But what we did in the eight months was at least as aggressive as what the Clinton Administration did in the preceding years.”

Really? Eight months of doing nothing was as aggressive as launching multiple cruise missiles at each of 6 separate al Qaeda training camps?

That statement is utterly preposterous.

Perhaps one difference between republicans and democrats is that democrats tend to recognize total B.S. when they hear it.

Oh, you mean when Clinton, without a coalition nor permission from anyone, bombed six “abandoned” sites in Afghanistan and an aspirin factor in Sudan? Yes…extremely effective. ….in getting people’s minds off his other scandals.

@Greg: ok…I call B.S. on this one. Clinton was offered Osamas head on a platter by the Sudanese (I think..) and he & his ”lawyers” -declined.

So let me get this straight! it’s ok to blow them in small pieces, shot them to death, stab them to death, but by golly don’t you dare pose for pictures with whats left. our priorities are in the toilet.
our bravest and best fight against men disguised as women, hiding among civilians, hobbled by Obama’s ROE, and then some want to disparage them because they have pictures taken with body parts. I seen much worse from Viet Nam. You don’t want them to pose, then BRING THEM HOME.

talking about money, does anyone know what happen with the billions of GADAFI AND FAMILY,
THE LAST TIME I heard was GOLDEN SACH TELLING HIM THEY DID HAVE IT, WHEN HE ASK FOR HIS MONEY BACK ,
WHERE DID THOSE BILLIONS GO? ANYBODY KNOW, THEY HAD GIVEN THE EXCUSE OF BAD INVESTMENTS, ANYONE KNOW WHICH WAS THE INVESTMENT OF A FEW BILLIONS,
THAT HAPPEN TO BE THE CUE FOR OBAMA TO TELL GADAFI TO RESIGN, AND THE WAR FOR THE REVOLUTION BEGAN

@Greg: So you say that the B.S. party is able to recognize B.S. when they hear it? HMMMM have to think about that. bubba Clinton, in his own words, refused to take Osama when offered by the Sudanese Government, because they had nothing to try him on. yeah I heard B.S. before but that took the cake. Then again, according to his own chief of intelligence, had Osama at a gathering of terrorist, and requested permission to throw missles at him, and he refused. The B.S. party strikes again.

@Dc, #58:

Among the 6 targets Clinton ordered hit in Afghanistan:

The Al Farouq training camp near Kandahar;
The Muawai, camp run by the Pakistani Harkat-ul-Mujahideen to train militants to fight Indian troops in Kashmir;
The training camp in the Jarawah area, near Khost;
The Zhawar Kili al-Badr al Qaeda training camp, which was directed by Osama bin Laden himself. (Our Tomahawk missles missed him by 7 hours, because somebody tipped him off.)

All 19 of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attack one year later trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

Feel free to send a card apologizing for the Sudanese “aspirin plant”, if you feel so inclined. Hey, mistakes happen. While you’re at it, you might send a card to Iraq apologizing for reducing much the country to rubble because of Bush’s imagined “weapons of mass destruction.”

The camps were a bust..most had been moved already or were empty. Clinton was the running joke at the time for those attacks and most considered he did them just take some pressure off the Lewinsky thing…not to mention the growing number of women coming out accusing him of rape/groping them. Those strikes were mainly a diversion, largely symbolic and had “zero” impact on AlQueda (training or otherwise) — as you have already pointed out.

_______________________
Washington D.C., August 20, 2008 – On the tenth anniversary of U.S. cruise missile strikes against al-Qaeda in response to deadly terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, newly-declassified government documents posted today by the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org) suggest the strikes not only failed to hurt Osama bin Laden but ultimately may have brought al-Qaeda and the Taliban closer politically and ideologically.

A 400-page Sandia National Laboratories report on bin Laden, compiled in 1999, includes a warning about political damage for the U.S. from bombing two impoverished states without regard for international agreement, since such action “mirror imag[ed] aspects of al-Qaeda’s own attacks” [see pp. 18-22]. A State Department cable argues that although the August missile strikes were designed to provide the Taliban with overwhelming reason to surrender bin Laden, the military action may have sharpened Afghan animosity towards Washington and even strengthened the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance.

Following the August 20 U.S. air attacks, Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmed told U.S. Department of State officials “If Kandahar could have retaliated with similar strikes against Washington, it would have.” Such an attack, although unfeasible at the time, was at least in part actualized by al-Qaeda on 9/11.
_______________________________________

Iraq by contrast…has far better chance to actually turn out well, compared to Afghanistan. And they have the resources to rebuild it in their own image, instead of Saddams. A lot of it has been rebuilt and is functioning better than it was already compliments of the US military, gov/treasury. AlQueda ultimately got their back broken there. It depleted BinLaden’s money, divided them in many ways (arguing over the bad publicity of the extremely violent and gruesome tactics they were using), and at depleted there ranks of the most highly trained people they had.
The rest of them, were mostly cannon fodder…ie,.,”students’ recruited from Europe and other universities who had zero skill, little training (see legs above).

I have come to the conclusion, that talking to Greg, is akin to trying to have an intelligent discussion, with a Brick! Liberals, have a CLOSED mindset, 98% of the time, i have observed. Once, they focus that “one thought” brain on something, it becomes carved in stone FACT. Whether right, OR NOT. And, you will never dissuade them. Waste of time, to even try.
Part I don’t get?? Why, are they so HELL BENT, on converting US, to a Socialist state, instead of taking the EASIER path, and simply MOVING TO AN EXISTING ONE!! If this Continues… I could visualize CW2 on the horizon… but that’s just me. Your vision may vary.

@ greg..last comment to you… Clinton, airstrikes….. there is a saying.. but in CLINTON’S case, it would have to be BASTARDIZED to say…. “HESITATION.. DOESN’T KILL!” that splains it all….

Next time the bombers should blow themselves into smaller pieces.

@Dc, #64:

The camps were a bust..most had been moved already or were empty.

I guess that explains why Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda cadre had been in one of the training camps Clinton had blown off the map only seven hours earlier.

A 400-page Sandia National Laboratories report on bin Laden, compiled in 1999, includes a warning about political damage for the U.S. from bombing two impoverished states without regard for international agreement, since such action “mirror imag[ed] aspects of al-Qaeda’s own attacks” [see pp. 18-22]. A State Department cable argues that although the August missile strikes were designed to provide the Taliban with overwhelming reason to surrender bin Laden, the military action may have sharpened Afghan animosity towards Washington and even strengthened the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance.

Clinton’s strikes on al Qaeda training camps made made the Taliban mad at us? And strengthened the Taliban-al Qaeda alliance? Oh dear oh dear. . .

Al Qaeda had already been the Taliban’s guest in Afghanistan for years. Ramzi Yousef trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan before the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. They were already set against us by 1998. The planning for the 9/11 attacks was already underway.

Iraq by contrast…has far better chance to actually turn out well, compared to Afghanistan.

The only problem was that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda weren’t in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks in the first place. Iraq diverted our attention, along with the bulk of our military resources. And we removed a foil against Iran.

Afghanistan has actually turned out very well. Osama bin Laden is dead along with most of al Qaeda’s leadership. Isn’t that what we went there for? Having accomplished what we set out to do, we should leave.

@Hankster58, #65:

Part I don’t get?? Why, are they so HELL BENT, on converting US, to a Socialist state, instead of taking the EASIER path, and simply MOVING TO AN EXISTING ONE!!

I honestly don’t understand how wanting to keep Medicare and Social Security, to make sure every American has health insurance, to take care of the environment, to keep big corporations from simply taking over, and to return tax rates to what they were during the Reagan administration is seen as some sort of socialist plot. What that actually is–and I’m saying this as a 62-year-old American–is keeping the United States of America that most of us have lived in for our entire lives.

The truly radical proposal is on the republican side of the table. They’re wanting to change virtually everything.

Jon
yes, it would have been more presentable to the camera in a bag in co gni to, mailed directly to LA PAPER
bye

someone claimed… “I honestly don’t understand how wanting to keep Medicare and Social Security, to make sure every American has health insurance, to take care of the environment, to keep big corporations from simply taking over, and to return tax rates to what they were during the Reagan administration is seen as some sort of socialist plot. What that actually is–and I’m saying this as a 62-year-old American–is keeping the United States of America that most of us have lived in for our entire lives.”

Never said I was against MOST that, but you choose to IGNORE every OTHER Illegal , shady, or UN-Constitutional thing he has done…and you are willing, to accept his commie/socialist agendas? Those things can be attended to, WITHOUT becoming the Soviet Union. Democrats however, can’t see that. figures

There was never any proof or confirmation that anyone was in the camps and “left” just hours before the bombing. It was the CIA that claimed that (that Bin Laden had been tipped off and eft hours earlier)..and we all KNOW just how accurate they were/are!! Images taken after the strikes did not support that assessment either. They based their assessment on the fact that an AlQueda operative was arrested somewhere else a few hours earlier and made the “assumption” that this must have tipped them off so they left. Brilliant.

Further, there was not “one” confirmed AlQueda kill from the camps (although the CIA alleged they were full/occupied at the time) in any of those camps. Guess “they” all left too? I think out of the entire campaign there was one confirmed death…a civillian who was Egyptian/Canadian.

Bill also launched similar strikes in Iraq in 98 with the same results. They did zero damage to our enemies but infuriated others. If you want me to throw back the same rhetoric/logic used against Bush…it just “created” more terrorists and made Saddam “more” defiant than ever. The same CIA also said that Saddam had WMD and that they were there in Iraq? I don’t suppose you believe we missed those by a few hours too? I stand by what I said as being factually accurate. Feel free to have a different “opinion”.