NEWS: USA Soldiers Reprimanded Over Taliban Body Burning

Four USA soldiers have been lightly reprimanded over an incident played on Australian Television where they burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and used the incident to incite other Taliban fighters "to Fight back". Investigations conducted by the USA military found that the Taliban fighters had been set alite for "hygiene purposes". Two of the soldiers were reprimanded for setting the body alight and the two others for inciting surrounding Taliban soldiers to come out and fight. Major Kamiya of the USA miliatary says that the soldiers did not realise their actions desecrated the bodies and violated Islam law and that the bodies were burned to stop disease.



My only comment here is that maybe if these soldiers are not versed in the laws of the countries they are deployed in, they can cause more damage and harm to the local people than good and maybe are not the best people for the job. The term whitewash comes to mind.

It was a good excuse to burn the bodies for hygiene purposes but am sure their commanding officers would have made them well aware of the Islamic ways in this regard so as not to incite further violence and attacks against the USA military.

The excuse may have worked for the burning of the bodies but not being caught live on television saying the things that the soldiers did say to other taliban fighters in the area.

The Television transcript report clearly showed the soldiers were aware their actions contradicted Islam laws.

"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," another reportedly said.

Originally posted by Mayet
The Television transcript report clearly showed the soldiers were aware their actions contradicted Islam laws.

"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," another reportedly said.

The above sounds like a very bad translation to me. I have never heard any American use phrases like that.

Also note is states "another reportedly said". I take that to mean it is an allegation and not a proven fact.

[edit on 11/26/2005 by shots]

Its not exactly the best thing to do when the USA is accusing others of being inhumane etc, this war on terrorism can never work, because everytime the USA does something like this, or kills innocent civilians, another terrorist is born.

Originally posted by shots

Originally posted by Mayet
The Television transcript report clearly showed the soldiers were aware their actions contradicted Islam laws.

"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," another reportedly said.

The above sounds like a very bad translation to me. I have never heard any American use phrases like that.

Also note is states "another reportedly said". I take that to mean it is an allegation and not a proven fact.

[edit on 11/26/2005 by shots]

Sounds like something Gov. Arnold would say. Not that I consider him an American.

[edit on 27-11-2005 by redhat]

Screw their law, they can advocate killing americans but burining their corpses because of disease is wrong?
Bull

Originally posted by mrjones
Screw their law, they can advocate killing americans but burining their corpses because of disease is wrong?
Bull

The bodies of westerners get burned by the insurgents, too. Then they drag them through the streets and hang them from bridges.

I'm with you, mrjones. We walk on eggshells for them way too much.

Originally posted by mrjones
Screw their law, they can advocate killing americans but burining their corpses because of disease is wrong?
Bull

If you're going to say "screw their law" then you've lost the only
justification for an unprovoked invasion of a foreign country.

Originally posted by HiddenReality
Its not exactly the best thing to do when the USA is accusing others of being inhumane etc, this war on terrorism can never work, because everytime the USA does something like this, or kills innocent civilians, another terrorist is born.

Right, how many family members of the 30,000+ Iraqi civilians who've died in Iraq became terrorists fighting against the U.S. when they would have otherwise lived a normal life? Or how many people became terrorists as the result of being interrogated at Abu Ghraib? We'll never really know but I'll bet you it's more than just a few.

Originally posted by jsobecky
The bodies of westerners get burned by the insurgents, too. Then they drag them through the streets and hang them from bridges.

"But they did it too" is a very weak arguement and most people abandon it sometime in elementary school.

[edit on 27-11-2005 by ShakyaHeir]

ShakyaHeir, you make very good points.
My comment was shortsighted.
We wage a war on terrorists, thus we must be above reproach lest we ourselves become terrorists in others' eyes

Originally posted by ShakyaHeir
If you're going to say "screw their law" then you've lost the only
justification for an unprovoked invasion of a foreign country.

9/11 wasn't sufficient provocation? :shk:

What are they supposed to do, stop everything and have a proper burial reading Koranic verses or something?

I would have just let the bodies sit there to rot.

[edit on 11/27/2005 by djohnsto77]

Dj tell me just who "Did" 9/11?

Are we blaming the Afghanistani's now? The Iraqi's? The Iranians? The Syrians? The Jordanian? Or was it really the Israeli's or mayhaps even the AMericans themselves? We could blame the eskimo's for 9/11 and then we could invade Greenland, wipe out a few people and trample their laws. All in the name of revenge for 9/11.

Its like I am bored, lets start a war, blame someone for something and just bulldoze through. It was Zarqawi, Zarqawi did it.



[edit on 27-11-2005 by Mayet]

NATO invoked Article V for the first time in history against the Taliban government in Afghanistan for its role in attacking the U.S. on 9/11. That's the only country that has ever been so "blamed."

www.nato.int...

[edit on 11/27/2005 by djohnsto77]

Originally posted by jsobecky
I'm with you, mrjones. We walk on eggshells for them way too much.

It is my opinion that we do not 'walk on eggshells' or live to a higher standard for them at all. We do it for us. We do it because we are a proud and honorable country who fight by the rules and don't use the excuse of them being barbarians to lower ourselves to status of barbarians, too.

Or else we used to be...

I think far too many people think if 'they did it first', that's a good enough reason for us to throw away the standards that once made the USA honorable.

This is a shameful practice and I'm sorry to say that I don't think anyone will be held acccountable. After all, "they started it"! Only they didn't. We started it.

What exactly constitutes that "we started it," Benevolent Heretic?





seekerof

Originally posted by Seekerof
What exactly constitutes that "we started it," Benevolent Heretic?

We all have our beliefs about these things, Seekerof. Look closely... djohnsto77 thinks Afghanistan had something to do with 9/11. I happen to think the government of the USA was very instrumental in starting this whole bloody mess.

I don’t insist that anyone agree, but look again… many people do. I know that you’re not one of them. That's all right. Some are still clinging to the fantasy that the USA was an innocent victim of the big, bad terrorists from the Muslim Middle-East. I don’t have a problem with anyone believing that, I just don’t agree. Ok?

Originally posted by Seekerof
What exactly constitutes that "we started it," Benevolent Heretic?
seekerof

I was going to ask the very same question. According to DJs link above

Frank Taylor, the US Ambassador at Large and Co-ordinator for Counter-terrorism briefed the North Atlantic Council - NATO's top decision-making body- on 2 October on the results of investigations into the 11 September terrorist attacks against the United States. As a result of the information he provided to the Council, it has been clearly determined that the individuals who carried out the attacks belonged to the world-wide terrorist network of Al-Qaida, headed by Osama bin Laden and protected by the Taleban regime in Afghanistan.

www.nato.int...

According to NATO they started it not us or many of us missed some news flash

[edit on 11/27/2005 by shots]

Originally posted by djohnsto77
9/11 wasn't sufficient provocation? :shk:

There's plenty of evidence that supports the hypothesis that the United States government was at the very least complicit in the 9/11 attacks, if not responsible for them. Building 7 is the most obvious smoking gun.

But that's a discussion for another thread.

What are they supposed to do, stop everything and have a proper burial reading Koranic verses or something?

Everyone deserves to have proper burial rights in accordance with their beleifs/religion. So to answer you, yes if they are Muslim they deserve to have a proper burial with the appropriate verses read from the Koran.

I would have just let the bodies sit there to rot.

I think that statement speaks for itself.

Originally posted by shots

Originally posted by Mayet
The Television transcript report clearly showed the soldiers were aware their actions contradicted Islam laws.

"You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," another reportedly said.

The above sounds like a very bad translation to me. I have never heard any American use phrases like that.

Also note is states "another reportedly said". I take that to mean it is an allegation and not a proven fact.

It's proven by fact because the guy who says it is reading off his sheet of taunts to the camera. The reason it sounds like a bad translation is because the US solider isn't the best at reading.
It was on the documentary which was aired in Australia that started this off, i saw it when it was shown, they knew exactly what they were doing.

Awww and look, they were "lightly reprimanded" how ... nice




[edit on 28-11-2005 by ImJaded]

Originally posted by jsobecky

Originally posted by mrjones
Screw their law, they can advocate killing americans but burining their corpses because of disease is wrong?
Bull

The bodies of westerners get burned by the insurgents, too. Then they drag them through the streets and hang them from bridges.

I'm with you, mrjones. We walk on eggshells for them way too much.

I'm with both y'all! These fine soldiers are just merely (and literally

)trying to fight fire with fire!

Fight on brave soldiers!

[edit on 29/11/05 by Intelearthling]