Circle of Jerks

Let's start out by acknowledging the obvious.  When U. S. Marines urinated on the dead bodies of Afghan citizens, that was stupid. Really stupid.

The sight of pixilated penises brings back memories of Abu Ghraib. But I suspect this was a more spontaneous demonstration of contempt for the enemy. You'll recall that the Abu Ghraib atrocities were traced to explicit communications from commanding officers about how to interrogate prisoners, the paper trail eventually leading back to the White House. (For a thorough analysis of the situational forces influencing the Abu Ghraib defendants, I strongly recommend social psychologist Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect.)

Predictably, as soon as the golden shower video went viral, the Obama administration's propaganda machine went into full outrage mode. Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was “deeply disturbed” by the incident. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton expressed “total dismay.” Not to be outdone, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called it “utterly deplorable.” What hypocrites! Where's the outrage over more than ten years of U. S. occupation in which we have humiliated, terrorized, maimed and killed unknown but substantial numbers of Afghan civilians?

The administration also claimed the scandal would hurt our reputation with the Afghan people. But this claim assumes that, prior to the pissing contest, the Afghans had a high enough opinion of Americans to allow room for it to drop. Hasn't anyone at the White House heard of the floor effect?

Here's a promise to anyone reading this blog. If you happen someday to run across my dead body, you have my permission to pee on it as much as you want. I won't mind at all.

Let's hope the military isn't too hard on these guys.