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US troops burned bodies in Afghanistan because âthey stankâ
WASHINGTON - US soldiers burned the bodies of two Taleban fighters in Afghanistan because villagers had not claimed them a day after they were killed and the bodies âwere bloated and they stank,â a US magazine reported late Friday, citing soldiers who were present at the incident.
| They didn't smell so good before they got waxed, either. |
Australian television talking out of its ass reported on Wednesday that soldiers had burned the bodies of two suspected Taleban militants and afterwards used the incident to insult villagers and try to provoke them into attacking US-led coalition troops.
The incident has prompted a US military investigation into the alleged desecration of the corpses, which is in violation of the Geneva Convention on human rights. It also further clouds the United Statesâs reputation, already tarnished by the sexual humiliation of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of âwar on terrorâ inmates at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
| Funny, the reporter forgot to mention the Taliban's reputation on human rights in the above paragraph. Must have slipped his mind ... |
According to the article published on Time magazineâs website, a US army platoon was sharing a rocky hilltop above Gonbaz village in southern Afghanistan with the bodies of the two fighters. âThe Taleban men had been killed in a firefight 24 hours earlier and in the 90 degree heat, their bodies had become an unbearable presence,â Time reported, citing soldiers who were present.
"Damn LT, them boys is gettin' ripe!"
"Yeah, yeah, Tyrone, what do I look like, a magician?" |
Earlier, Lieutenant Eric Nelson, the leader of B Company, I-508 platoon had sent word down to Gonbaz asking the villagers to pick up the bodies and bury them according to Muslim ritual. But the villagers refused â probably because the dead fighters were not locals but Pakistanis, said one US Army officer, the magazine said.
| You mean the Taliban fighters were Paks? Who knew? |
The magazine said it was then that Nelson took a decision that could jeopardize his career. âWe decided to burn the bodies ... because they were bloated and they stank,â Time reported, citing a soldier.
The incident, captured on film by Australian photojournalist Stephen Dupont and aired on Australian public broadcasting channel SBS, unleashed world outrage from all the usual left-wing sources, while the rest of the world hardly noticed.
Islamic tradition requires the bodies of Muslims to be washed, prayed over, wrapped in white cloth and buried, if possible, within a day. Under the Geneva Convention, the disposal of war dead âshould be honorable, and, if possible, according to the rites of the religion to which the deceased belonged.â
| Since it wasn't possible, they did something different. |
Time noted that one US officer in Kandahar had âpointed out that the Taleban and Al Qaeda never show any qualms about defiling the bodies of dead Afghan or American soldiers.â
| Well yeah, but that's different. |
Posted by: Steve White 2005-10-22 |
