Four United States Marines have been recorded on video urinating on the bodies of some dead Taliban fighters from Afghanistan. The video has circulated all across the United States and the world. Lara Logan, of CBS, said that the video is a ‘frat boy mentality’ that will cause other countries difficulty to trust Americans.
“It’s a gift for the Taliban, really, because it reinforces all of their propaganda,” Logan said. “They want the world to believe, they want Afghans to believe that the U.S. has no regard for the Afghan people and no regard for Islam. This video enforces that message of theirs, so it essentially does their job for them.
“The fact that U.S. Marine and U.S. soldiers have built mosques, for example, the length and breadth of Afghanistan, no one cares about that. That is not the image that will endure. This is the image that will endure and the damage is already done.”
Logan also went on to say that the Taliban can use the video as propaganda to recruit new fighters against the United States in their cause.
“It’s a stupid thing. It’s the thing you expect them to do when they’re out drunk and there’s no excuse for it,” Logan said. “They’ve unfortunately tarnished the image of every other Marine and soldier that’s out there, and the other guys know this. They’re all going to be mad at them for that.”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the four marines have been identified in the video by Pentagon investigators. “Anyone, anyone found to have participated or known about it, having engaged in such conduct must be held fully accountable.”
Logan said that whatever the United States can do to assure the public that the Marines’ actions do not represent the values of America, the government will do it. But whatever the government decides to do with the Marines will not matter in the eyes of those in Afghanistan.
“It doesn’t really mean anything in Afghanistan if you bring charges or demote somebody’s rank. No one’s going to be hanging from a tree for this, and that’s the kind of justice that they’re used to in Afghanistan,” she said.
“This is what nations need to think about: When you send your troops to war, there are unintended consequences. This is one of those unintended consequences,” she said. “It’s not helpful to the U.S. in the rest of the world – and in the Islamic world particularly. The U.S.’s image in those parts of the world has already taken a pounding in the last ten years of war.”
