Part Two of an Exclusive Mint Press Investigative Report
(MintPress) —In part one of this investigative report, Mint Press examined questions of racism in the U.S. military, after photos of a United States Marine sniper team in Afghanistan posing with a flag bearing a striking resemblance to a Nazi SS symbol surfaced. The Marine Corps released a statement on Thursday regarding the controversial photo, saying that the incident was brought to their attention in November, and that the Marines in the photo are no longer with their command.
It further detailed, “Certainly, the use of the “SS runes” is not acceptable and Scout Snipers have been addressed concerning this issue (“SS runes” are prohibited from use as a symbol or any other use). Rest assured, the Marine Corps does not allow the use of “SS runes.”
Jewish groups, such as the Simon Wiesenthal Center mentioned in part one of this investigative report, are not the only ones decrying the incident. Ibrahim Hooper, National Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) told Mint Press,
“Are they serious that a whole unit would not know that it was one of the most famous Nazi symbols?”
Washington, DC-based CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Ibrahim continued, “It stretches credulity,” he said of the incident. “If they didn’t know then maybe they should be court marshaled for ignorance.”
CAIR also recently condemned another detestable incident involving U.S. Marines last month in which four Marines out of Camp Lejeune in North Carolina were seen in a video that was widely circulated urinating on the dead bodies of alleged Taliban members.
In a letter to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad wrote: “We condemn this apparent desecration of the dead as a violation of our nation’s military regulations and of international laws of war prohibiting such disgusting and immoral actions.”
The incident sparked international condemnation of the event, from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top U.S. government officials and even prompting veterans to speak out.
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Veterans speak out
Captain Tim Kudo, a former Marine and representative of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told CBS News that he believes that the men cannot consider themselves soldiers because of their offensive actions. “I don’t see them as Marines,” he said “I see them as people who have set back the war effort, put their fellow Marines in danger, and who stand in contradiction to pretty much everything the Marine Corps stands for and America stands for.” Kudo added that the men in the video “undid” a lot of the efforts Marines are working towards in that area.
Still, other veterans, like Sergio Kochergin, who served in Iraq with a Scout/Sniper Platoon, and is now associated with the Iraq Veterans Against the War organization, sees the recent actions as symptoms of a large problem.
“The culture of the US and the military is very similar in the sense that it dehumanizes all cultures to which we are sent to fight. Urinating is nothing, comparing it to invading a country and killing thousands of people.”
Kochergin continutes to say,
“When you are deployed and you are exposed to atrocities of war, we loose all of our human sensitivities. When you kill the enemy on the daily basis and see your friends killed or wounded your ability to reason disappear. So blaming a tool for doing the job they are trained to do is outlandish.”
He also said that the flag with the alleged Nazi symbol in the photo is a familiar one to many Scout/Snipers, and he has such a photo displayed in his living room.
Vincent Emanuele, another former Marine who was deployed twice to Iraq said that incidents such as these and the abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib in 2006 which made international headlines are part of a “particularly tragic and traumatic situation within the military itself.”
Emanuele said “what prompts these situations is the training process itself. In training 17, 18, 19 year-old kids to kill there is a process of dehumanization that takes place.” Emanuele said that during his training Iraqis were referred to as “sand-niggers, terrorists and camel jockeys” and also said “there is no other way to teach someone to break down some one’s door, shoot and kill them without seeing them as less than human.” Emanuele also noted that the high level of stress, anxiety, trauma and the use of psychotropic substances prescribed to treat these conditions amongst those serving in the military may contribute to the rise of such incidents..
Hooper points out, “These kinds of incidents can only harm the U.S. image.” And beyond harming the U.S. image abroad, events such as these could also have a negative impact on American soil, he said.
“There’s an entire cottage industry dealing in anti-Islamic sentiment, and it’s well-funded,” Hooper added. His organization has documented a recent rise in anti-Muslim sentiments in the U.S. and “the trend line is not good. ” Hooper says incidents such as this seem to lead to further problems in the U.S.. For example Pamela Geller, co-founder of the Stop Islamization of America organization, who Hooper calls one of the most rabid anti-Islamists in America, actually condoned the incident, referring to it as the “Victory Tinkle”.
In response to the urination video the Marine Corps Division of Public Affairs said it wanted “to be clear and unambiguous, the behavior depicted in the video is wholly inconsistent with the high standards of conduct and warrior ethos that we have demonstrated throughout our history.”
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and a Marine General Officer and senior attorney, both with extensive combat experience, were assigned to head up an investigation into the matter. After an investigation is completed, the Marine Corps has said it will take the appropriate next steps, adding “Rest assured that the institution of the Marine Corps will not rest until the allegations and the events surrounding them have been resolved. We remain fully committed to upholding the Geneva Convention, the Laws of War, and our own core values,” the group said in a press release.
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Possible solutions
Hooper says that the events could be an opportunity for the U.S. to rethink its continued presence in places like Afghanistan. “The answer is to bring our troops home, and let people there decide their own futures.”
When asked what type of a message incidents such as this send to people in the U.S. and across the world, Kochergin said, “The message is that any war leads to actions like this, especially when the wars are fought by dumb and young people, who have not experienced the world. The only people who should be blamed for this are the people who sent us to war.
Kochergin adds, “If people want to blame anyone, they should blame themselves for not doing anything in order to stop these wars. As long as we conduct these unjust wars, things like this will happen, they have happened and they always will whether its a civil war, World War II, Korea, Vietnam or Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Source: MintPress