Kamiya also said two noncommissioned officers would be reprimanded for using the burning of the bodies to taunt the rebels. The two men also would face nonjudicial punishments, which could include a loss of pay or demotion in rank.

The more these type of stories I hear the more I recall a scene in Billy Budd wherein the crew just refused to engage the enemy ship even at the risk of their lives because they were fed up with the 'justice' system in place.

How do we expect to fight a WAR with these idiotic PC procedures in place? This is ridiculous.

What is the matter with our culture? Have we no faith at all in ourselves any longer so that we cater mindlessly to every facet of whatever belief system the 'enemy' has? How long can we fail to support our troops before they perhaps unconsciously decide that the 'game is not worth the candle'?

Morality lessons from the TALIBAN for crying out loud.

Geez.

The actions were poorly thought out: If you want to taunt terrorists, why wait until they're dead to torch them?

"The last violent anti-American protests in Afghanistan were in May over a report by Newsweek - later retracted - that U.S. soldiers at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility abused Islam's holy book, the Quran."

Since when did Newsweak retract this story? I am under the impression they still contend that taking a leak upwind of and on the other side of a solid wall from a Koran means desecration of the worst sort and should be punished by castration of every living male in the military. Of course, that's how they would get Newsweak reporters. Gotta keep those newsrooms full and humming. Newsweak -- full of hummers.

Subsunk

There are very PRAGMATIC reasons for the US to maintain minimum standards.

A number of military enlisted and officers report that the heavy-handed US approach has caused or furthered the anti-US sentiment that is making the US more and more an occupier in a hostile land.

Instead, it is as if the Bush admin has decided that if "they hate us for our freedoms," then we must appease and accomodate the enemy by restricting those freedoms. And, apparently, think about destroying a news service with an audience of 45M.

Look where the Bush policy of appeasement is getting us.

fed up,

So your 'authority' in these matters is some moonbat anchor clanker? lol!

Jeez, email the White House and protest this crap! It's like they're trying to humiliate their own soldiers into becoming...French or something.

Just to be clear; what they're in trouble for is the unprofessional taunting.

The are not being disciplined for cremating the bodies. That action was entirely permissible and proper even though muslims find it offensive.

OK patriots?
They got in trouble for calling the enemy names.

So we should be relieved here; the military isn't so baffled by PC that they would force Americans to cohabitate in 90 degree heat with rotting corpses.

"They got in trouble for calling the enemy names"

What is this, the NFL, when you can't corpsehump these scumbags anymore?

We can still kill the fuckers right?

Pretty soon we'll have to save "Have a nice day" and mean it, after we pop a Termo-baric SMAW in their cave.

lauraW: Read it again. The 2 NCO psyops guys who taunted the Taliban are getting NJP, the "two junior officers who ordered the bodies burned" are getting letters of reprimand for showing cultural insensitivity.

A chickenshit response by our military brass.

BrewFan,

I didn't realize I was addressing the mouse-impaired. I hope you can muster the strength to click this for the info source.

Good luck, soldier. Here's the start:

The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.

The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.

The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.

And that has to do with the story, how??

Please don't feed the threadjacker.

Thanks John, loose shit on my part.

No prob.

Fed Up, what the fuck do you think you're doing?

Don't steal my thunder, asshole. The role of annoying lefty thread-jacker is already taken, so buzz off.

This is ridiculous. The guys are being asked to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. They did what they had to, screw these people. Who's got time to worry about their nutty sensibilities when they never worry about ours?

Are the politicians selling out the military?

The White House is now saying that it has a plan to withdraw troops. And guess what -- it looks a LOT like the plan proposed by the democrats!

Sure it looks a lot like it, if you're stupid and/or a liar.

Or both. Lots of options for the Democrats there.

Sortelli,

Would this statement make the WH stupid, or a liar?

The White House for the first time has claimed possession of an Iraq withdrawal plan, arguing that a troop pullout blueprint unveiled this past week by a Democratic senator was "remarkably similar" to its own.

So the democrats come up with a plan, and the WH says it resembles the WH plan -- that it has never released.

Yeah. You can't make this shit up.

Even though Bush has never publicly issued his own withdrawal plan and criticized calls for an early exit, the White House said many of the ideas expressed by the senator were its own.

[...]

The White House statement also embraced a Senate amendment to a defense authorization bill overwhelmingly passed by the Senate on November 15 that asked the administration to make next year "a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty" thereby creating conditions "for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq."

The measure was largely seen as a reprimand to the Bush administration, which has often been accused of lacking a viable strategy in Iraq.

But the White House insisted again the Senate was reading from its own playbook.

So the Senate decides to reiterate the point that the Secretary of Defense and WH are supposed to issue regular reports, essentially slapping the WH, and the WH says, yeah, that's OUR plan! That's the ticket!

How much real difference is there between what John Murtha proposed, and the one embraced now by the WH? Remember that Murtha never proposed an immediate withdrawal.

Thanks much for the update. I don't listen to the news, but they probably didn't cover this anyway. ;)

Excuse me, wasn't this a discussion of what happened to the Soldiers and the dead Taliban body?

If you would like to take it to a different topic, may I suggest you find a post that is speaking on that topic?!

Just one more thing. The President has been saying for over 2 years now that we would be leaving slowly as the Iraqis started to stand on their own. Where the hell have you been? It seems to me that you just want to jump on the ship that's winning. Too late. This ship sailed in 2002! Have a good day.

Back on the topic at hand: I think the disciplining of the soldiers should include 60 days paid leave back to the states, a promotion, a new house for their spouses, college education for any kids they may have, and a guaranteed retirement plan. Oh! And John Kerry (who was in Viet Nam) should kiss their tools.

Those naughty boys! Take that!