Latest non-scandal photos scandal
Apparently, the LA Times has some photos given to them by a member of the 82d Airborne Division that has members of that unit posing with the remains of a suicide bomber while smiling. I know it’s shocking, isn’t it. Who can dare to smile at the death of a suicide bomber? The Stars & Stripes reports that the commander of the International Security Assistance Force, Gen. John R. Allen, has come out against smiling at dead suicide bombers;
“The actions of the individuals photographed do not represent the policies of ISAF or the U.S. Army,” Allen is quoted as saying. “This behavior and these images are entirely inconsistent with the values of ISAF and all service members of the fifty ISAF countries serving in Afghanistan.”
So, if you’re in AFghanistan, don’t smile at suicide bombers after they’ve ‘sploded, or, at least, don’t have pictures of your vile act.
Here’s a sample below the jump. There’s a warning because there is a picture of a dead guy who was planting an IED and didn’t quite get to finish his job before he was interrupted by rapidly expanding gases;
Horrible, ain’t it? Here’s more from The LA Times;
The 82nd Airborne Division soldiers arrived at the police station in Afghanistan’s Zabol province in February 2010. They inspected the body parts. Then the mission turned macabre: The paratroopers posed for photos next to Afghan police, grinning while some held — and others squatted beside — the corpse’s severed legs.
A few months later, the same platoon was dispatched to investigate the remains of three insurgents who Afghan police said had accidentally blown themselves up. After obtaining a few fingerprints, they posed next to the remains, again grinning and mugging for photographs.
Two soldiers posed holding a dead man’s hand with the middle finger raised. A soldier leaned over the bearded corpse while clutching the man’s hand. Someone placed an unofficial platoon patch reading “Zombie Hunter” next to other remains and took a picture.
Yeah, all of that shit is just horrid. It’s almost as bad as if they had pissed on the bodies or accidentally burned a Koran in the unit burn pit. I guess the media is just ready to make an issue out of anything they can. So, everyone (except TSO) stop taking pictures in Afghanistan, because apparently, anything will set off a firestorm in the media.
Category: Media
Call me old fashioned, but I’m more disturbed by the neck tat. Smiling for a dead explosive moron? Who cares.
I guess the LA Times sees something that isn’t there, in this photo. I’m, also, guessing that they are trying to pick flyshit out of pepper in order to be offended?
This story, plus the USA Today headline that “Troops and Reservists owe $390M to the IRS” reeks of distraction. What new story of ineptitude or corruption within the Obama administration is getting buried under these non-stories?
During my tour in Afghanistan, I got to watch security camera footage of a suicide bomber blowing up 14 school children; not be ause the footage gave us some perverse entertainment, but because it helps to understand the nature if the beast we are fighting. How about the LA Times report on those real outrages?
These photos fall into the “understandable, but still a really bad idea” category. Since Abu Ghraib anyone taking or posing for such should understand that they’re potentially setting themselves up for a rather hard fall.
Should that be the case? No. But it’s reality.
Poor form, boy’os. Should have known this one would have blown up on them.
Although I’m sure they were just dying to prove how kickass they are, not the best idea. Plus having the hadji’s dead hand on his shoulder is kinda creepy.
So I guess we need to start taking pictures of US troops crying next to the bodies. Are we feeling sorry for them, or crying with happiness??? hmmm, you decide.
Who cares?
The guys do this sort of thing because it makes
Them laugh and passes time. They are on the razors edge and they need a little distraction.
Plus, it’s a dead terrorist. If he had succeeded in planting his IED, there would be dead soldier parts on the ground. Get over it.
Some folks will bring up anything to make the POTUS look bad.
@#6 right on Dan!
Well the Marines WERE shedding a tear for Lord Admiral Nelson in accordance with mess night traditions…….
@7: “Some folks will bring up anything to make the POTUS look bad.”
This has nothing to do with making the President look bad. this is all about making the military look bad. As I said above; this isn’t even worthy of getting a raised eyebrow.
Yawn.
Hondo, right on, nothing that bad here except for the decision to take pictures.
Jakethe”snake”, this comes from the LA Times, they would not do anything to make the POTUS look bad.
My only complaint, the neck tattoo. Another enemy dead, don’t see anything else wrong.
#11 But they would jump at the chance to make the troops look bad……we shall now wait to see how many of our troops our killed by aour afgan allies (all lies) claiming they saw the pics and were outraged.
hondo’s right. As if to belabor the point, the CNN article specifically ties these photos to the 2004 Abu Gharib photos. I’m surprised they didn’t bring up MeLi or Wounded Knee perhaps.
Wow just wait for all the commotion the media’s gonna make when they see all the insurgent videos of them killing service members and civilians and posting them online as propaganda… just wait.
I understand service members are held to a higher standard than the average civilian, but they’re expected to do a lot of things you’d never ask of most. As already stated, this photo is such a non-issue.
Nothing going on here that hasn’t been going on since war’s beginning. Whether it was decimation, displaying bodies, or heads on spikes, soldiers have always looked for a way to make a statement that they are not to be fucked with. THat being said we do hold ourselves to a different standard and do a damn good job policing our own without the media’s help. I’m sure these troops are already regretting this.
Back in the Gulf War II I caught one of my troopers posing Iraqi corpses and taking pictures. We made him bury them by hand with his e-tool. And burned the film. If only life were still that simple.
Its a bit dark even for my bleak sense of humor. Doesn’t mean this is remotely a story. Wonder what the media’s trying to screen for.
Sorry if there’s a double post, phone’s acting weird
This is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen.
The neck tattoo, that is.
They still allow neck tattoos in the Army? I am not judging the fine young soldier in the picture, but I thought those kinds of ink were not allowed anymore?
An article from the ‘Loser Ass’ Times from the People’s Republik of Kalifornia? Home of the 9th circus court of apples? They’re as bad as the DU. I lend no credence to this article. I’d believe the National Enquirer before I believe the LA Times.
My first day back in uniform at Ft. Dix last month, I saw a thug with a huge neck tat wearing ACUs. My buddy the Chaplain asked this Fine Young Upstanding Soldier about it and the soldier quoted chapter and verse about some regulation where it was allowed.
See, he spent his time memorizing the regs so he could vomit them out at anyone who questioned his choice of body art.
The latest Army reg changes that were publicized this weekend should effectively make it very difficult for him to re-enlist.
V/R
This being in the 82’s AO, I can only hope that the semi-puree’d dog turd in the photo is the same one who planted the IED that made SSG Travis Mills a quad amputee on 10APR.
As far as the LA Times … what YatYas said.
in 2005 we caught a prospective suicide bomber. He either chickened out or his device malfunctioned, but the IP had him up against a wall in town, with everyone backed safely away, when we rolled up with EOD. EOD sends the robot, strips him down to a wife-beater and marches him bare-assed into our custody. There are pictures of him being escorted down the street in nothing but that shirt that exist (though I don’t think anyone ever put them on line) and I hate to think what the media numbskulls would make of them. I have occasionally shown them to people as an example of something we did that I am particularly proud of (also, they are funny).
Shit like this is different from the whole pissing on corpses business. If the headline mongers can’t find anything worse than this on us, we must be doing pretty good.
I suspect that the some folks who’v never come close to death have no idea how refreshing it is to be able to smile and laugh afterwards. Add to that the fact that this human IED turd died it’s a time to have a fucking party.
Should I send some of my Nam pictures to the LA Slimes?
There’s an issue here?
I don’t get it.
bman–their heads will explode. And yeah, I’m still not getting why this is an issue two YEARS after the fact.
Because it’s fresh dirt, Sparky, and any fresh dirt – particularly anything that can make the military and their conservative supporters look bad – is THE issue now.
…and expect to see more of this, particularly if the rags are paying any kind of good money for pics like this.
Pinto–you know where I’m getting at. So yeah, they’re digging for dirt. And if they have to dig this far to find two year old pics of what 1–isn’t defiling a corpse, 2–isn’t torturing anyone, 3–is kids play compared to how our people have been treated in wars since the Revolutionary War, well, frankly, someone needs to put it into perspective.
Actually the photo itself made me laugh.
The dude on the floor (suicide bomber?) looks like he’s grabbing the soldier’s right soldier with a blank expression on his face. Like weekend at bernie’s or something.
Sparky, I’m not arguing with what you said. I’ve seen folks that needed years of therapy to get over seeing an animal run over in the middle of the road. When those kind of people see this kind of picture, their immediate, unthinking reaction will be horror and disgust — not aimed at the dead bomber, but aimed at the soldiers standing over him.
The MSM knows exactly what it’s doing, and they’re past masters at whipping up reaction in people. Look what they did in FL recently. That is exactly what they are attempting to do now. They’re horse in the race is Obama, and they intend to do everything they can to see that he wins in November.
And they could give a rat’s ass about how our people are treated, ever. Particularly if they wear a uniform.
What the fuck. This shit has been done by militaries since they’ve had cameras that could be thrown in a pocket or pack. The troop that did this is not a whistleblower, but a buddy-fucker to give the photos to the LA Times.
The history doesn’t matter here, Yat Yas – nor does the fact that this was perfectly understandable behavior. Photographing it was still incredibly stupid.
No, to anyone who actually has 3 working brain cells and/or understands the military this isn’t desecrating a corpse. But that’s not the target audience. The target audience is those who (1) don’t have a clue, or (2) are actively looking for a reason to hurt the US military. While this likely won’t result in much (it’s not egregious enough), look for claims of “abuse of corpses” and “violations of the Geneva Convention” to pop up any minute. And now, we’ll have to spend a ton of time/effort going through the motions and/or defending the fools involved.
Maybe they need to make the following part of the initial arrival briefing for all arriving in-theater: “Hey, guys and gals – listen up. If you’re gonna take photos, remember your mother and Pastor will see them. The Internet pretty much guarantees that. So if you’re gonna do stupid shit, or something that could conceivably be twisted to make you and your brothers and sisters in arms look bad – make damn sure no one photographs it!”
OK, if the dead guy’s head got ripped off and they were pissing down his neck… that would be tasteless. undestandable, but tasteless. You have to wonder a) what the average LA Times reporter’s reactions would be after only a coupla weeks of bomb scares and then some idiot blows himself up outsise their door – will they sing Kumbaya over the body? Or piss down HIS neck? and b) Seems every elite military and paramilitary organization, like the Secret Service, is a free target with this admninistration’s acquiescence. If I were just a tad more paranoid, I would almost swear there was a tacit approval of any attempt to degrade the effectiveness of any armed US entity.
23 yrs in the military, almost half in EOD. I would be smiling too, knowing this fuck “rapidly came from together” and not one of my fellow soldiers. The media has become the laughing stock to all of the folks I associate with, nothing more than “The Enquirer”. And as for anyone trying to make the POTUS look bad,,,come on! He doesn’t need any help!
“service members” ?? !!
What in hell is that insult ??
Proper names include:
FIGHTING MEN (and Ladies )
MILITARY MEN
TROOPERS
US FORCES
– Vietnam War US ARMY veteran .
I honestly can’t tell if he’s happy or freaked out, but I guess it only constitutes an illegal act when NATO/ISAF can be scapegoated into taking the blame. Just like maimed and dead noncombatants are always our fault since this war somehow makes the insurgency hide behind crowds or in hospitals. You’d think they’d at least include a sentence or two about over half our MEDEVACs are for wounded civilians who were blown up by insurgents.