The Usual Suspects

Thursday night at 9 p.m. eastern time, this was one of the top headlines on The New York Times website:

"Outrage Over Video of Marines Urinating on Taliban Corpses"

I am not arguing with the Times headline, which is accurate. But just once, also in the top story section, I wonder if we'll ever see a headline like this:

"Outrage Over Deaths of U.S. Soldiers in Taliban Bomb Attack"

I hope that headline never appears, because I don't want any more of our brave men and women in uniform to die at the hands of terrorists. Yet the Times could have printed that exact headline on Jan. 10, the day after four Indiana National Guard soldiers killed by an improvised explosive device on Jan. 6 were officially identified. The newspaper did no such thing.

Other than a regular "Names of the Dead" feature, where the names of fallen troops are listed without explanation, a search of the New York Times website shows that the newspaper has ignored the story otherwise. According to the Times, video footage of Marines apparently urinating on Taliban corpses is a top story, while the deaths of four American troops at the hands of the Taliban is a non-story.

Let me make this abundantly clear: I do not condone the intentional desecration of anyone's remains -- even the remains of terrorists who desecrate the innocent flesh of men, women, and children with bombs they plant near schools, hospitals, and villages. Put bluntly, this alleged incident never should have occurred.

"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," Gen. James Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps, said in a statement.

The problem with the American media is that the war in Afghanistan, which received only two percent of U.S. news coverage in 2011, is largely out of sight on television and news websites until the military is accused of wrongdoing. In 13 days this month, at least ten U.S. troops have been killed in Afghanistan, yet the only Afghanistan-related story to dominate a national news cycle in January is this one. Given the enormous sacrifices being made by our troops and military families, this trend is unpatriotic and simply wrong.

The MSNBC, CBS News, ABC News, and CNN websites all had the linked stories in the top headline sections of their websites at 9 p.m. eastern on Thursday. Fox News, which this blog has criticized in the past for losing focus on post-9/11 conflicts, did not. This story did appear in its top headline section for most of the day, however.

New York Times reporters Graham Bowley and Matthew Rosenberg claim that most Afghans resent American troops.

"Whether the American condemnations will mollify the anger of Afghans remains unclear. But for those who had seen the video, the images appeared to deepen their dislike of the United States, which is widely seen as an occupier here.

'The Taliban sometimes commit such harsh acts, but it was enough just to kill them and not to degrade or humiliate their dead bodies,' said Jawad, a university student in Kabul who gave only one name."

I have seen the body of a valiant U.S. Marine who made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan. Tragically, the fallen hero looked almost nothing like the picture on his funeral program. I have been inside the Dover Air Force Base mortuary, where I was told that airmen must spend hours upon hours sorting through almost unidentifiable remains of fallen U.S. troops. Counselors and USO employees are often on hand to comfort them when their work is done.

Allegations of U.S. forces desecrating remains of the Taliban or al Qaeda come once every few years. The Taliban and al Qaeda mutilate the living and dead every single day in Afghanistan. While wrongdoing by American forces cannot and will not be condoned or excused, any comparison between the overall conduct of the U.S. military and the Taliban or al Qaeda is unwarranted and despicable.

Despite the disparate coverage by the American media, clear-thinking Americans know that 99.9% of men and women who serve in the military are selfless, patriotic warriors for freedom. Those include the four Indiana National Guard heroes who returned to U.S. soil in flag-draped caskets on Sunday. It's a real shame that the New York Times didn't bother to notice.

Image courtesy: U.S. Air Force/Roland Balik


Note: This post was edited at 10:29 a.m. EDT to reflect new casualty information released by the Department of Defense.