(V): A typical misunderstanding. They don't know how it really works. They, among others, need a lesson in capitalism. (hint --> employment protection).

(V): First of all: Why did they video tape it??? And how is it that tapes like this get out??? Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb!!! I hope those idiots all get discharged and lose all their $$ etc. Idiots.

Artful Dodger: You would have thought knowing what could happen to them if caught, they would've not wanted it videoed. Just as the UK intelligence service is now facing investigation on handing over people to the former Gaddafi regime knowing they would be tortured.

The records found by the rebels are rather incriminating

Heads will hopefully roll on both sides of the pond.

(V):

> Heads will hopefully roll on both sides of the pond.

I wish that I had your faith in the legal system. To me the legal system is an inadequate joke when it comes to war crimes comitted by western military forces. I look at the Abu Graib case, and not a single one of the soldiers involved served a full sentence. Most of them pleaded guilty, "cooperated" with prosecutors and got either reduced or suspended sentences. The ones that served sentences ended up being paroled early. It is a joke to me that these people could torture and sexually abuse prisoners, and get no substantial punishment. Worst of all, they can still return to active duty even if they were demoted to privates. Abuses at Guatanamo bay have received no legal prosecution and have for the most part been swept under the carpet.

These men urinating on corpses will be demoted, have their pay suspended for a month, and serve at most 6 months in prison. It will be another legal joke just like Abu Graib.

Übergeek 바둑이: I have to agree with you, our legal systems have been inadequate. Especially when influenced by politicians and agencies wishing to hide their dirty laundry, or use legal jargon that has no real reality bar making justification morally easier for the voting public to digest.

Yet I've noticed over the last decade or so that hiding has become much harder. The reporting and investigation done, even with the various biases revealing much by how they write.

.. and even with the likes of Murdoch and other right wing news outlets, we still have some independent journalistic outlets.

So, while I don't trust our legal systems, I know it is being watched. And I do trust our deep down humanity.

(V):

I suppose that humilliating a dead body shows their courage, determination and devotion to freedom and democracy. As always, the fascist nature of the war rears its ugly head. One would like to believe that it is the exception rather than the rule, but as with Abu Graib, the crime is not in doing something rotten, but in being so stupid as to film it and then expect it never to be seen by anybody else. I am sure the whistleblower who leaked it will end up in a court martial because the real crime is exposing a dirty secret and then "risking national security".

Übergeek 바둑이: I think it's more a case of the psychology of someone who kills easily, any elite force is going to have a high degree of this small percentage of humanity (something like only 3-4%) .... and that within this small percentage you are going to have a few some real morons with no respect.

They'll be caught and made an example of. Of course the name of the person filming and uploading it will come out. Then it becomes a matter of how much of a sheep they were.

Yes, it is despicable to urinate on a corpse, but this was filmed because they saw nothing wrong with it. They are operating on some moral high, the legitimacy of their cause. They have just killed these men but you guys are complaining because they "peed" on them. What is the penalty for denigrating a corpse? You think 6 months in jail is not enough but murder that is ok? We should be looking rather at a society that breeds these types of men, then harnesses and nurtures these instincts and finally celebrates their achievements.

yoyudax: Yes. This is a war, while you may not agree with it, the guys who are dead were actively engaged in said war.

The standard of military rules established is respect for the combatant dead. They are dead, they cannot shoot, kill, bomb or otherwise pursue the death of anyone else.

Also this act now it has gone viral, is likely to cause a spike in recruitment in enemy combatants..... ie more people attempting to shoot/kill troops active in Afghanistan. So in essence, those four soldiers have contributed to the deaths of their own.

"We should be looking rather at a society that breeds these types of men"

... limited employment prospects, Salusa Secundus style harshness and savage use of country/faith without question.. or that they are kids?

yoyudax:

> We should be looking rather at a society that breeds these types of men, then harnesses and nurtures these instincts and finally celebrates their achievements.

War is a business, and western governments went into war not to promote their ideology but to promote their business interests. Our politicians can talk of freedom and democracy, but the reality is that the entire "intelligence" system exists to justify wars that have as their objective to build ever greater empires. National security is the excuse through which empires are built, and freedom and democracy are the ideological battle cries.

Our governments are made of hypocrites. The best proof of that is the recent visit by David Cameron to Saudi Arabia. His primary objective was to secure the sale of 70 fighter jets to the most despotic kingdom and main supporter of Al Qaeda in the Middle East. When convenient, our governments do business with tyrants, and when convenient, they call them enemies and do war with them.

The American government could have stopped the sale of violent video games to children. Instead they blocked the proposed law and let parents buy war video games that are nothing but propaganda to shape young minds into believing that "war is cool and heroic".

The Pentagon spends milliong of dollars developing video games, financing movies, promoting advertising and using all forms of media to ensure that young people enlist in wars under the hope of becoming heroes. Instead our youth become desensitized, ideologically-blind killers. When they don't come back in body bags, they come back with post-traumatic stress disorder, sociopathic disorder and even psychopathic disorder.

The men who urinated on those corpses became psychopaths because only a psychopath would place so little value in life that he would think it is OK to denigrate and humiliate a dead body. They became psychopaths not to promote freedom and democracy in Afghanistan, but to build and protect a pipeline that will bring oil from the Caspain Sea basin into Pakistan and India.

These men will now be made "an example of", but an example of what? After a few months in jail, they will be released. A slap in the wrist will not be an example of justice, but an example of cold indifference and western hypocrisy. In the meantime, kids can keep playing "Call of Duty" so that they can grow up to become like these men.

Übergeek 바둑이: Video games have been proved to calm down, it's a reducer of aggressions, amok runners take their urge out of other things, even if some of them played these sort of games. Although this game you mention is certainly in anyway nothing for kids. It's the blunted affect militarists are looking for with these games, killing without emotions.