Seems like Rumsfeld is pretty upset about the new allegations that have come
out regarding our troops burning Taliban bodies according to Reuters.
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Accusations that U.S. soldiers burned the corpses of
two Afghan guerrillas to taunt the Taliban have damaged the American
military, whether or not they are true, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
said on Saturday.Rumsfeld told reporters aboard a plane to Lithuania, where he will attend
a NATO meeting, that he had not seen video footage showing the alleged
incident in the southern province of Kandahar and did not know if the
accusations were true.But he added: “One hates to see the adverse effect of it if it is true.
You also recognize the damage that can be done by the allegations alone if
they are not true.”The U.S. military — already under fire for the abuse of detainees in
Afghanistan and Iraq and the mishandling of the Koran in Guantanamo Bay —
has ordered an inquiry into the footage shown on Australian television.
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He is right, I am sure its going to hurt our position in the Middle East. The
problem is that this kind of behavior was invited by the administration. They
are the ones who fought to get a ruling that the Geneva Convention does not
apply in these wars and that torture is an acceptable tool when interrogating
prisoners. Did they really expect everyone to be happy with that?
Just judging by Rumsfeld’s statement it appears as if he is upset over them
getting caught more so than them doing this (sounds real familiar).
The more these actions continue during the course of this war, the more
danger our troops are going to be in. This will also lead to greater hatred
towards our country by the Middle East. This is just more evidence that the
current leaders of this war cannot properly run it and should be replaced. I am
talking about the top leaders and not the ones in the field either since these
actions have occurred over the entire spectrum of where our military is
operating. That alone shows enough evidence that in fact these practices are
coming from high ups and not troops acting out randomly.