Iraqi Army desecrates Mahdi bodies (graphic video)

Posted By Uncle Jimbo

Many like to smear the US and our troops as jack-booted thugs who routinely torture, kill and mutilate innocents; there could hardly be a more inaccurate portrayal. I have seen far too many examples of man's inhumanity to man and shockingly it was always someone other than our folks. This footage is revolting and the Iraqi government needs to take control of their troops. Parading the bodies of your enemies around may be a disgusting, ages-old tradition but we are destroying any number of ages-old traditions in Iraq. This should definitely be one of them. Video on LiveLeak in case YouTube ganks it.

UPDATE: Well YouTube ganked the vid and as if to show the difference LIveLeak featured it on their front page. Guess that solves my video host issue. The one thing about the comments in this thread and others where this is posted that bothers me is the common feeling that since these men were swine, treating them or their carcasses badly is fair game. I disconcur. I agree they are swine and I'm happy they are dead, I even did a dead tango dance prior to posting this, but once we kill them it's time to raise ourselves and hopefully our allies above them.

My concern is also more with the perception and the effect on our COIN efforts than any actual concern for the dead animals.

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Comments

[winemkr]

I just can't seem to find the words to condemn the Iraqi Army.

I can find plenty of words to condemn the Mahdi militia.

[Mr.Sparkle]

Takes on a new seriousness for Muslims (I think) because the treatment of the body might relate to whether they get to meet Allah or not.

The British executed some religious 'terrorists' in India (though not 'mohammedan fanatics') by a religiously signifiant destruction of their bodies (by tying them to the front of cannons). I believe the Americans might have done something similar in the Philippines by burying executed corpses in pigs skins, facing down away from mecca, or some such similar anecdote.

If you ask me, like torture, it just plays to the enemy's picture of what evil is and lets them justify their own barbarism.

[Freedom Now]

Mr. Sparkle,

While I dont like what these Iraqi troops did and I dont justify it, you are wrong about the campaign in the Phillipines.

General Pershing did execute Muslim rebels in the early 20th Century and buried them with pigs, but contrary to your belief this tactic worked. The rebellion was effectively defeated using these tactics.

I'm not trying to prove that brutality is a superior tactic, because I believe the opposite. However, if you look at fascists like Stalin and Mao... they prospered with similar tactics.

The U.S. media no longer follows its government policy like it did 100 years ago. We cant get away with such things any more, but other countries can (Iran, Syria, North Korea, etc...)

Thanks Uncle Jimbo for publishing this post.

[Mr.Sparkle]

You're right mate, and I might add justify [today] to non-fighters, foreigners and the public at home. Of course these people don't need personal justification because they are already so coked up on their own bullshit.

[Deltabravo]

Absolutely right, Jimbo. And I can't imagine the IA thinks we approve, especially after the way Iraqis have handled the bodies of our own people who were sent there to fight, liberate and give aid.

When you think of the enduring images of conflict, the ones that linger and make you the angriest are the images of our soldiers' bodies being dragged through the streets of Somalia and that #$#@ spectacle on the Bridge in Fallujah.

The Al-Qaeda and other militia who kidnap and massacre Iraqi citizens over there often hide the bodies or delay dumping them in the streets beyond the Muslim's requisite 24-hour burial period. It's a shabby tactic that only stokes the fires of hatred that will explode at another time.

[Haole_Wahine]

I find the actions reprehensible, but cannot seem to condemn the Iraqi troops. I don't understand the actions, and hope someday it is not accepted in Iraq. Add it to the list of things I don't understand, but try to accept and pray for change.

[Chuck Ziegenfuss (TCOverride)]

Um... where else in the hummer do you put dead bodies?

When we had to transport enemy dead, they went on the back hatch of the truck. of course, they were in body bags, but even if we didn't have them, they'd have gone back there. If you don't have the bags, or a guy in the top hatch (and I don't recall seeing any) then the hood is the logical place to make sure the carcass doesn't go skipping down the road somewhere.

Not sure where you got your info on this one Jimbo, but you may be adding spin where none is needed. Granted, our 7th century allies have much to learn about humanity and human rights, but if they were going to parade bodies around, I think they'd probably do it by dragging them around naked, behind the trucks. It's more their style.

As for the horns blaring, that's just the IZ way of driving.

[rick554]

I'd REALLY like to say I'm Aghast, thats what I'd really like to say. But thats pretty tough to do when I said they shoulda hauled Uday and Kusay around Baghdad on a HUMVEE myself.

[Deltabravo]

Thanks for the explanation, Chuck. How about advising them to get a tarp so they can avert the outwardly disrespectful image. It would make them look more magnanimous in victory. Don't they want that?

[USMC Steve]

I got no problem with it. Just because those buttmonkeys walk upright and have thumbs does not make them humans. They are animals, nothing more, and entitled to nothing but death. And the Iraqis have suffered far more at the hands of the Mahdi TERRORISTS than we have, and from the looks of things, they will continue to suffer at the hands of Schmucktada Al Sadr and his assholes for some time to come.

[defendusa]

I don't know if It bothers me. As Chuck said...you do it the way ya gotta. Had it not been captured in video, we might not know this is how it's done. I didn't notice desecration...at least not like our troops were. I just saw dead Mahdi people that they had to get from point a-b perhaps and horns were to warn people. I didn't see anything unreasonble per Chuck Z's experiences.

[Marine 83]

Why does this suprise anyone? The arabs are using methods which are effective. They know their enemy. I would not be suprised if they go and arrest the family members of the dead tangos as well. If the Iraqi government keeps up this kind of pressure they will win. Not pretty, not nice, but then again not our country.

[thebronze]

Yeah, they shouldn't have done it, but can't find the energy to get worked up about it.

[Robert Stevens]

A few dead Mahdis on Humvee hoods? Come on Jimbo, can you say with any certainty that dead Qaedists in Ramadi didn't suffer a far worse fate from Shaykh Sattar's boys?

[Robert Stevens]

Just to clarify, Jimbo. After what Al Qaeda did to Sattar's family, they deserved whatever treatment was meted out to them post mortem.

[Uncle Jimbo]

The one thing about the comments in this thread and others where this is posted that bothers me is the common feeling that since these men were swine, treating them or their carcasses badly is fair game. I disconcur. I agree they are swine and I'm happy they are dead, I even did a dead tango dance prior to posting this, but once we kill them it's time to raise ourselves and hopefully our allies above them.

My concern is also more with the perception and the effect on our COIN efforts than any actual concern for the dead animals.

Cordially,

Uncle J

[defendusa]

I understand that it's about perception, but again, I didn't see anything that suggested desecration, nor any celebatory actions. I see them being moved form point a-b and the rransport is too small to be putting dead people inside of it. No cheekiness intended. What would work if this is the only means of moving the dead at that point and time. Perhaps what needs to be done is to send this to OPs for review and then create an SOP for disposing of the dead, I don't know. Off the top of my head I think cattle trucks. Just as indidgnant as the humvee ride, is my guess. You are right about perception, UJ, but I'm really not seeing what you see.

[Marine 83]

Uncle J. I can't see that this will have any effect on COIN at all. The way I see it COIN is only applicalbe to us.... not to them. The Iraqi army is acting well within its cultural paradigm. The Mahdi army will view this as a sign of strength. We can't get away with it, because the American media and the liberals would crucify us. But it will work for the Iraqis.

[Uncle Jimbo]

That is a point worth pursuing M83. We still have an obligation to tut tut if nothing else.

Cordially,

Uncle J

[TBinSTL]

Have we considered the fact that we heard about a lot of Hummers being commandeered by IA and IP going over to Mookie's side in Basra? Would probably be a pretty good way to try and discredit the IA coming into town. Uniforms and weapons probably would have gone with the "defectors" too.

[Haole_Wahine]

Now, I'll agree with you and thanks M83. We have the obligation to tut tut. thanks, jim and m83

[douglas]

In that part of the world, tossing the body on the hood of your Humvee and driving it to the morgue is hardly desecration. Desecration would be beheading (with the added bonus of denying paradise to the deceased), cutting of of genitalia, burning or even just leaving the bodies to the lovely packs of feral dogs that are apparently everywhere. As for the horns, are they from the hummers or the passing cars and scooters? Makes a difference, no?

Still, would it be too much to throw a tarp over them? No.

[TheNewGuy]

Didn't Chesty Puller chain the frozen bodies of fallen marines to the outside of his tracked vehicles after the battle of Chosin Reservoir?

I think Chuck's explanation is right on... I wouldn't throw the ventilated bodies of dead tangos in the back with my men either.

Gotta transport them somehow. If they'd truly wanted to desecrate the bodies, they could have (and have) done far, far worse than simply put them on the hood.