"Have a nice day, buddy."

Hi everyone!

I'm sure by now you've probably read about or seen footage of the video posted on YouTube the other day of the American marines urinating on three dead insurgents in Afghanistan, one of whom is heard on the video saying: "Have a nice day, buddy." The video was most likely taken some time last spring or summer in Helmand Province. No one knows for sure who took the video or posted it online, but investigators have identified the marines as part of the Third Battalion, Second Marines, who have since returned to their base in Camp Lejeune, N.C. or have been posted elsewhere.

While it would be unfair of me to categorically condemn the U.S. Marines for the actions of a few individuals, I think it does betray a certain lack of sensitivity training on the part of the U.S. armed forces. This latest incident does not a exist in a vacuum. Over the past ten years of war--both in Afghanistan and Iraq--we have unfortunately born witness to a series of acts by our servicemen and women that not only push the boundaries of decent humanity, but thoroughly undermine the so-called good those men and women are there to perform.

Not since the horrendous abuses documented at Abu Ghraib has there been such an outcry against the behaviors of our forces fighting overseas. While there is something to be said for the adverse psychological effects of warfare--the extent of which I can only surmise--what this video and similar occurrences calls into question is not an issue of combat stress but basic dignity and humanity. Ever since the U.S. and coalition forces invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and then Iraq in March 2003, we have been waging not only a more-or-less traditional war on the ground, but a war for the hearts and minds of the people most affected by our presence there: native Afghans and Iraqis, both of whom were already sensitive to the negative perceptions the world has had of Islam, especially since 9/11.

Again, I cannot possibly imagine what it must be like to lose a close friend or acquaintance to an IED or a sniper's bullet, nor can I say that I wouldn't be driven a little crazy by the unrelenting stress and fear that these men and women have to contend with on a minute-to-minute basis. Still, have these people lost all sense of right and wrong? Do they not inherently know that pissing on the corpses of enemy combatants is not something to be taken lightly, that it offends human sensibility, not to mention that it goes against internationally agreed-upon protocol for the humane treatment of war dead and prisoners? I was interested to read that if caught, the perpetrators of this latest act could be convicted as war criminals.

I realize that the argument can be made that the "enemy" has committed acts of horrific violence against   not only our troops but civilians--who can forget the video of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's beheading in 2002 at the hands of al-Qaeda--but we are not supposed to be upholding the tenet of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If we do, this makes us no better from a moral standpoint than those against whom we are at war. If anything, it undermines our purpose over there. It gives the Taliban and the Islamic insurgency-at-large further ammunition against us, which is the last thing we need.

I don't believe the War on Terror will ever truly be won. I do believe, however, that our servicemen and women should be upholding the values upon which the U.S. and other Western democracies are founded. If we lose sight of our humanity, then the war truly is lost.

"Have a nice day, buddy" ... indeed.

Ciao.