I have a friend who was in the Marines, who this morning posted a status regarding this exact topic of peeing on the corpses. Here is our conversation.
His original FB status:
So apparently peeing on a corpse is morally reprehensible... But actually turning someone from a living, breathing human being into a corpse is fine. If you're going to pretend to be some morally righteous person, at least don't have ass backwards morals. War is ugly... welcome to reality, America. Sorry if this realization troubled you in between watching episodes of The Bachelor and Jersey Shore.
My comment:
Playing devil's advocate, here. What if someone is AGAINST killing people (and not "fine with turning a living, breathing human being into a corpse")... then is it "OK" for that person to think it's disgusting to see someone pee on a dead body, mocking it, filming and laughing about it, while representing their country? Let's take the "killing a living human being" out of the equation. Is this defendable? :
http://www.bluestatepress.com/politics2/news_046.htm
His response:
I'm not saying any of it is OK. The point is: war isn't pretty. Lots of bad shit happens, not just what trickles back to America and makes it on the news. Bodies get pee'd on, sheep get beat with bats, innocent civilians get tortured and murdered in public for helping US troops, American contractors get captured, murdered, lit on fire, and hung from bridges... Newscasters, reporters, normal people act like this is some huge surprise.
But Americans enjoy sitting in their living rooms watching the news with rose-colored glasses. Did you see when Ghaddaffi got killed? They put him on the hood of a car and took him through the streets, beating him with shoes as he bled to death in front of them. It's not just Americans, it's not just Syrians, it's not just Afghani's... War makes people do the most repulsive things imagineable.
And in general, Americans are okay with war... as long as it doesn't interrupt their everyday lives. If disturbing news content shows up, they care. If they have to ration food or goods, they care. If they have a chance of actually being drafted and sent to war, they care. If it's just some working-class white kids and poor minorities in some foreign country killing and being killed, well, that's fine by America.