Peter Worthington: More military abuse, but this time no cover-up

NATIONAL POST

If it were only photographs of U.S. soldiers posing alongside a dead Afghan civilian, it might be bad taste, even repulsive, but it wouldn’t be that unusual.

But that’s not what the fuss is about – or, rather, should be about.

The German publication Der Spiegel has opened a can of worms by printing two photos (of some 4,000 it says it has) of grinning American soldiers Jeremy Morlock (from Sarah Palin’s home town of Wasilla, Alaska), and Andrew Holmes, holding up the head of a dead person.

Suggestions are that the photos – which the U.S. army won’t release for publication – will prove to be a worse scandal than Abu Ghraib, where photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused by American prison staff resulted in prison sentences and dishonorable discharges to the perpetrators.

The scandal of the Der Spiegel photos is not so much the questionable taste of posing with the dead body, but that the dead man was one of three Afghan civilians murdered by American soldiers last year.

Twelve U.S. soldiers are currently on trial in Seattle – five for murder and conspiracy, seven for conspiracy to cover up, as well as dismembering a corpse, mutilation and drug abuse. Spec. Morlock has already pled guilty to murder.

Members of the U.S. 2^nd Infantry Division’s 5^th Stryker Brigade — now being called a “rogue” outfit – are alleged to have collaborated in the murder of unarmed civilians.

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