New "shocking" photos from Iraq.

international | anti-war / imperialism | opinion/analysis Friday September 30, 2005 12:32 by Eamon Ryan

U.S. Soldiers pose with dead Iraqis

An "enraged" Ted Kennedy has reprimanded U.S. military chiefs on television by showing pictures of combat troops posing with the charred or bullet riddled bodies of dead Iraqis.
Obviously a new cycle of cynical political catfight between the Republican and Democrats is in full swing.

Of course though gruesome combat soldiers posing with the bodies of dead enemy is not especially shocking if one has knowledge of history.

In ancient times warriors slew "monsters" or other warriors and collected heads and body parts as trophies. In the Scandinavian myths of Beowulf or the quest for the mythical Sambo, the Celtic myths of Fionn, the classical tales of Hercules, Perseus and Jason. When Achilles slew Hector at Troy he dragged his body behind his chariot around the city walls.
In Africa tribes in the past and even still today often ate body parts to take possession of the strength and spirit of their slain enemy.
The two-finger insult originated after the battle of Agincourt after the English archers displayed their intact fingers necessary to draw their bows to the defeated French who traditional cut off them the hands of captive archers.
David slew thousands of Philistines and gathered their foreskins to satisfy Saul.
Herod had John the Baptist's head presented to Salome on a silver platter.
When Christ was crucified the Romans cast lots for his clothes.
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the defeated antihero is slain by Macduff and his head is mounted on a pole.
In the 19th century the legendary British soldier Gordon of Khartoum was killed by Sudanese tribesmen and the Mahdi had his head put on a pole.

During WW1 and WW2 soldiers on both sides collected "trigger" fingers, watches, buckles, helmets and other items from the dead. In "Band of Brothers" a soldier shoots a German officer dead and takes his Luger pistol as a prize.
The Nazis tanned the skins of dead Jews and made lampshades and other leather produdcts or soap from their fat.

During the 2003 tank drive on Baghdad according to the bestselling book "Thunder Run" the crew of an American tank nicknamed "Creeping Death" advanced up the highway into the heart of Saddam's palaces playing the Metallica heavy metal song of the same name as they blasted at Iraqi soldiers and militia. The road was littered with burning wrecks of Iraqi tanks, APC's and commandered civilian vehicles and a carpet of mutilated corpses.
Again the soldier took photographs and collected trophies.

Meanwhile Musab Al-Zaraqawi slowly sliced off the heads of captured American Nick Berg and Briton Ken Bigley and broadcast the murders on the internet.

This litany does not condone such bloodthirsty behaviour but one must understand that in warfare individuals who are entirely normal in civilian life are driven to savagry in warfare.
Most men in these photos were not evil men before they posed with the dead Iraqis nor will they commit such behaviour once they return to normal life.

Nobody would suggest that fighting the Nazis was immoral but to fight a war effectively soldiers must be totally ruthless and be psychologically uninhibited about the reality of death as the likes of Major Richard Winters illustrated in Band of Brothers even though he was a caring human being beneath the veneer.

Soldiers are not politicians or diplomats they are trained killers. Whether a war is just or unjust is immaterial to them because the experience of all fighting men is the same - kill or be killed. If you do not enjoy the killing chances are that eventually your will to fight will give way to the desire for death and you will die. That is why trophy hunting always emerges in combat - before the pursuit of the hare the hounds must be blooded.

Ted Kennedy has lived a closeted pampered life as heir to the greatest political dynasty in American history. His brothers Joe and Jack learned what war was all about. The truth of the present is that the Islamic world wishes the destruction of America. Ted sympathises with the plight of the Iraqis but if the flag of the Caliphate rises above Capitol Hill not only will the likes of warmonger Dubya have his head on a pole so to will Ted himself.
The bloodthirsty killers Ted so obviously despises are like the servants who mow his lawn, take out his garbage, tailor his suits and chaffeur his limousine - they maintain his safe contained bubble.
War is hell. Whether you agree or disagree with the Iraq War will not save you from its horror.