Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s senior commander advised NATO soldiers Friday to treat Afghan corpses with “appropriate dignity and respect” as he sought to contain the international fallout from a video that allegedly shows four Marines urinating on Taliban bodies.
“We must treat the living and the dead with dignity and respect,” Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti wrote in a directive obtained by CNN. The I Corps commander, who’s acting as the war’s No. 2 general, advised troops to follow the rules of armed conflict and “act honorably at all times.
“In order to prevail, for the good of the coalition nations and the Afghan people, we can do no less,” he wrote.
Scaparrotti’s task in addressing the Marine video parallels one of his assignments during the 10 months he spent at Lewis-McChord before his deployment to Afghanistan with 500 soldiers from the base’s I Corps.
Scaparrotti was charged at Lewis-McChord with overseeing the courts-martial of five Stryker soldiers who were accused of killing three Afghan civilians in combat-like scenarios and keeping photographs of their victims. Four of them have since been convicted of murder or manslaughter. One is due in court in March.
Desecration of corpses has been an issue in those war-crimes cases, too. Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who was sentenced to life in prison in November for initiating the killings, mutilated corpses by cutting fingers or pulling teeth from Afghans he and his platoon mates killed.
Gibbs in court denied murdering innocents but admitted taking the war trophies. He said he dehumanized Afghans in his mind to cope with combat.
Seven others from his platoon have been convicted of other wrongdoing, including charges of assaulting a private or using drugs during their deployment with Lewis-McChord’s 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.
The so-called “kill team” soldiers posed for photos with their victims, and the images were published in Der Spiegel and Rolling Stone magazines last March – nine months after the Army arrested the five murder suspects and launched its investigation.
The Marine video, by contrast, was posted to a public website this week before the military command learned of it. The Marines, from Camp Lejeune, N.C., reportedly have been identified and face discipline.
Adam Ashton: 253-597-8646 adam.ashton@thenewstribune.com
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