On the nature of atrocities during war

Now we have another example, that to me, shows why war is so terrible, to include revolt, revolution, and civil war. I myself prefer the vote, and time, for the politicians to sort things out.

The recent example is US Marines peeing on dead enemy in Afghanistan.

That being said, atrocities happen, all the time, and throughout history.

And atrocities are often culture based, like cutting off a person's head with video is OK, but using the wrong hand in greeting is not (the left hand is "dirty"). Even in Japan I remember running without a shirt top was gross, but peeing in a ditch was OK (for a male).

And since so many Americans are fighting and deployed around the world, they are often exposed to these cultures that are just different from theirs, including atrocities.

Just one personal atrocity story from me. Iraqis during Desert Storm, on the way out of Kuwait City, killed some Kuwait women, gutted them, and hung them naked upside down from telephone poles with entrails hanging out. Now even that disgusted me, and many local Kuwait people I knew. I doubt that was reported in the USA...hence my thoughts about cultural differences.

So war and humans are tough against opponents. Native Americans were harsh against their captured tribal enemies, like burning sticks into their skin, and later against Europeans. Even during WWII I have stories of the Japanese cutting off male privates and stuffing them in the dead Marine's mouths. Hopefully, this was done to dead Marines, but I don't know. Even during the American Civil War, read about what went on at Andersonville, as an example.

Now we American soldiers and Marines do have a reason to keep captured people to exploit them for information that can be turned into intelligence. That's one reason "officers" were invented to make this happen.

But in the same vein, atrocities will occur in all cultures, at least historically speaking. Just how our culture handles it, is in the end, culturally dependent. I just hope my culture doesn't use a double standard against these fellow Americans.