Quigley: Teach our troops what's off-limits

The video of four U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban combatants in Afghanistan does not make for pleasant watching. The Marines are supposed to represent our country, and their conduct does not reflect well.

One might regard the incident, like Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as simply an excess of youth. It is, to be sure, difficult to put limits on young people we send off with an assignment to kill. If our forces go over the top in celebrating success at what we have ordered them to do, should they be punished? I was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps long enough to understand the solidarity that develops at the level of a platoon. The life of each member depends on the willingness of each other member to sacrifice. But group solidarity can lead to excesses, as we saw a few years ago in the brutal torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad.

Behavior limits are taught to Marines, if not always with the same seriousness as the techniques of killing. Marines should not abuse the corpse of a fallen enemy combatant, even one who minutes earlier may have been trying to kill them. Marines need to maintain a level of humanity, difficult as that may be in an environment of killing.

The International Criminal Court's statute, which is the most recent international statement on war crimes, prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." U.S. military prosecutors looking to the possibility of a court-martial may not find close precedents, but urinating on a dead enemy soldier is probably a war crime.

For President Barack Obama, the issue is complicated by our posture in Afghanistan. The government that we are supposed to be helping is irate over this incident.

President Hamid Karzai is calling for punishment. Over the past year he has been increasingly critical about civilian deaths during our combat operations. Our killing of civilians as "collateral damage" has reached the crisis point. Last May, Karzai issued what he called his "last warning" to the United States after an airstrike killed 14 civilians in Helmand Province.

We have a serious problem proving we value the lives and way of life of Afghanis. By failing to show respect for the dead, we dig ourselves into a deeper hole.

Our combat forces are involved in something more than a one-on-one fight with particular enemy combatants. The U.S. aim in Afghanistan is to persuade the population not to support the Taliban. Creating sympathy for the Taliban, as this behavior does, disserves the purpose.

The four Marines should have thought about the larger picture. Unfortunately for these Marines, they bear the burden of history. In the past two centuries, Afghanistan has seen the entry of foreign armies that did not always show respect.

Nonetheless, this is an incident that cannot be swept under the rug. As for President Obama, the situation in Afghanistan makes it all but impossible for him to offer amnesty to these four Marines. Obama would show himself to be insensitive to the local population. He would damage overall U.S. aims.

Some damage control is already under way. Apologies are being expressed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to the Afghan government.

The four Marines should perhaps have a role in this endeavor. In criminal court, interaction with victims is sometimes mandated. Ordering these four Marines to engage in some difficult interaction with local Afghans might be appropriate as part of the disposition.

Even more important, President Obama should order a review of how our troops are prepared for Afghanistan. Rather than writing this incident off as the act of a few "bad apples," the military should ensure that our forces understand the need to show respect.

John B. Quigley is a professor of law at Ohio State University. Readers may write to him at Moritz College Law, 55 West 12th Street, Columbus, Ohio 43210. Distributed by MCT Information Services.