Nothing in your explanation makes me want to click on that link.

So I'll just blindly share your outrage.

WTF?

And to clarify, I don't by any means think this is normal or usual for the troops overseas. My heart goes out to them, for what they're going through and, sadly in increasing numbers, dying for.

It's just.

...

"That is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life" If the war did this to you I hope you can recover.

It's not intrinsically graphic, mudpups, just....damn depressing.

I'll summarize it (in small text) for those that may not want to watch it

US Trooper guy and two of his fellow troopsters stumble upon a wounded dog. Video starts with trooper 1 saying "Okay, I've got video camera now"

Other troopers throw rocks at said dog. He runs off on his two forefront legs, since, apparently, his back legs don't work.

Troopers laugh. One of them says "That is the funniest thing I've seen in my life!"

They continue to enjoy the moment.

It ends with one of them saying "Do you want me to go on and kill it?"

Man that is MEAN.

Also, equally deranged, I saw today:

http://hight3ch.com/post/the-pet-spa/

Man, that cat is *PISSED*!!!

...

You really have to be careful about what you put in your head.

This is part of why I generally oppose war. It requires people, by sheer dint of the need to survive the experience, to shut off sympathetic responses to almost anything but close colleagues and creates a social structure where great harm is allowable and seen as necessary.

This kind of thing is not really an aberration within war, it's endemic to war. It's important to realize that when we vote to support war, we are voting not just for victories and freedoms, but accepting the possibility of Abu Ghraibs, rapes, and abused animals. We are creating a situation in which a few people - a minority, sure - but a few people who cannot psychologically manage the situation may do some terrible things. Even people who do manage it to the best of human ability, and who do not commit acts of excess cruelty, will have to do things that they will spend the rest of their lives trying to reconcile with their morality.

This isn't an exception to the rule; it's always part of war. We have to have a mature understanding of that when we support combat actions. We have to be really, really sure it's worth what we're going to do to our soldiers, to their families, to civilians here and there, and to victims of an excess of aggression, like this dog.

If it makes anyone feel any better, those guys will likely be tormented for the rest of their lives with dark thoughts and memories like this and nightmares about Iraq. That doesn't make me feel any better, really, but it's also one of the fruits of war.

It's sad that we seem to have to do this so often.

Thanks for the recap, ufez, I really didn't want to click the link.

People are just so fucked up. /obvious

What Miko said. Except that last sentence. It doesn't make me feel better at all.

I think the last "Do you want me to go kill it?" comment showed a degree of empathy. Given the torment the poor animal was in and the probable lack of good vets in Iraq, I think I'd have wanted to put it out of its misery too.

I'm just not going to comment here 'cuz I'm on a dozen informal animal rights e-mail lists and we've hashed this out so much... and so far, somehow, my head hasn't exploded.