News broke of a U.S. military unit operating in Afghanistan who burned the bodies of two Taliban fighters and then "offended Muslim sensibilities" by taunting other Taliban fighters in the area by getting onto loudspeakers and calling them sissies.
Naturally, this has sparked outrage in Afghanistan.
Here's what really happened: the bodies were burned by a regular Army unit on orders from their commanding officer as the bodies were rotting away. It is very likely that this was a mistake as the officer in charge was unaware that burning Muslim bodies was a forbidden practice according to Muslim belief.
According to reports, a psychological warfare unit was also operating in the area and saw an opportunity to get other Taliban fighters out into the open and so positioned the bodies so that they were pointed to the east toward Mecca. They got onto loudspeakers and announced what they had done and then called the other Taliban a bunch of women and cowards.
The original Army unit made a terrible mistake; the second unit compounded the mistake by doing what it was there to do; it antagonized the Taliban using all means at it's disposal to goad the Taliban into breaking cover and attacking the superior U.S. military force that was awaiting them.
There is a war going on, ladies and gents, and while defiling the dead is a horrific practice, the psy-op men did their job that they were over there for. They shouldn't have messed with the bodies, but the damage had already been done.
Now the Army has to make an example out of all of them to quell anger in the Muslim world.
It's a very unfortunate situation.
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