Like this:

Sebastian Junger – We’re All Guilty of Dehumanizing the Enemy (Washington Post)

Money:

There is another context for that behavior, though — a more contemporary one. As a society, we may be disgusted by seeing U.S. Marines urinating on dead Taliban fighters, but we remain oddly unfazed by the fact that, presumably, those same Marines just put high-caliber rounds through the fighters’ chests. American troops are not blind to this irony. They are very clear about the fact that society trains them to kill, orders them to kill and then balks at anything that suggests they have dehumanized the enemy they have killed.

I don’t have a feel for the popular anger about what happened.   Well, unless the popular attitude towards this is, “eh,” as that is the overwhelming vibe.  There are much larger issues at stake, though – if this does result in a bout of anger from the American populous, it will be misdirected.

The response from the Taliban: ”This is not the first time we see such brutality,” said spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.  Well, then.  A valid point.

The Junger editorial is absolutely worth five minutes, though.

So is the GSG analysis here.

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