Lawmaker warns against too harsh punishment for Marines in video
Published: January 19, 2012
WASHINGTON – Marine Corps veteran Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday not to “make a statement” with the punishment of four Marines shown urinating on Taliban corpses in an online video.
Hunter, who served in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, says the Marines’ actions were clearly wrong and warrant some punishment. But, in a letter the defense secretary, he questioned Panetta’s public remarks that the men will be “held accountable to the fullest extent,” saying that prison time is likely too extreme a reaction.
“The realities of combat are often difficult and sometimes impossible to explain,” he wrote. “In the case of the video, we do not know the full extent of the situation or the shared experiences of these Marines. Regardless, we owe it to these individuals and others, who put their lives on the line every day, to take into account the extraordinary conditions and danger they face when judging their actions, and put things into the proper context.”
Earlier this week, former Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry also lashed out at the “over-the-top rhetoric” from government officials in reaction to the video, dismissing the offensive acts as nothing more than childish behavior. Members of the conservative group Move America Forward said the Marines should not face any significant punishment for the incident, and noted that Taliban fighters have committed war atrocities that far surpass the urination allegations.
Pentagon officials said this week that Panetta’s comments were reviewed by attorneys before they were released, to ensure that they did not imply the defense secretary was influencing the criminal investigation into the incident.
Marine Corps officials have identified the four men involved in the video as members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which returned last year from a deployment in Afghanistan to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. No charges have yet been filed against them.
