Many of you have probably already seen the "puppy being thrown over a cliff" video that's been all over the internet in the past week. If you haven't,
here it is, but be warned. It's disturbing. The
Honolulu Advertiser offers this description of it:
Two Marines are seen in combat gear smiling as one holds a white-and-black puppy by the scruff of its neck. The dog seems to be about 8 weeks old and is motionless as it is held.
"Cute little puppy, huh?" says one Marine as he smiles broadly.
"Oh so cute, so cute, little puppy," says another in a child-like voice.
The Marine holding the puppy is then seen throwing the animal overhand into a desert-like gully below. The animal yelps until it thuds to the ground at the bottom of the gully.
"That's mean," one Marine says afterward.
When I first saw the video I felt it confirmed that there are some pretty sick people out there. But I didn't see anything that would make me suspect the video was fake. Nevertheless, a lot of people have been arguing that it's not real. For instance,
see this youtube video. And
more here.
The skeptics are suggesting that the puppy was already dead, and that the sounds of it yelping were dubbed in. But I think this is a case of being overly skeptical. That puppy looks alive to me. It's not making any noise initially because it's being held by the scruff of its neck. If you scruff a cat or dog it's going to become very quiet and submissive. It's an instinctive behavior.
The Honolulu Advertiser reports that the Marine Corps is investigating the video. The Marines have released a statement: "The video is shocking and deplorable and is contrary to the high standards we expect of every Marine... We do not tolerate this type of behavior and will take appropriate action." (Thanks, Nettie)
Comments
It's not hard to imagine this is the same sort of mindset that allows other soldiers to justify raping and murdering non-combatants.
Add that to the fact the US Army is incredibly talented at friendly fire.
1) No badges, insignia or name tape anywhere to be seen.
2) No insignia on the left arm of the uniform.
3) NO cammo patern.
4) And most importantly... Where are their weapons? Two Marines out in the open, armed with only a video camera?
If these people really did take a live puppy and fling it over a cliff, then they are indeed very disturbed individuals. But if you're going to say that it is a result of them being Marines, then you'll have to show that civilians don't go around abusing animals. Most Marines I've met are quite decent enough people, and judging them all by the actions of a few sick individuals is like saying all Muslims are crazed terrorists because of the suicide bombers in Iraq.
And Renquist, the US military hardly has a disproportionate amount of friendly-fire incidents or atrocities. They're no worse than the British or Swedish military in those regards, and far better off than many other militaries out there.
I completely agree that it does look real, and the sounds raised the hair on the back of my neck.
Out of the countless relatives and acquaintances of mine who've seen active duty in combat situations, not one has come back the same as when they left. This is not meant to condemn all armed forces, or any one branch. This is a statement about the specific rewiring that occurs to the brain of an impressionable teenager who is sent to kill and torture, and then praised for this behavior by his peers and superiors.
It is no coincidence that Odysseus' first act after victory at the battle of Troy was to lead a pirate raid on the island of Ismarus.
First, plenty of people (most of whom are no more disturbed or sick than the rest of us) don't see anything wrong with the mistreatment of animals - just look at how livestock are treated in the meat production industry. (Most of us who eat meat - excluding those who only buy from sources where good treatment is assured - collude in cruelty far worse than this, and on a far larger scale.)
Second, the horror and denial at this video is at least in part a reflection on our collective double standards in this respect: we fetishise dogs, give them a different status from other animals. Would people be saying these things if it was a rat?
(I'm not endorsing this act, or excusing it - I don't even want to watch the video. I'm merely making observations.)
http://skoften.net/index/item/ezelwerpen
BTW, abusers start by abusing animals--they graduate to people--people they, for whatever reason, are certain they can bully. BULLIES ARE
COWARDS!!!
That is such a lot of garbage about the military/killing machines/what can we expect etc.. They ARE killing machines--that's their job.
However its not their job to abuse helpless creatures. May I suggest taking the lowlife out to needles eye section of the Grand Canyon and drop him over the side. Then we could say"Oh, look at the cute bully. Whoops! He fell off the cliff and went SPLAT!"
http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/43569/b690537f/gooien_met_dieren.html
I don't think this behavior is typical of any normal person, whether soldier or civillian. The military has it's share of bullies & bleeding hearts. Just like in civillian society.
The film is blurry, as far as I can tell...but there are other sources of news that have indicated the rank of the person throwing the puppy...and his name his mentioned during the video as well. There has been a lot of speculation on who these men are...and their families & friends are being attacked on different networking sites.
Whether this is a dog, a rat, or a human, the behavior itself is reprehensible. The blatant lack of care & feeling is horrific. I just hope the situation itself is sorted out.
Waterboarding.
Obviously the strain of having to live in Oregon with all the rain and giant slugs and stuff like that simply conditions everybody there to be mass murderers. After all, just consider Jerry Brudos, Cesar Barone, and Randall Woodfield. They lived in Oregon and they killed lots of people. Clearly, that fact means that people from Oregon are conditioned somehow into being nothing more than killing machines. Yup. Those three examples obviously represent the entire state's population, and we can judge everybody else from Oregon based on them. Right?
Being in the military does not magically make your ethics or your personal responsibility all vanish. They do not train you into being a mindless killing machine, because that is not what they want (well, a few militaries did try that, but it didn't work out). Would you want to share a foxhole with a homicidal maniac? Well-balanced troops are a good thing, amoral killers are not. If the military wanted total destruction of anything that moved, they'd just nuke the place and never bother sending in troops.
Most soldiers are perfectly normal people. Yes, they do sometimes have to see or do very unpleasant things that upset them badly, but generally they just deal with it somehow and get on with their lives. They don't turn into bloodthirsty maniacs. You are trained to use your judgment and your common sense, and to be very selective in who or when you kill something. Many if not most of the people who do things like throwing puppies off cliffs were already twisted long before they ever put on a uniform; after all, just look at all the people who do that sort of thing (or who torture people, or who murder people) yet who are never in uniform at all, but are civilians.
"This behaviour has nothing to do with being a "marine". It has everything to do with the cruelty that human beings are capable of.. You would never see a "Dog" doing something like this to another animal just for the Hell of it, would you?"
Yeah, but to be fair, dogs sniff each other's butts. And even HUMANS don't do that. 😛
Boot camp is designed to specifically remove preconditioned individual values and replace them with a "Government Issue" standard. The extreme situations that many (but not all) soldiers are placed in are stressing past the point that civilians can even begin to comprehend. They are praised when they solve problems with aggression, and they see death all around them. We have all seen the videos of troops sniping seemingly unarmed individuals and cheering as a group at their death on CNN.
I would never for a moment believe that putting a normal individual in military fatigues would instantly turn them into a psychopath. I've never said anything similar. However, an already unbalanced individual put in these types of situations may easily attain unprecedented levels of cruelty, which they might not otherwise reach.
so what does he do when he finds an injured insurgent? do the right thing or say "iv had a bad day, fuck it!" (i know it hasn't stopped some of them before) but id like to think a alot of our squaddies are decent guys, who have a moral compass. surely seeing all the shit that they do would make someone more in touch with the pain and suffering a living thing can feel.
How would he feel if it wasn't just a "towle heads" (his words and typo not mine) but his "own friends" that were sick and got thrown over a cliff? get a clue you jackass!!!!
1) I stated that it COULD be catagorized as hate speech, not that it absolutely was.
2) A question I have asked before - Who defines hate speech, the one making the speech or the victim?
Posted by SickenedByThis
-------
Puppy Throws Marine Off Of Cliff
http://www.break.com/index/puppies-get-revenge-on-marine.html
Uh, speak for yourself.
😛
Dogs specifically I can't answer to; but if the poster was suggesting that animals are incapable of gratuitous cruelty he/he needs to get out more (look at the behaviour of chipanzees, for example, or the games of catch that killer whales play with live seals).
In any case, I'm going to set myself apart from most here and observe that as gratuitous cruelty goes this was actually pretty innocuous. A puppy's awareness of what is going on is going to be pretty damn limited, so psychological suffering in this case is not really an issue, and in all likelihood the fall would have killed the puppy quickly, meaning physical suffering would be minimal.
Finding humour in killing is an unpleasant personal trait, but it's very human - I reckon it's certainly more common than the belief that all life is somehow sacrosanct. And it's certainly not much use as a predictor for psychosis! These guys may be assholes, but suggesting that they're little better than serial killers is just laughable.
As of 2013, the video has been proven to be true, and had disastrous results for the marines in the video.
The man (Moriati) throwing the puppy was dishonorably discharged for conduct unbecoming of an officer. The one filming the video was also discharged. Both were made to serve a year in the brig (military prison) for cruelty, though it's not known if that's due to the animal incident or something else.
Most all of the videos of it have been removed from youtube and the like, and the Marine Corps issued a public apology for the officer's actions. Moriati dropped off the face of the earth after this, his facebook page was closed (likely due to the backlash he was receiving) and he has refused any attempts to comment or explain his actions beyond the one hate filled blurb he did.