While it's really difficult to feel badly for dead Taliban terrorists, what a small group of Marines did to a handful of dead Taliban and videotaped it is causing quite the controversy. What'd they do to infuriate terrorist sympathizing progressives everywhere? One word: tinklegate. Nevertheless, even Glenn felt that it was a poor course of action for the Marines, and he invited David Barton on to help him explain on radio this morning.
"I want to talk to you a little bit about the going‑on in Afghanistan with our military, and it's not going to be a popular stance and may not even be the right stance but it's my stance. I want to talk about the urination on dead bodies by our troops. Understand that when I get to my opinion, I speak as a guy who has not been in war and I understand war is hell, but I want to give you a little perspective and we're going to bring David Barton in as well who, you know, has sons who have been in the military and have served and I just want to talk to him about the historic perspective of the nation we should be, not the nation we are or not the nation that we ‑‑ that, you know, takes the easy way out. The compassionate nation and the nation that we should be," Glenn said.
"Here's what Allen West says: The Marines were wrong. Give them the maximum punishment under the field grade level Article XV nonjudicial punishment, place a general officer letter of reprimand in their personnel file, have them in full dress uniform stand before the battalion, each personally apologize to God, country and the corps, videotaped and concluded by singing the full U.S. Marine Corps hymn without a TelePrompTer. For everybody else, unless you've been shot by the Taliban, shut your mouth. War is hell," Glenn explained.
"The only thing I disagree with on this is the last line," he said.
"We have to start with, these guys were wrong. That doesn't mean that you don't understand what they've done, it doesn't mean that war isn't hell," Glenn said.
"I think degrading their bodies by peeing on them is despicable honestly. I understand the anger. I understand the frustration. I haven't had all of my buddies killed. If my buddies were being killed, I get it. It did happen in previous wars," he said.
Glenn cautioned, however, that "it's not a criminal thing and they should be disciplined because I believe our corps needs to be more disciplined than that."
"Last night I was just reading Ecclesiastes. Try this: There's no righteous man upon the Earth who does good and never sins," he said.
"In other words, in other words, if you're in the world and you are actively trying to change the world, you're going to make mistakes."
Glenn also invited David Barton on to explain how George Washington would have handled this type of situation. You can hear his explanation in the clip above.