Gov. Perry Says Administration Reaction To Marine Video Is ‘Disturbing’
Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration of “over-the-top rhetoric” and “disdain for the military” in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows four Marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan.
“These are 18-, 19-, 20-year-old kids. They make mistakes,” Perry said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday. “But … what was really disturbing to me is just kind of the over the top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military it appears, whether it’s the secretary of state or whether it’s the secretary of defense. … But to call it a criminal act I think is over the top.”
Perry’s comments put him at odds with Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said the images could damage the war effort.
“The Marine Corps prides itself that we don’t lower ourselves to the level of the enemy,” McCain said when asked about Perry’s position. “So it makes me sad more than anything else, because … I can’t tell you how wonderful these people (Marines) are. And it hurts their reputation and their image.”
No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week that he worried the video could be used by the Taliban to undermine peace talks.
A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead.
