Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Sunday defended four Marines who were depicted in a video urinating on the corpses of three Taliban insurgents, arguing that "what's really disturbing to me is just, kind of, the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military."
"Obviously, 18-, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that's what's occurred here," the Republican presidential candidate said on CNN's "State of the Union." "But, you know, when you're in war, and history kind of backs [this] up -- there's a picture of General Patton doing basically the same thing in the Rhine River. And although there's not a picture, Churchill did the same thing on the Siegfried Line."
A 1945 photo appears to show Gen. George Patton urinating into the Rhine River in full view of his soldiers. And Winston Churchill, too, is reported to have urinated on the Siegfried Line, the German World War II defensive line. But neither man was known to have urinated on human corpses. U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead.
"They shouldn't have done it," Perry said. "It's bad. But to call it a criminal act, I think, is over the top." He called for a reprimand.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a former prisoner of war, appeared on the same news show and said the images could damage the war effort. While praising the Marine Corps, he said, "it hurts their reputation and their image."
S. CAROLINA BARRAGED BY POLITICAL ADS
They have been inescapable: growling baritone announcers and grainy images of sneering candidates. Mitt Romney is a corporate raider. Newt Gingrich's politics are desperate and disgusting.
Anyone who happened to be near a TV in South Carolina over the weekend was exposed to one of the most concentrated barrages of political advertising that this state has experienced. With the traditional efforts of candidates now multiplied by the presence of the well-financed super PACs supporting them, political operatives furiously outbid and outmaneuvered each other to buy up their share of the airwaves between now and the primary on Saturday. Want to advertise on "60 Minutes," as Romney did on Sunday? His campaign had to get WLTX, the CBS station in Columbia, to bump a super PAC that was actually running ads supporting him. It agreed to pay $3,000 for a 30-second spot, almost double the usual rate.
Rick Santorum, running as a family values social conservative, put his campaign's money into the very Hollywood studios he often derides, booking time on NBC during the Golden Globes and "30 Rock."
"It's like carpet-bombing," said Scott Sanders, general sales manager for WIS, the NBC station in Columbia. "They're waiting until the last two weeks to reach everyone they can. He who shouts the loudest last might win." NEWS SERVICES