A Body Of Men
‘WHEN we first saw those grainy images of naked members of the Royal Marines standing in a field fighting with mats rolled around their wrists we were appalled.
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Last one to Abu Ghraib’s a chicken |
After the shame of non-firing guns and boots that melted in the heat, what hope now for the brave men of 42 Commando Royal Marines forced to take on the enemy with not a stitch of clothing on and armour made from sponge?
Then we read the reports, as in todays Times (Naked fight film sparks calls for new crackdown on bullies), that the men were not fighting the Iraqis, but each other.
The Times says the secretly filmed video appears to show an initiation ceremony. Over six pictures, readers get to see the naked men dance around like demented turkeys as they square up for battle.
Then the soldiers are ordered to remove the mats and use their fists. Things are getting nasty. And worse is yet to come for one marine who is kicked in the head by a non-commissioned officer dressed in a surgeons hospital scrubs.
If this is bullying, as the paper says it might well be, its less than surprising to learn that the man knocked out has yet to make a formal complaint.
The paper even hears that the unnamed victim told his superiors this was part of a drunken barbecue and not an initiation ceremony.
But the Telegraph hears from the marine who shot and leaked the video to the press. Says he: The guy laid out was inches from being dead. Stuff like this goes on all the time but when drink is involved it gets worse.
The whistleblower says that the combatants and 40 other marines were indeed taken to a barbecue, where they were ordered to swallow raw eggs, huge chunks of lard and booze. It was then that the fighting began.
This is clearly utterly hilarious stiff, the kind of thing that binds not only the soldiers insides but unites them together as a fighting unit. What better way to raise morale than by kicking one of our own in the head?
But even so, some killjoys in the Royal Military Police have launched an investigation into this alleged violent bullying, which, it seems, took place at a barracks at Bickleigh, near Plymouth, in May this year.
We look forward to the outcome. And wonder how our boys put into practice such training when out in the field of combat…’
Posted: 28th, November 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
