Analysis: Psychology of 'urinating' Marines

13 Jan 2012, 1:55 pm   -   Source: SBS, Cecilia Lindgren
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The event evoked memories of previous abuses committed by US troops in Iraq and during the decade-long Afghan war. (YouTube)

The event evoked memories of previous abuses committed by US troops in Iraq and during the decade-long Afghan war. (YouTube)

A video of US Marines apparently urinating on corpses in Afghanistan has sparked outrage. SBS asks a war trauma expert what causes that kind of behaviour.

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A video that emerged this week showing four US Marines apparently urinating on Taliban corpses prompted American condemnation and a Pentagon probe, with US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta pledging that ‘those found to have engaged in such conduct will be held accountable to the fullest extent.’

The event evoked memories of previous abuses committed by US troops in Iraq and during the decade-long Afghan war. 

In 2010, a so-called "kill team" was found responsible for a series of murders of Afghan civilians. Troops had planted weapons on the bodies to make them look like fighters, and removed teeth and fingers to show off as trophies.

In 2005, the bodies of two Taliban were burned, in blatant violation of Islamic customs, sparking tensions between Afghanistan and the US. Although there are many cases of body desescrations in conflict zones (Images of a slain US soldier's body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu caused shock in 1992), but those carried out by a ligitimate army spark the most outrage.

SBS spoke to Dr Lynne McCormack from the University of Canberra about the psychology behind this type of behaviour.

Q: This type of behaviour is not unheard of in warzones. Why do you think soldiers carry out these types of actions?

A: If you think about the role of soldiering, you’ve got young men - behaving and thinking like adolescents - sent off to kill. The training they get is necessarily about dehumanising, because you can’t kill someone, or pull a trigger with the intent of killing someone, unless you to some degree dehumanise that person that you’re going to kill.

There are studies that show that many soldiers, even though they are trained to kill, pull the trigger but do not aim directly at the person. This shows that they’re not quite indoctrinated or completely without self-direction in some of these actions. So when you think about the training of soldiering which includes dehumanisation, you can’t just switch on and off from that sort of training.

Peeing together is a bit of a bonding thing for men, traditionally. It’s almost like they’re finishing off the ritual. They’ve usually also got a lot of adrenaline rushing through their system after these things. There are many instances of war in which people have behaved in abominable ways and dehumanised themselves as much as anything.

They get caught up in the adrenalin and the group mentality, because when you’re in a group individual responsibility decreases - there’s a collective conscience that seems to somehow be lessened. If you were to ask each of those men individually have them separate from their group, they would probably be as appalled by their own behaviour as the general public, but in a group people get caught up.

Q: How common is this type of behaviour in war zones?

A: It’s common in any society that’s broken down. I think where you don’t have the constraints of conscience, morality and the infrastructure to deal with behaviour that is non-acceptable to the group, you will find this sort of behaviour.

Q: In which other parts of society can you see this type of behaviour?

A: I think you see it in a whole range of areas, from pack rape and  football violence to politicians - anywhere where individuals act out of accordance with their usual  moral judgement and do things they would not normally have done.
 
Q: Would you say it’s typical male behaviour?

A: I don’t want to say it’s typically male, it’s more of a typical adolescent behaviour I think, there are many females who behave badly in groups. But in these types of situations there is a lot of adrenalin rushing around and if you top that off with testosterone , violence is often testosterone driven, and war is a male domain.

Q: What can be done to prevent these things from occurring?

Good leadership is key.  A lot of my work is on growth out of adversity and out of complex adversity. One of the issues I’m particularly interested in is “betrayal trauma” and there are two main areas where you see betrayal trauma; you see it in young children who have been sexually abused or abused in other ways by caretakers, and you see it in young soldiers who are caught up having to act out behaviours that their own conscience may have trouble with, and in which the leadership had let them down.  And they go off feeling blamed and ashamed when in actual fact they may have been forced into situations by poor leadership.

Good and moral leadership in the military is absolutely imperative to the good behaviour of young soldiers . The commanding officer  should be held responsible for the actions of these men.

I don’t want it to sound like I’m being sympathetic to these men, bad behaviour needs to be dealt with, but it’s a bigger question than just these young men.

You take a young man, pump him up with adrenalin and testosterone and give him a gun and put him in a society which has no boundaries or structure, no law and order, he’s likely to behave in ways that he’s going to feel ashamed about.  And the society from which he came is inevitably going to feel ashamed about it too.


Dr Lynne McCormack has worked as a clinical, health and educational psychologist specialising in complex trauma for over 20 years. Her areas of expertise include war and its effect on the individual.

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Insult to soldiering

Rashid - from WA, 4 months ago

Ryan, then why are you not there? Is it because you don’t want your corps to be urinated upon by uncivilised cowards wearing 20 kg protective armour even when urinating on corpses? Whitheld- The example you gave is of a Muslim Nation and its chivalry. You should have quoted Mustafa Kamal’s speech honouring Australian Sons who gave their life fighting bravely in spite of being used as British fodder. In general, can you answer why on earth are the so called motley coalition forces in Afghanistan?

Reasons

Aisha - from Australia, 4 months ago

Yes these men are not being forgiven but should we really be justifying the reason behind why they pursued these disgraceful and appalling actions. In my opinion these men are uneducated and do not truly understand what their role is in this country.

Tsk tsk tsk

Raani - from Melbourne, 4 months ago

Do we justify this one as "war on terror" or "9-11 revenge"? As long as westerns can live the "American dream", what does matter, right? This world is just crumbling....

The Lucifer Effect

Kim Billington - from Melbourne, 4 months ago

Read a great book recently by the originator of the famous 'Stanford Prison Guard Experiment' which found there were no 'bad apples' but certain contexts made bad behaviour more likely to happen. Seems like these 4 men fit the bill, sadly.

Harden up...

Ryan - from Bris, 4 months ago

I would do the same thing if I was over there. Oh wait they are not even worth urinating on...

Not such a big deal

Withheld - from Qld, 4 months ago

You treat an honorable enemy honorably, eg australia and the turks @ gallipoli. Taliban are just vermin, the urinating was a bit stupid but peeing on the dirt or on a deceased Taliban is pretty much the same act.

Lost Humanity

Rashid - from WA, 4 months ago

Absolute power is said to corrupt absolutely, even character, decency and morality and therefore a nation like the US is corrupt in every thing too. It is surely affected in the head and has gone mad. Their very “clever Dick” in previous administration had replied once to a question on TV on abuse of power and why do they do it—“we do it because we can”. That absolute arrogance and madness filtered down to their soldiers. Even primitive Taliban don’t urinate on corpses! But now they surely will.

Dont pee against the wind

Concerned - from Adelaide, 4 months ago

'When nature calls', please remind me, I must have missed the news. When did the "Taliban beat and eventually cut off American soldiers heads on TV?"

he’s likely to behave in ways that he’s going to feel ashamed about.

Ron - from Bennelong, 4 months ago

Of course you expect him to KILL - of course he will feel ashamed and to make him do that the enemy is turned into EVIL. BUT there are too many of these events and special training needs to be given. There are things you shouldn't do. Only point of being there is to show our ways are better and if they aren't better well then...........

Human face

John Fitzpatrick - from Cairns, 4 months ago

Showing the Human Face of the American War Machine. They should be at home in South Carolina and be content just to do this to each other.

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