Photos of US troops with dead Afghans roil Pentagon - Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) — Photos of U.S. soldiers posing with dead Afghan insurgents published Wednesday were another blow for a military still recovering from the release of images of U.S. troops descecrating bodies and reports that troops accidentally burned Korans.

The photos, published in the Los Angeles Times, purportedly were taken in 2010 and show a soldier with the hand of a dead insurgent on his shoulder and another with soldiers holding the legs of a corpse. The Times obtained them from an unnamed soldier who served with the 82nd Airborne Division in a province south of Kabul. Military officials had requested that the paper not publish the images, saying they would put troops at risk.

The White House said the conduct depicted in photos is "reprehensible" and does not represent the standards of the U.S. military. Spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama believes the situation needs to be investigated and those responsible should be held accountable.

The images, like those of a video showing Marines urinating on insurgent corpses that surfaced in January, demonstrate a lack of discipline among troops, according to one military analyst. The photos, another military expert said, are unlikely to change American public opinion of the war, which has grown increasingly sour, according to polls.

"This is not going to make the mission more popular, that's for sure," said Thomas Donnelly, a military analyst at the American Enterprise Institute. "For people who think the (mission is the) right thing to do, they're convinced it's important for strategic reasons" and won't be dissuaded by the photos.

Military officials, meanwhile, condemned the soldiers' actions and denounced publication of the photos, saying their appearance endangered U.S. forces. In February, after U.S. soldiers inadvertantly burned Korans, rioting and attacks killed 30 Afghans and six Americans.

"We believe there is real potential for backlash, or we wouldn't have tried to urge the Times not to publish," Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman working in Kabul, said in an e-mail.

"We don't make such pleas often or without cause," Kirby said. "Had the images been more recent, had they bore relevance to current security or leadership issues, had they been representative of a general lack of character in our troops, we might better understand the need to publish. But none of these conditions are true none."

"The actions of the individuals photographed do not represent the policies of ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) or the U.S. Army," said Marine Gen. John Allen, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan. "This behavior and these images are entirely inconsistent with the values of ISAF and all servicemembers of the 50 ISAF countries serving in Afghanistan."

Richard Kohn, a professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina and a military historian, said the photos could reflect poor training of young soldiers thrust into tough circumstances. Non-commissioned soldiers or young officers who were present should have stopped the soldiers from posing with the corpses, he said. They and their superiors may share culpability.

Kohn pointed out that soldiers taking photos of their dead enemies is nothing new.

"One wonders what WWII would have been like if all those soldiers had cell phones with cameras," he said.

Copyright 2012 USA TODAY