As this blogger chronicles, a number of people immediately set off on a hunt to find the identity of the Marine involved in the incident. Some mainstream media sources picked up the story looking into the Marine Corps’ response to the matter. From the Minneapolis Star Tribune:
There seems to be larger issues at play here than just a disturbing video. Echoing Sorgatz’s views on the matter, others are wondering why the death of a puppy in the middle of a war is causing such outrage. From Cenk Uygur, an AOL media blogger:
“We’re still trying to figure out, is this a legitimate video?” Perrine told the newspaper. “Was it edited? Is it [that Marine] who’s in it? We don’t know. We’ll find that out hopefully sooner rather than later.”
Some may object to Uygur’s characterization of the death of “hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians”–others may think it’s right on–but what’s interesting is how debate over the tastefulness of the video has grown to how we judge the degrees of right and wrong in war. Is it because the puppy is a symbol of innocence? Is it because people wonder what kind of conditions drove this Marine to throw a puppy off a cliff? There are far more stories about U.S. soldiers adopting stray dogs in Iraq. So, how does this fact relate to the behavior in the video? Perhaps a discussion on the matter is just starting; there’s a lot of unanswered questions, and a lot of self-reflection still left.
