The video of American marines urinating on the corpses of Afghan civilians has prompted worldwide outrage, condemnation from the White House and the opening of a federal investigation. CNN's Dana Loesch thinks the whole thing is pretty cool, though.
Loesch, the 33-year-old CNN contributor hired last year to offer political analysis for the coming election, is already giving the network their money's worth. Speaking during her own syndicated radio program on Thursday, Loesch discussed the just-surfaced video that shows four Marines urinating on the corpses of slain Afghans, presumed to be civilians. Her own insight seems to be a bit more harsh than the commentary that others are offering. “I’d drop trou and do it too,” Loesch told listeners during the January 12 broadcast of The Dana Show. “I want a million ‘cool points’ for these guys. Is that harsh to say?” she asked.Loesch, who says she was a liberal until the September 11 terrorist attack, added that she had no problem with the act of desecration. “Come on people, this is a war,” she said. On the contrary, even those responsible for continuously waging the deadly operation in Afghanistan have condemned the act portrayed in the video and all the men involved. The video was uploaded to the Web earlier this week and by Wednesday had garnered mainstream coverage across the world. On Thursday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said from Fort Bliss, Texas, “The danger is that this kind of video can be misused in many ways to undermine what we are trying to do in Afghanistan and the possibility of reconciliation.” After more than a decade of the War on Terror, the Obama administration has only of late started talks with the Taliban in order to end the operation which has yielded no major success for any party apart from the execution of former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Panetta, who added that the video was “disgusting,” is now worried that the relationship just budding after ten years of conflict might now come crumbling apart.Loesch, however, seems to be more upset with the nay-sayers than the servicemen who might have just extended America’s war with Afghanistan. “Now we have a bunch of progressives that are talking smack about our military,” she said. “Can someone explain to me if there’s suppose to be a scandal if someone pees on the corpse of a Taliban fighter?”At one point in the broadcast, Loesch is interrupted by another DJ that announced that, despite what the media is saying, there are no similarities between this incident and the Abu Ghraib scandal that exposed the mistreatment of prisoners of war at an Iraq facility. “It’s nothing compared to what happened at the prison in Iraq,” commented her co-host.“Completely different story!” responded Loesch.For a recap, CNN contributor Dana Loesch may or may not have a problem with American soldiers stripping POWs naked and torturing them for days on end. When it comes to pissing on the faces of dead Afghans, however, all is fair in love and war. CNN has yet to offer a comment on her quip, though should have expected as much from when they hired her. Despite previously calling the network “the biggest bunch of idiot blockheads” with a “blatant disregard for objectivity,” CNN welcomed her aboard in February to offer such genius insight as the extension of “cool points” to American war criminals."I'm excited to be working with CNN and am appreciative of their efforts to showcase diverse political thought on their airwaves,” Loesch said in a CNN press release announcing her hiring last year. "I look forward to the discussions."Current TV host Keith Olbermann brought Loesch into a discussion of his own during the September 28, 2011 broadcast of his program Countdown. In it, the commentator attacked Loesch for saying what he said was “One of the all-time dumbest things in the history of journalism,” but offered a few words in her defense: “It is important to remember here that she is not very bright and thus she has to get a little benefit of the doubt.”Given her latest gaffe, CNN might want to reconsider their hiring process. For a “real” news network, we’re not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt for this one.