Analysis: Someone forgot to tell it to the marines …

THIS was not filmed covertly. The four US marines shown urinating on Afghan corpses were playing for the camera.

Even after Abu Ghraib and Kandahar’s “kill teams” – where the perpetrators were caught with their own photos – it seems these men never received the memo.

They wait until the film is rolling until they unzip their flies. “You get the middle guy,” says one of the men as the camera settles on the marines standing around three dead men. Two men have taken off their helmets.

“Let it go,” says another, encouraging his friends.

“I’m trying, I’m trying, I’m working on it.” One of them has stage fright.

They are in a sun-bleached, mud-walled courtyard, which could be almost anywhere in rural Afghanistan. All of the bodies are whole, which suggests they were killed by bullets, not bombs. Only the middle man is obviously hurt. His chest is soaked with blood. Yet there is nothing to suggest the men were insurgents.

There are many questions left and no doubt not all of them will be answered. There’s only one thing the marines get right. “Arggggh,” sighs one. “That’s disgusting.”