MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry defended today the four Marines seen urinating on Taliban corpses in an inflammatory video, calling the incident a “mistake” and saying it would send a “really bad message” for the Obama administration to pursue criminal charges against the service members.
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” from South Carolina, where Perry is campaigning before the state’s Jan. 21 primary, he said “obviously, 18, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often, and that’s what’s occurred here.”
US military leaders were quick to condemn the behavior in the video, which was posted on YouTube, and a senior military official told FOX News Channel on Friday that investigators expect to bring charges against the four Marines soon.
“What is really disturbing to me is just, kind of, the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military, it appears, whether it’s the secretary of state or whether it’s the secretary of defense,” Perry said. “I mean, these kids made a mistake. There’s not any doubt about it. They shouldn’t have done it. It’s bad. But to call it a criminal act, I think, is over the top.”
Perry, who served in the US Air Force, also noted that World War II Gen. George Patton famously urinated in the Rhine River to show his disdain for Nazi Germany and that former British prime minister Winston Churchill was said to have done the same thing on Germany’s Siegfried Line.
“Did they make a mistake? Absolutely. Should they be reprimanded and appropriately punished? Yes,” Perry said of the four Marines. “But going after them as a criminal act, I think — really bad message.”
Appearing separately on “State of the Union,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, disagreed, saying “a full and complete investigation is entirely appropriate.”
“I don’t object to the commandant of the Marine Corps looking into this. It’s a breakdown in discipline, is what it is,” he said. “The Marine Corps prides itself on its discipline. The Marine Corps prides itself that we don’t lower ourselves to the level of the enemy.”