The Associated Press (AP) is reporting that Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential – never had a chance – hopeful Reverend Rick Perry is accusing the Obama administration of “over-the-top rhetoric” and “disdain for the military” in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows Marines urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan.

No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines.

A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead.

Perry reportedly told CNN’s “State of the Union” that he thinks the Marines involved should be reprimanded, but not pursued with criminal charges.

Perry said “18, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often and that’s what’s occurred here.”

This sounds like the same tired right-wing rhetoric which surfaced after Abu Ghraib when the likes of Limbaugh and Hannity were trying to defend the torturing of prisoners claiming it was no worse than fraternity hazing; it’s clear many in the conservative right just don’t get it – we have laws and regulations that our military personnel are required to operate under, this is not “Pirates of the Caribbean” where the Uniform Code of Military Justice are more guidelines than actual rules. Perry is wrong – again – and has once more proven why he should never be allowed on a White House tour much less in the Oval Office.

Why would anyone think this was OK? Why would United States Marines think this was OK? Why would conservative talking heads and politicians think this was OK? If the Taliban were shown urinating on dead American Marines these same people would come unhinged; American Marines don’t do this kind of thing, period. These “kids” need to be prosecuted under UCMJ and they need to suffer the stiffest penalty possible. When you put on the uniform you represent more than your unit, more than the Marine Corps, you represent the United States of America. Now perhaps in the alternate reality Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter and Perry live in this is acceptable, but for the majority of those of us living in the real world it isn’t. Nowhere in the motto “Semper Fi” is it implied this is acceptable.