Rick Perry defends 'kid' soldiers who urinated on Taliban dead

DESPERATE for votes ahead of Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina, Rick Perry yesterday defended the four US marines who were filmed urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters killed in battle in the Helmand province, Afghanistan.

The Texas governor, trailing second to last with less than one per cent of the vote after the New Hampshire primary, told CNN's State of the Union show: "These are 18, 19, 20-year-old kids. They make mistakes. There is video out there of all types of things."

In fact, according to Perry, it wasn't the marines at all who were at fault. "What was really disturbing to me is just kind of the over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military," the 61-year-old said.

Whether Perry's intervention gains him any votes in South Carolina, which has a strong military community with eight bases from all wings of the army, remains to be seen. Most commentators believe that if he doesn't post a strong performance in the primary he will be forced out of the race.

The latest poll from the state shows front-runner Mitt Romney with 32 per cent, nine points ahead of Newt Gingrich and streets ahead of Perry who has just five per cent support in a state where as a right-wing southern candidate he should be doing much better.

His outburst appears to be the latest in a series of embarrassing gaffes for Perry, who had been the early favourite for the nomination following his successful governorship of Texas. In a November debate he failed to remember which government departments he would abolish.

Far from showing "disdain", the Obama administration's line on the marines defiling their dead enemies seems to be perfectly in tune with the military view.

US defence secretary Leon Panetta said their behaviour was "utterly deplorable" and would be punished. Timothy Kudo, a former marine captain who served in Helmand, was quoted in The Sunday Times saying: "For me the affront is personal. In a 42-second video, these marines undid everything that my unit spent seven months working to accomplish." ·