No doubt this isn't the first abuse of position by a member of any armed forces, the difference these days is that it gets reported and thanks to the unbelievable stupidity of the people doing it there is proof because they seem to enjoy taking photos of their "greatness"
The side effect of this behaviour by a relatively small percentage of people in Iraq is that it puts a lot of good men and women in an even more dangerous and difficult position. It also has a very damaging affect on the good will built up through hard work by people on both sides of the action