WASHINGTON (AP) — From tasteless photos to urinating on dead insurgents, bad behavior by U.S. troops in Afghanistan has hampered America’s war effort over the past year, triggering a broad new campaign by defense leaders to improve discipline in the ranks.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, in his first personal appeal to troops on the issue, is expected today to remind U.S. forces that they are representing the American people and they must behave up to military standards.

Panetta will speak to soldiers at Fort Benning, Ga., and he is expected to urge them to act as leaders and look after their comrades. His remarks are expected to reflect recent talks by the Army and Marine Corps chiefs telling their commanders to get their troops in line.

The service leaders have zeroed in on discipline in meetings with mid-level commanders around the country. They say they recognize that part of the problem may be leadership stumbles by the young officers who have shouldered much of the burden of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Maybe we’ve gotten overconfident and maybe we’ve gotten a little bit comfortable in our young leaders,” Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday. “Realizing that they are young, they don’t have a lot of experiences. We have to continue to assist them so they understand what is expected of them.”

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