Puerto Rican doctors on a humanitarian aid mission to Haiti have become controversial after pictures were posted on the social networking site Facebook with them drinking beer in medical uniform, posing with firearms and grinning amid the carnage of Haiti's capital.

Puerto Rican Secretary of Health Lorenzo Gonzalez called the situation a sad one, according to CNN.

The pictures show medical personnel in what seems to be a clinic, smiling while attending to patients. One picture shows a patient, injured in the earthquake, lying on a hospital bed, naked from the waist down with just a piece of cloth covering the genitals.

The pictures were apparently taken after the doctors had operated on some 70 critically wounded patients. While Puerto Rican authorities have vowed to take action against the doctors involved, many have come out in their support.

On the CNN Web site alone, there have been over 500 comments on the story from readers, many of them vociferous in their support of the doctors, pointing out that, although their judgement may have been in bad taste, their roles in Haiti were commendable none-the-less.

In a situation in which they would have been placed under immense strain, they were perhaps entitled to some time out.

One reader commented, "I don't know about anyone else, but if I had just spent hours and hours amid the carnage, I would want a beer myself" (sic).

Another said "These guys are doing great work in Haiti. So what that they need to blow off some steam and stress?" (sic).

It is perhaps a sad reminder that in today's politically correct world, it is not hard to be controversial.