Just a temporary problem. The Marines may be found guilty and may even
be sentenced to life in prison. However, after a short visit to prison,
for publicity's sake, the president will pardon the men and they will
be returned home to a parade down mainstreet. It's the whistleblowers
that will be remembered and suffer the wrath of jingo Americans.
"Every patriot believes his country better than any other country
. . . In its active manifestation-it is fond of killing-patriotism
would be well enough if it were simply defensive, but it is
also aggressive . . . Patriotism deliberately and with
folly aforethought subordinates the interests of a whole
to the interests of a part . . . Patriotism is fierce as a
fever, pitiless as the grave and blind as a stone."
-Ambrose Bierce, Collected Works
The only danger to American troops and to their families. The enemy
will retaliate by torturing and killing any captured military personel
or American citizens, and any previous agreements regarding prisoners
will be ignored. Then, don't complain. "War is Hell."
In Iraq, neither politicians nor soldiers are acting on the conviction
that liberty and free enterprise ultimately triumph over
communism and tyranny. Instead, they act on the
shameful presumption that freedom requires the mass
murder of people who pose absolutely no threat and
are located on the other side of the world.
see:
http://deoxy.org/wc/warcrime.htm
http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt04.html
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0212/pt_intro.html
Machiavelli and U.S. Politics
Part 5: War Crimes and Atrocities
These same sentiments seemed to govern U.S. policy during the wars
waged against Vietnam and Iraq.
http://www.fff.org/comment/com0508m.asp
For Machiavelli, there is no deed too ruthless for rulers on the fast
track to dictatorship. A prince who wishes to remain in power must not
blink at opportunities for cruelty when they can advance his position.
Consequently, in chapter 5, Machiavelli advises would-be princes to
follow the example set by the ancient Romans in dealing with the Greek
cities conquered by Rome as it gobbled up the Mediterranean world:
[The Romans] were compelled to destroy many cities in that province so
as to hold it. For in truth there is no secure mode to possess them
other than to ruin them. And whoever becomes patron of a city
accustomed to living free and does not destroy it, should expect to be
destroyed by it; for it always has a refuge in rebellion in the
name of liberty....
These same sentiments seemed to govern U.S. policy during the wars
waged against Vietnam and Iraq. In Vietnam, the United States dropped
more than 7 million tons of bombs - three and one half times as much
as were dropped in World War II. It is not surprising that in both
North and South Vietnam, 2 million innocent civilians were killed in
addition to 1 million Vietnamese soldiers.
In Iraq, the sanctions following Operation Desert Storm - backed by
the United States and UN - led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi children during the 1990s. This horrifying total continued to
grow until Operation Iraqi Freedom [sic] and its aftermath finished
off tens of thousands of additional noncombatants. Cities such
as Fallujah have been leveled and turned into ghost towns.
That Which Concerns A Prince On The Subject Of The Art Of War
Nicolo Machiavelli CHAPTER XIV
Bush wants to be the Prince
A PRINCE ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything
else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is
the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force
that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often
enables men to rise from a private station to that rank. And, on the
contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than
of arms they have lost their states. And the first cause of your losing
it is to neglect this art; and what enables you to acquire a state is
to be master of the art.... For among other evils which being unarmed
brings you, it causes you to be despised, and this is one of those
ignominies against which a prince ought to guard himself, as is shown
later on. Because there is nothing proportionate between the armed and
the unarmed; and it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield
obedience willingly to him who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man
should be secure among armed servants. Because, there being in the one
disdain and in the other suspicion, it is not possible for them to work
well together. And therefore a prince who does not understand the art
of war, over and above the other misfortunes already mentioned, cannot
be respected by his soldiers, nor can he rely on them. He ought never,
therefore, to have out of his thoughts this subject of war, and in
peace he should addict himself more to its exercise than in war; this
he can do in two ways, the one by action, the other by study..
The Prince
Nicolo Machiavelli
CHAPTER XIV
Vietnam remembered:
Remember Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th
Brigade, American Division and the massacre at Mai Lai, Vietnam. On the
eve of the attack, U.S. military command advised Charlie Company that
any genuine civilians at My Lai would have left their homes to go to
market by 7 a.m. the following day. They were told they could assume
that all who remained behind were either Viet Cong or active Viet Cong
sympathizers. They were instructed to destroy the village.
At the briefing, Captain Ernest Medina was asked whether the order
included the killing of women and children; those present at the
briefing later gave different accounts of Medina's response.
The soldiers found no insurgents in the village on the morning of 16
March 1968. Enraged because fellow platoon soldiers were killed on
previous occasions, they gave little thought to the consequences of
their actions that day. It is rumoured by Vietnamese that the soldiers
asked the villagers where the Viet Cong were and that the villagers
either didn't know or refused to reveal their location. Many suspected
there were VC in the village, hiding underground in the homes of their
elderly parents or young wives. Nevertheless, the American soldiers,
one platoon which was led by Lt William Calley, killed hundreds of
civilians - primarily old men, women, children and babies. Dozens
were herded into a ditch and executed with automatic firearms. At one
stage, Lt. Wm.Calley expressed his intent to throw hand grenades into a
trench filled with villagers.
The precise number killed varies from source to source, with 347 and
504 being the most commonly cited figures. A memorial at the site of
the massacre lists 504 names, with ages ranging from one to eighty-two
years. According to the report of a South Vietnamese army lieutenant to
his superiors, it was an "atrocious" incident of bloodletting by an
armed force seeking to vent its fury.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/bs/thumb/7/77/My_Lai_massacre.j...
The soldiers said they were convinced any and all villagers could be a
threat.
The massacre was halted when Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, Jr., a
24-year-old helicopter pilot, landed his OH-23 and confronted Lt.
Stephen Brooks about attacks on wounded Vietnamese civilians hiding in
a bunker. Thompson threatened to have his two door gunners open fire on
American servicemen with his ship's heavy machine guns if the attacks
continued. Thompson also called in two additional helicopters to
provide medevac for twelve wounded Vietnamese civilians.
In the spring of 1972, the camp (at My Lai 2), where the survivors of
the My Lai massacre had been relocated, was largely destroyed by ARVN
(South Vietnamese) air and artillery bombardment. The destruction was
attributed to "Viet Cong terrorists." However, the truth was revealed
by Quaker service workers in the area, in testimony by Martin Teitel at
the hearings before the Subcommittee to Investigate Problems Connected
with Refugees and Escapees in May 1972. In June that year, Teitel's
account of the event appeared in the New York Times.
The carnage at My Lai might have gone unknown to history if not for
another soldier, Ron Ridenhour, who, independent of Glen, sent a letter
to President Nixon, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, and numerous members of Congress. The copies of this
letter were sent in March 1969, a full year after the event. Most
recipients of Ridenhour's letter ignored it, with the notable exception
of Rep Morris Udall. Ridenhour learned about the events at My Lai
secondhand, by talking to members of Charlie Company while he was still
enlisted.
Eventually, Lt Calley was charged with several counts of premeditated
murder in September 1969, and 25 other officers and enlisted men were
later charged with related crimes. It was another two months before the
American public learned about the massacre and trials.
Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, after extensive
conversations with Lt Calley, broke the My Lai story on 12 November
1969; on 20 November, Time, Life and Newsweek magazines all covered the
story, and CBS televised an interview with Paul Meadlo. The Cleveland
Plain Dealer published explicit photographs of dead villagers killed at
My Lai. As is evident from comments made in a 1969 telephone
conversation between United States National Security Advisor Henry
Kissinger and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, revealed recently by
the National Security Archive, the photos of the war crime were too
shocking for senior officials to stage an effective cover-up. Secretary
of Defense Laird is heard to say, "There are so many kids just lying
there; these pictures are authentic."
Courts martial
On 17 March 1970, the United States Army charged 14 officers with
suppressing information related to the incident. Most of these CHARGES
WERE DROPPED.
No Problem: Lt Calley's was the only conviction and was pardoned after
the incident became muted. Nixon treated Calley as an American hero.
US Army Lt William Calley was convicted in 1971 of premeditated murder
in ordering the shootings and initially sentenced to life in prison;
two days later, however, President Richard Nixon ordered him released
from prison, pending appeal of his sentence. Calley served 3ВЅ years of
house arrest in his quarters at Fort Benning, Georgia, and was then
ordered freed by Federal Judge J Robert Elliot. Calley claimed he was
following orders from his captain, Ernest Medina; Medina denied giving
the orders and was acquitted at a separate trial. Most of the soldiers
involved in the My Lai incident were no longer enlisted. Of the 26 men
initially charged, Lt Calley's was the only conviction. The entire
episode inspired what is known today as a Medina standard.
Some argue that My Lai was a reversal of the rules of war that were set
in the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals. The Tribunals set a
precedent in history that no one may be excused from reprimand for war
crimes because they were ordered to do so. Secretary of the Army Howard
H Callaway was quoted in the New York Times for stating that Calley's
sentence was reduced because Calley honestly believed that what he did
was a part of his orders. This is in direct contradiction to the
standards set in Nuremberg and Tokyo where German and Japanese soldiers
were executed for similar actions. ("Learning From My Lai: A Proposal
on War Crimes" New York Times By Burke Marshall and Joseph Goldstein
Published 2 April 1976 Pg. 26)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_massacre
And: Welcome to Tiger Force in Vietnam
toledoblade.com - ... Home Tiger Force an elite US Army unit known as
Tiger
Force.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE
"War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector
enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today."
~John F. Kennedy
