My Lai massacre - War crime committed by US Army personnel involving the mass murder of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mostly women and children
My Lai massacre - Wikipedia
reminder that the people who did this are still alive, have opinions and vote.
And only one was tried. His sentence was changed from life in prison to 3 years house arrest by Nixon. How the fuck is that possible? I would understand they would try to sweep this under the table, but it was a well known incident, such a thing that they should lock up everyone involved and throw away the keys just to show No, we do not do such things, THEY DO.
Not only that, but:
Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue hiding civilians were shunned, and even denounced as traitors by several U.S. congressmen, including Mendel Rivers (D–SC), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.
What's in Wikipedia doesn't match my memory; what I thought had happened was that Thompson did more than "try to halt." He landed his helicopter between US troops and a group of obviously harmless villagers and told his men to shoot the Americans if they tried to continue murdering the villagers.
He and the other soldiers who stopped the massacre and reported what had happened were viewed by most Americans as traitors at the time, and for quite a while after.
How the fuck is that possible?
Colonialist warfare is just a laundry list of war crimes perpetrated against an "other" - and you can't commit war crimes without war criminals.
Also reminder that there were those that actively tried stopping it, and iirc, a helo pilot ordering the door gunner to shoot his own troops of they would fire upon civilians.
He was, or course, court martialled for this. Not sure how it initially ended, it's been a while since I read about it.
When America realized its military does stuff that they thought only other countries did. Between this and the pentagon papers, Vietnam was when Americans stopped trusting their government.
All that WWII being a justified war shit really set the tone for the rest of the century and clearly into this one.
Will my t-shirts be made by exploited children in China or Vietnam? I don’t know, but who the fuck needs health care.
Now apply that logic to the idf.
Corrected.
Now apply that logic to the idf.
I guess every thread has to be about Israel.
Apply the logic of US public loss of trust in the government to Israel's armed forces?
These are two different things, Israeli support for Netanyahu's government is at an all time low:
Such sentiments are backed up by numbers: New polling data shows that Israelis’ trust in government is at a 20-year low of 18%. Only 20.5% of Jewish Israelis and 7.5% of Arab Israelis polled by the Israel Democracy Institute in the aftermath of Hamas’s attack said they had trust in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/public-trust-in-government-scrapes-bottom-amid-criticism-for-inadequate-war-response/
But trust in the IDF remains quite high:
Leftist and centrist Israelis overwhelmingly trust the heads of the IDF, at 80% and 74% respectively.
Rightists, on the other hand, are far less likely to trust the heads of the IDF at only 41%, they are also more likely to believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be trusted with the war at 10%. 29% trusted both the same amount.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-771429
Famed evangelist Billy Graham wrote a stirring defense of Calley, the officer in charge of the massacre.
We have all had our Mylais in one way or another
No Billy, we have not.
The sickness of the evangelical church is not a recent development.
We have all had our Mylais in one way or another
"So Mr. Graham, does that mean you're willing to forgive Obama for wearing a tan suit or eating Dijon mustard that one time?"
Mr. Graham, in "Bilbo suddenly turning into Gollum for a second" voice: "NEVER"
We have all had our Mylais in one way or another
You know, looking back on my life, I've made some mistakes. But I have never committed nor have I excused the rape and murder of children. Billy Graham got to hell in 2018 and I hope he's had a new My Lai every day since then.
And people wonder why I don't support our military. This is why
Literally nobody on the planet supports your military, except your taxpayers and voters 😂 That's probably you.
Do you think i have a choice in whether my tax dollars go to the U.S. military or not? Try not paying your taxes in this country, and they'll show up at your house and put you in prison so fast, you won't have time to ask why you're being arrested...
So, not literally nobody.
There's also all the NATO countries and our allies that depend on us for mutual defense, and everyone who benefits from Pax Americana.
If these people had been roasted in napalm dropped by an officer going by at 900kmh no American would care or remember.
Codifying war crimes implies that honorable warfare exists.
As true as that is, one of the stories of that day is that there was a soldier that day extorting a blowjob from a terrified mother by holding a gun on her baby. The witness then went and got the commanding officer, Lt. Calley who came immediately and scolded the soldier for not following orders, which were to round up all these civilians and take them to a ditch for summary execution.
My source for said story is either Four Hours in My Lai or the American Experience Documentary I can't remember which but they're both worth a watch although obviously there's a duplication of material.
This is my point. You're trying to measure the difference between rape and murder as though it is worse to kill a 300 pound man than two 145 pound men.
Couldn't we say the rapist is more kind than the murderer? All speculation is madness.
Dont let the old timers at r/TheWayWeWere see this
Americans: Are we the baddies?
History: When have you not been?
War of 1812.
Civil war. (Well half of us were baddies)
World war 2.
WW1 was pretty noble, same with the Revolution. I think Korea was a shitty situation all around but some good EVENTUALLY came out of it in the 90’s when South Korea became a full fledge democracy.
The rest are questionable and downright horrific.
Even world war two war rather dirty, though there everyone was, and sometimes its was also the only option, i guess?
Dresden was fun
Hiroshima, Nagasaki were fun
Oh, the Alies knew about the extermination camps but didn't try to destroy them, bigger picture and the such
War is hell
During the massacre, Thompson and his Hiller OH-23 Raven crew, Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn, stopped a number of killings by threatening and blocking American officers and enlisted soldiers of Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division. Additionally, Thompson and his crew saved a number of Vietnamese civilians by personally escorting them away from advancing United States Army ground units and assuring their evacuation by air. Thompson reported the atrocities by radio several times while at Sơn Mỹ. Although these reports reached Task Force Barker operational headquarters, nothing was done to stop the massacre. After evacuating a child to a Quảng Ngãi hospital, Thompson angrily reported to his superiors at Task Force Barker headquarters that a massacre was occurring at Sơn Mỹ. Immediately following Thompson's report, Lieutenant Colonel Frank A. Barker ordered all ground units in Sơn Mỹ to cease search and destroy operations in the village.
In 1970, Thompson testified against those responsible for the Mỹ Lai Massacre. Twenty-six officers and enlisted soldiers, including William Calley and Ernest Medina, were charged with criminal offenses, but all were either acquitted or pardoned. Thompson was condemned and ostracized by many individuals in the United States military and government, as well as the public, for his role in the investigations and trials concerning the Mỹ Lai massacre. As a direct result of what he experienced, Thompson experienced posttraumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, divorce, and severe nightmare disorder. Despite the adversity he faced, he remained in the United States Army until November 1, 1983, then continued to make a living as a helicopter pilot in the Southeastern United States.
Gentle reminder that Henry Kissinger is still dead
Thanks, I was having a lousy morning
That brings me no happiness.
He managed to live to 100. Where there's millions he killed who did not even make it past puberty.
Not much of a comeuppance, is it?
After living his best life possible🥰
Thanks for that!
And I Intend for him to stay that way!