At least 347 and up to 504 civilians, almost all women, children and elderly men, were murdered by U.S. Army soldiers. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated, and some soldiers mutilated and raped children as young as 12.
only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., the leader of 1st Platoon in C Company, was convicted. He was found guilty of murdering 22 villagers and originally given a life sentence, but served three-and-a-half years under house arrest after his sentence was commuted.
Research has highlighted that the My Lai Massacre was not an isolated war crime. Nick Turse places it within a larger pattern of American atrocities enabled by deliberate policies from commanders, such as “free-fire zones” and “body counts”, as well as widespread racism amongst American military personnel. Many other atrocities were also covered up by commanders.
Why you should know about this: It is important to know about history so that we can learn from it, avoid the mistakes and atrocities of the past, and know which institutions have a history of performing atrocities, trying to cover them up, etc. and what that looks like.
What those in authority don’t want to tell us is that this is exactly what they expect in war. They want our soldiers to be so horrific that the other side quits. That’s the goal of EVERY leader who starts a war. Any hand-wringing or regret later is just theater.
The only sin is letting the Civilians hear about it.
It’s historically the only effective way to fight an insurgency and every military since ancient times knows it. Basically anytime you hear a modern military is enacting a “counter insurgency” it’s either code word for doing death squads, or it’s a tacit admission that they are out of ideas and have found themselves in an unwinnable quagmire.
The only way to defeat an insurgency is to do massive amounts of crimes against humanity…or avoid creating one in the first place.
And between the two options you presented, even when the latter is surprisingly easy to pull off, for “some reason” we just keep diving head-first into war-crime territory.
It’s the same mentality that got the DNC fighting their own guy who was turbo-winning in NYC. Anything is preferable to building a strong, sustainable, cooperative future as far as these kinds of people are concerned.
It’s a tale as old as time, no one wants to fight for a future that doesn’t advance their own personal positions.
How would a center right politician afford a vacation home in the hamptons if we actually regulated their corporate relationships? What good is a general if there isn’t a forever war?
Valid.
Yeah, you’re right of course, this is why we should get rid of all rulers, now and forever, and ensure that they never return. We do not need a ruling class to order us around. We can build a new society where all are equal, and where decisions are made by consensus, rather than by diktat or decree.