why? whats the motive?? to cleanse his soul???
Posted on 08/21/2009 7:47:30 PM PDT by grandpa jones
COLUMBUS, Ga. - Speaking in a soft, sometimes labored voice, the only U.S. Army officer convicted in the 1968 slayings of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai made an extraordinary public apology while speaking to a small group near the military base where he was court-martialed
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Medina was just as guilty as he was.
Oh Oh. I smell an MSNBC post. Must we foul the air here?
I’ve never heard the whole story. Was the village harboring VC? I would hazard a guess that that would be the case.
why? whats the motive?? to cleanse his soul???
I guess he figured, everybody else is apologizing, he might as well do it too.
“Everybody wants to get into the act!” - Jimmy Durante
did the viet cong ever apologize for the hanoi hilton?? how about the tet offensive??
an epidemic of capitulation.
God help us.
i guess a lot of usaf and raf pilots and bombadeers have a lot to apologize for because of their bombing raids in WWII. /sarc>
I certainly agree with that.
.
NEVER FORGET
.
The one thing The LOVE Itself needs more of in this world is...
...more LOVE.
And that only comes when people are...
...FREE..!!!
.
Thus those who so selflessly fight to make it so around this world are putting a broad smile on GOD’s Face in the process:
MEL’s -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
.
NEVER FORGET
.
We kicked their butts so bad during Tet, their only apology would be to their own militia. JMHO
I am betting "no."
.
NEVER FORGET
.
Communists now in control of everything in a once FREE South Vietnam really do have much to answer for after the FALL of FREEDOM there, known as the FALL of SAIGON.
For then came a most horrid holocaust for millions of poor S.E. Asian souls:
JOURNEY from the FALL
http://www.JourneyFromTheFall.com
Pictues of a vietnamese Re-Education Camp
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts
.
And it can all happen right HERE in a still FREE America..!!!
.
NEVER FORGET
.
Nothing to apologize for??? RAF pilots should apologize too??? These weren’t villagers killed as a consequence of a bombing run or side casualties of a firefight. In fact not a single shot was fired at the US troops who butchered over 500 old men, women, and children. Many were sexually abused. Did the RAF jump out of their planes to GANG RAPE the people they were bombing? Did they carve “RAF” into peoples bodies?
Over 120 US soldiers were brave enough to say “SCREW YOU” to the sick bastards carrying this out and they refused to participate. Sadly only 3 did anything to stop it-landing their helicopter “in the line of fire between American ground troops and fleeing Vietnamese civilians to prevent their murder”.
The actions of these murderers dishonored all the men who served their country with honor on the battlefields of Southeast Asia.
He should have been executed.
As was LTC Barker, who was called to account at a higher court before it all hit the fan. (He died in battle elsewhere.)
At the time I asked our battalion S-4 why Calley had taken the fall alone, and he explained, "Lieutenant, in the military, shit always flows downhill." I never forgot that.
He did nothing wrong in fact he did everything right.
Leaflets were airdroped prior and anything that moved was to be killed.
An employee of mine was leading a platoon at nother city at the same time under the same criteria and just as Mi lai, they killed everything that moved, men women, childern, and animals!
Lt. Calley was not convicted for losing conrol of his men at My Lai.
He was convicted of personally killing twenty-two civilians with his own weapon.
Should others have been convicted with him? Of course. But Calley was not an isolated scapegoat.
Go figure: The warrant officer helicopter pilot who interposed his aircraft between the remaining civilians and the Americal Division grunts is celebrated as a hero at the U.S. Army JAG school, even as it is well known that he was universally hated at the time for doing so.
Me, I flew helicopters in RVN 1971-72. Thank G-d I wasn’t a part of this.
ping
Agree. Well said.
They should have given him a medal for killing the so called civilians!
The interveining chopper pilot was the one that was wrong.
Kids be damned!
A good friend of mine was killed in Korea because he was stupid enough to let a little kid approach him with a paper bag asking for candy and the kid knifed him with a knife in the bag.
his buddie killed the kid but to late!
You're a liar.
With regulations in hand, sh*t rolls uphill pretty well, too!
.
NEVER FORGET
.
Communists now in control of everything in a once FREE South Vietnam really do have much to answer for after the FALL of FREEDOM there, otherwise known as the FALL of SAIGON.
For then a most horrid holocaust came crashing down on millions of poor S.E. Asian souls:
JOURNEY from the FALL
http://www.JourneyFromTheFall.com
Pictures of a vietnamese Re-Education Camp
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308949/posts
.
And it got worse:
Prominent Vietnamese Pastor Flees Encircled home, then Jailed, Wife Beaten
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2304032/posts
Montagnard cause grows desperate—Stop New Vietnam War: Attacks on Catholic Priests!
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2306750/posts
.
All things we soldiers fought so selflessly to prevent from happening so very long ago:
They are still soldiers
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66978
.
NEVER FORGET
.
You don't have to obey an illegal order. In fact, it's your duty not to obey such an order.
Speaking from experience, if my CO had ordered me to slaughter an entire Iraqi village b/c we'd received fire from it, I'd have told him to pound sand.
Such orders are unconscionable and beneath the honor of the military. An experienced infantryman should've known better.
You are absolutely right about Medina's guilt, as well as his perfidy.
However, I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not with your last line (quoted above). You might recall a little event called the Nuremburg Trials? It was the civilized world's contention (as well as the U.S. Military), that indeed, "military personnel did not have to obey an "illegal" order from their superiors," and in fact were bound not to.
Despite the hideous realities of war, being in the U.S. military has never established a justification for murder or rape or crimes against humanity - and I sure as hell hope this is still the case, and never changes.
Not even Patton would condone My Lai.
Thanks for the ping!
If you are trolling for miscreants, your effort has not been in vain. ;-)
The theory is unique and old. Note the Jap and Nazi war criminals were hung after their defense of "just following orders" was rejected as rubbish.
ping
A Marine friend of mine says that many of the villages harbored VC but also the people were hostile. He said that it happened often that they would be ordered to fly supplies into villages that had been cut off by the fighting. They’d drop the lifesaving aid and as soon as they were back in the helicoptor they were being shot at.
I don’t know about Calley’s circumstances because all I got at the time was MSM news.
“Leaflets were airdroped prior and anything that moved was to be killed.”
So a bunch of women and children sitting in a ditch, under guard...that constitutes “movement” and you have no problem with Calley coming over and killing these people? Even a 2 year old?
“So a bunch of women and children sitting in a ditch, under guard...that constitutes “movement” and you have no problem with Calley coming over and killing these people? Even a 2 year old?”
Not at all.
Tell that to the 5,000 civilians, give or take, they murdered in Hue and other places during Tet.
???
The Peers summary mentions the rapes.
Calley even mentioned in his testimony that he had to stop a soldier from molesting a girl.
The “Findings” section of the Peers report mentions rape and sodomy.
Do you have first hand knowledge that Calley and General Peers were lying or are you just so determined that Americans can do no wrong that anyone who says they did is a liar?
How I pity you.
You said, “Many were sexually abused.”
Within the context of your entire damning post “many” sounds like more than a few isolated incidents.
I was more worried about my butt during those days. However, I believe we won that one despite civilian losses and despite what Uncle Walter fed to the American public in his newscasts.
That would be a lazy Sunday afternoon for Pol Pot.
.
Another interesting discussion:
My Lai Massacre convict Calley apologizes
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1290285
.
The general's line in Platoon (1988) "If I find out there has been an illegal killing there WILL be a court martial" proved to be the case.
Johnson's dismissal (The Day It Became The Longest War) of the Joint Chiefs November 1965 request to bomb Hanoi and mine Haiphong made defeat certain.
Cronkite's treacherous lie that Tet was an enemy victory qualifies him for a seat up close at Satan's campfire.
John Kerry's and Ted Kennedy's contribution to the betrayal of the South and the ensuing tens of thousands murdered there and the two million in Cambodia gives the Left no room to criticize Calley.
The president has continued to allow the Holocaust denier to murder 700 to cement his stolen election and to buy time for the nuclear weapon with which to erase the Zionist entity and destroy the Great Satan.
A great deal was made of the four killed at Kent State while there is no remembrance of the 2,000 killed in the 130 locations dubbed the "Tiananmen Massacre".
We mustn't offend our debtors, though they have run up a score circa sixty million murdered.
Surely we will hear from Bill Ayers (eliminate 25 million to cement the revolution) the conscience of the Obama regime.
Meanwhile the Marines have been persecuted by the corrupt John Murtha and the enemy assets of al-Jazeera, the ambitious and the unscrupulous who are instituting the ROEs in Afghanistan.
The world remains a place where rough men on the razor's edge provide us our broad boulevard from which to demonize their decisions.
Calley knows he alone carries his consequences and will bear a judgment passing our understanding.
Here comes a car up to the gate, the driver fumbles for the detona
...tor !!!
And decision-making must continue, despite the ever-increasing sense that actions will be second-guessed and prosecuted.
Tony Lake had FBI agents bring back CIA agent Bob Baer for questioning on a charge of attempted assassination of Saddam Hussein.
Baer was on the trail of the bomber of the Beirut Embassy in 1983 which killed sixty-some.
Obama went with the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
It's not appeasement; it's treason: weak horse, strong horse--and the guy's a Muslim.
Interesting times. Gooks in the wire.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.