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 ...
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!
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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
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NEVER FORGET
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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.
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