This past Sunday the
LA Times did a lengthy story on 3000 pages of declassified documents which reveal that My Lai Massacre of Vietnam was far from an isolated incident.
The records were declassified in 1994, after 20 years as required by law, and moved to the National Archives in College Park, Md., where they went largely unnoticed.
The Times examined most of the files and obtained copies of about 3,000 pages -- about a third of the total -- before government officials removed them from the public shelves, saying they contained personal information that was exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.
In addition to the 320 substantiated incidents, the records contain material related to more than 500 alleged atrocities that Army investigators could not prove or that they discounted.
The appalling thing is that these crimes were committed - In Our Name - under the color and flag of the United States. They occured with the tacit approval of the American People, granted by their ignorance of commonality of these events. But were we truly clueless then - or now?
MaryScott OConnor posted an excellent diary on this story which displayed with great personal anguish as her own father was killed in Vietnam on the very same day that some of these atrocities occured.
But shouldn't all Americans take this personally?
Our tax dollars paid for this. Our sons and daughters were asked to perform a near impossible task, placed under intolerable conditions - to recall the recent comments of Sen Chuck Hagel it was a "Hopeless, Unwinnable" situation - how could we not expect this kind of result to occur not just once, but hundreds of times?
Abuses were not confined to a few rogue units, a Times review of the files found. They were uncovered in every Army division that operated in Vietnam.
How can we turn a blind eye when history has so clearly begun to repeat itself?
The Article recounts the Story of Pvt James D. Henry as a witness to these events.
Then B Company entered a hamlet to question residents and search for weapons. That's where Henry set down his weapon and lighted a cigarette in the shelter of a hut.
A radio operator sat down next to him, and Henry was listening to the chatter. He heard the leader of the 3rd Platoon ask Reh for instructions on what to do with 19 civilians.
"The lieutenant asked the captain what should be done with them. The captain asked the lieutenant if he remembered the op order (operation order) that came down that morning and he repeated the order which was 'kill anything that moves,' " Henry said in his statement. "I was a little shook ... because I thought the lieutenant might do it."
Henry said he left the hut and walked toward Reh. He saw the captain pick up the phone again, and thought he might rescind the order.
Then soldiers pulled a naked woman of about 19 from a dwelling and brought her to where the other civilians were huddled, Henry said.
"She was thrown to the ground," he said in his statement. "The men around the civilians opened fire and all on automatic or at least it seemed all on automatic. It was over in a few seconds. There was a lot of blood and flesh and stuff flying around....
"I looked around at some of my friends and they all just had blank looks on their faces.... The captain made an announcement to all the company, I forget exactly what it was, but it didn't concern the people who had just been killed. We picked up our stuff and moved on."
Henry didn't forget, however. "Thirty seconds after the shooting stopped," he said, "I knew that I was going to do something about it."
What Henry did after he was discharged was go to the Press. He was later interviewed by Army investigators and eventually became even more vocal.
In 1971, Henry joined more than 100 other veterans at the Winter Soldier Investigation, a forum on war crimes sponsored by Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
The FBI put the three-day gathering at a Detroit hotel under surveillance, records show, and Nixon administration officials worked behind the scenes to discredit the speakers as impostors and fabricators.
Although the administration never publicly identified any fakers, one of the organization's leaders admitted exaggerating his rank and role during the war, and a cloud descended on the entire gathering.
"We tried to get as much publicity as we could, and it just never went anywhere," Henry says. "Nothing ever happened."
One of the other attendents of that forum was Lt. John Kerry - who later recounted the testimony he heard to Congress.
His statements were immediately attacked by Nixon supporters such as John O'Neill, his words were twisted and contorted into a vicious smear of our troops, their patriotism and their honor. He was accused of "aiding the enemy" - a cry which has continued even today as documented by Factcheck.org.
From the ad "Sellout" Produced by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004:
John Kerry (from Senate Testimony in 1971): They had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads...
Joe Ponder: The accusations that John Kerry made against the veterans who served in Vietnam was just devastating.
John Kerry: ...randomly shot at civilians...
Joe Ponder: ...and it hurt me more than any physical wounds I had.
John Kerry: ...cut off limbs, blown up bodies...
Ken Cordier: That was part of the torture, to sign a statement that you had committed war crimes.
John Kerry:...razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan...
Paul Galanti: John Kerry gave the enemy for free, what I and many of my comrades, in the North Vietnamese prison camps, took torture to avoid saying. It demoralized us.
John Kerry: ...crimes committed on a day to day basis...
Ken Cordier: He betrayed us in the past, how could we be loyal to him now?
John Kerry: ...ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam...
Paul Galanti: He dishonored his country, and more importantly, the people he served with. He just sold them out.
Kerry spoke the truth as it was reported by those involved in the Winter Soldier Event, he placed the blame for these events not on the soldiers themselves, but on their superiors "I think clearly the responsibility for what has happened there lies elsewhere. I think it lies with the men who designed free fire zones. I think it lies with the men who encourage body counts", a comment which he repeated on Meet The Press in 1971. "the men who designed the free-fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas".
He held the command structure responsible for giving the orders, and creating the situation which led to clear and obvious War Crimes. HE DID NOT BLAME OR BETRAY OUR TROOPS. Kerry did the honorable thing, he told the truth - while those who oppose the truth and prefer that America continue to use methods like those described at the Winter Soldier event continue to Smear him.
Today with the Supreme Courts clear decision in Hamdan that the Geneva Conventions do apply to those being held in Gitmo -- rather than do their best to avoid the repeat of what Pvt Henry witnessed and Lt. Kerry recounted we have Alberto Gonzales doing his best to make War Crimes Legal. Meanwhile Rep. Duncan Hunter claims were too soft on detainees, and Sen. (and former JAG Officer) Lindsay Graham wants to override the Supreme Courts authority to require that the President abide by the law and the consitution.
All this is being done - In our Name.
The problem here must be made clear - it's not simply that War Crimes and Atrocities occured - the issue is in the willful failure of the Army and Pentagon to properly investigate and address the wrongdoing. A failure which clearly led to further atrocities occuring with impunity. When the brass turns a blind-eye, they might as well be shining a big bright green light. It's not just the crimes, it's the lies.
We've seen this again and again...
The Pentagon lied to us about the true circumstances of Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire.
They lied about the circumstances of Jessica Lynch's rescue.
We've seen it with failure and delay in investigating Haditha where 2 dozen Iraqi Civilians were killed. This investigation languished for months (Although this case has just recently been handed over to prosecutors).
Rep. John Murtha was quick to speak out on Haditha.
Murtha, a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq, said at a news conference Wednesday that sources within the military have told him that an internal investigation will show that "there was no firefight, there was no IED (improvised explosive device) that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
Military officials say Marine Corp photos taken immediately after the incident show many of the victims were shot at close range, in the head and chest, execution-style. One photo shows a mother and young child bent over on the floor as if in prayer, shot dead, said the officials, who spoke to NBC News on condition of anonymity because the investigation hasn't been completed.
One military official says it appears the civilians were deliberately killed by the Marines, who were outraged at the death of their fellow Marine.
From the Guardian.
In recent weeks, 16 soldiers have been charged with murders in Iraq - more than during the first three years of the war. No Marines have been charged so far in the worst alleged atrocity, the killing of 24 Iraqis at Haditha, but that has been overshadowed by the Mahmudiya episode.
In Mahmudiya, a 14-year-old Iraqi girl was raped, then murdered along with her entire family by U.S. Soldiers. Like Haditha, this investigation has been delayed - and so far remains incomplete.
At Gitmo, Bagram AFB and Abu Ghraib there have been 26 Deaths in Custody which have been ruled "Homocide as the Result of Torture".
We've not yet had a modern day My Lai, where over 500 civilians were brutally gunned down -- but it seems to me that on the path were headed, it's only a matter of time.
Yes, I know that all of this is sickening - it's disheartening. It's numbing.
Is this what America stands for? Is this how we spread Democracy, how Freedom Marches Forward on the backs of the broken bodies and crushed bones of those oppose us? We lie to ourselves with Propoganda about how heroic we are, how are "Cause is Noble" - while (some of) our soldiers commit rape and murder and the higher-ups turn away and play "blame the messenger" with anyone who dares to step forward?
I say - "NO".
It has to stop. We have to bring this to an end - we have to begin not just spouting talking point versions of our ideals - we actually need to live up to them.
If the idea of a Constitution and a Democratic form of government is to have any appeal to the rest of the world - we need to show that this form of government has the ability to defeat Totalitarianism not just overseas - but right here at home. Not through violence, but the the power of ideas. Not through force, but with the promise of genuine hope - instead of the false hope and false promises we now see in Iraq. We fight in the courts - we fight at the ballot box. We have to lead by example, not at the barrel of a gun.
Vyan
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