Vietnam massacre soldier 'sorry'
We are haunted by our past. Today the US is actively involved in both Afghanistan and Iraq and yet the echo's from our past are hard to silence. Vietnam was the first conflict that the US lost and My Lai had become the turning point for public opinion of the US in South East Asia.
Someone somewhere issued the order to wipe out a village in cold blood. Only God will know who truly issued the order but Lt William Calley is the one who was punished. I don't doubt his sincerity when he stated that he feels remorse and is sorry. What i question is how did this happen?
Wikipedia
We will never know what truly happened there. A shrinking number of people can come close to even comprehending the circumstances surrounding My Lai. The facts are that in 2009 Mr Calley apologized, proclaimed his remorse for past deeds, and still maintains that he was following orders. Despite serving his time and the intervention of Nixon, Mr Calley has forever been branded by history as the culprit in this. To this day he insists he was following orders but does not deny that he took part in this action.
Was this in fact murder or an atrocity within a war? What were the surrounding circumstances that this happened in? Will history ever judge this person fairly in context of actions versus in the vacuum of today? What worries me the most is that I know there will be similar incidents that will come to light in the coming years from Afghanistan and Iraq. Will the accused be as fortunate? How will history judge them versus Mr Calley?
No, the last of the ghosts of Vietnam have not been heard from, nor have we scratched the surface on todays conflicts.
Has he paid his price? Has Mr Calley suffered enough with the life long memory of what happened that day even though his formal punishment was minor in comparison? Is it reasonable to assume that his long time insistence that he was following orders should imply that his superiors let him take the fall so that they could further their careers?
May we never grow deaf to the echo's of our past.
2 comments:
This is loosely related to the "Just War" argument. But it's more closely related to the argument of whether the A-bombs should have been dropped in japan. In the heat of the moment, under orders that soldiers are trained to follow, who dares to object. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I too believe that the scapegoat does feel true remorse. And with information always at our fingertips I'm fairly certain that similar atrocities will surface about Afghanistan and Iraq. Just look at the beating that the CIA has taken in recent years. Not too many things are truly secret anymore. But will that change anything?
The man was a scapegoat. I am oddly reminded of how quick Rumsfeld was to sell the "outer" of Abu Ghraib to the masses - despite the soldier's being promised discretion for even speaking of the crimes.
Being in the high office of govt. one can only appraise his or her responsibilities with a certain measure of moral disconnection and ultimizing narcissism. I am sure this explains some the seemingly ridiculous occurrences in our history. It also, if digressed over too long, detracts for more important matters of the day.
Go health care. (fart)
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