I agree one hundred percent. May that man rest in peace.
Posted by Sharon at January 7, 2006 10:39 AMNever Forget - it's not just a tattoo.
Posted by Thomas Ware at January 7, 2006 10:44 AMexcellent post!
Posted by soccerdad at January 7, 2006 10:45 AMIt's incredibly difficult to be genuinely brave when you're in an organization like the Army, when doing the right thing means turning on the organization. Thompson's case shows just how intense the social pressures against that kind of stand can be.
I think that one of the few things we have to be thankful for these days is that there are a pretty sizeable number of people—Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, the NSA whistleblowers, etc.—who have been willing to take on the White House and the Pentagon.
Posted by dj moonbat at January 7, 2006 11:03 AMI remember My Lai as if it were yesterday. Hugh Thompson, Jr., was indeed an honorable man. To be called honorable upon your death is something we all should strive for. Yes indeed, a honorable man, a man of integrity. May you rest in peace Mr. Thompson. Thank you for your service to our Nation.
Lt. Calley, although guilty, was the scapegoat.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2006 11:06 AMJudith - Calley a scapegoat? A few months of house arrest for murdering hundreds? Not all of the guilty were court martialed -- and all of them should have been found guilty. The kids court martialed for Abu Ghraib getting years of detention could be considered scapegoats, but not Calley.
Posted by Marie at January 7, 2006 11:15 AMMarie, that's what I meant. They threw Calley out there, and said "there, he's the only guilty one", case closed. Calley should have faced life in prison.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2006 11:29 AMor the death penalty.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2006 11:31 AMMarie, incredible post, thank you. I, too remember my outrage at Powell. It is burned into my memory as is the shame. Great heroes are not enough. Transparency takes hard work and another kind of courage.
Posted by mainsailset at January 7, 2006 11:35 AMGodspeed!
To think Colin Powell has ever been anything other than a great dog-robber is to misunderstand the man. He achieved everything he got by being a "yes man", not through competence. His tenure at Bushco does nothing more than support this fact of his life.
When My Lai was finally big news, the military sent information officers to my high school to explain what happened. Their meme was that the villagers were told to leave their village, and when they didn't they became enemy combatants. Being quite the little anti-war nut -along with my teenage angst, I engaged these fucks in a running diatribe targeting the stupidity and lies of their position. They spent quite a bit of time afterwards wanting information about who I was, where I lived, what my parents did, etc. Fucking Nixon stooges. Fucking republi-cons.
The average field soldier is a pretty decent thing. I believe that because I've known many. Yes there are those Rambo wannabes, and there are those without any shred of humanity -which I think is often more a reflection of expectations from command. But there is that decent component. I know several back from the current Iraq who are more anti-Bushco than the best of us here. The real problem is the dysfunctional (Lindy England, anyone) and commanders. It's the command I have the greatest issue with. And it's even worse since Bushco ended the career of any officer who couldn't get the Sieg Heil just right. You gotta snap that right arm really straight with these fucks. I've heard too many stories about commanders in Iraq barracaded behind concrete enclosures guarded by Chilean mercs, never coming out to see what the hell is happening, to not believe they are true.
But I've got to think forcing evangelism down the throats of cadets in the service academies is a good thing. They can kill in the great righteous hate of god the great pissed-off murderer, and be born again to wash their sins clean. That's got to help when you're covered with the blood of some 12 year old Iraqi kid who's a veteran of 3 years of war.
Posted by phidipides at January 7, 2006 11:38 AMLife - we don't want to sink to the subhuman level of the Calleys of the world.
IIRC - there was considerable outrage in the country when the My Lai massacre was exposed. Unfortunately, like Abu Ghraib, the public outrage was easily contained. But we shouldn't neglect to note that the US military worked very hard to minimize the crimes and make it appear that they were outraged and dealing with it appropriately. They weren't and didn't. They might not have been able to recast Calley into a hero as they did with Ollie North, but it didn't stop them from turning Thompson into a traitor. The rightwing in America today learned many of their tricks from the US military.
Posted by Marie at January 7, 2006 11:43 AM
phidipides - thanks for your recollection of just how ugly that time was. Agree, that those in command must be held primarily accountable. And must remind myself not to be too hard on not too bright and uneducated young people that are further brainwashed by our "volunteer" military. It's actually quite remarkable that any of them could get out of the military today without believing that GWB and the GOP are ordained by God.
Posted by Marie at January 7, 2006 11:51 AMI wonder if the cancer Thompson had was war related? I haven't heard the deatails. If he was at a VA hospital though...I bet it was.
Calley is still living here near Ft. Benning where he was tried. Our blood-thirsty white citizens packed a football stadium with over 20,000 slavering "good Germans" to denounce his conviction. Meanwhile, we're raising $74 million for a Nat'l Infantry Museum that I'm guessing will make no mention of My Lai or the crew's heroism. By the way, Judith, scapegoats are by definition, innocent.
Posted by chuck at January 7, 2006 01:22 PMHowever much I agree with your article, your uninformed attack on the success of our forces (and NATO) in Kosovo made me doubt the rest of your post.
The Balkin wars were late and incomplete! The Greater (Serbia, Croatia) madmen designed and carried out a plan of genocide. The U.S. government with the use of military force FINALLY put an end to the genocide of ethnic Albanians but 9 years too late to stop the slaughter of Bosniaks.
I have been to Srebrenica. I have been to to the greater Serbian enclave of Srbska and the greater Croatian enclave of Herzegovina. Hatred there is deep. Had you ever stepped foot in either place you would not have made such a completely ignorant comment about our troops still being in Kosovo 10 years later. (Which in fact is only 7 years). Our troops are still in Bosnia because they were not allowed to eliminate the threat in 1991 when it was possible.
I know your comment was an attack on General Clark and meant as a snide uninformed statement about the Balkin genocide. However, you should have stated only something you knew about.
Not a single member of the U.S. forces were lost since they were first deployed to the region in 1995. Please never, ever equate what our military did in Bosnia or Kosovo with Vietnam or Iraq.
We helped to stop more genocide!
Good one Marie.
These are the reasons, since time immemorial to go to war with the greatest reservation. When My Lai broke, reporters had files deep wtih atrocities, they had had no way, no venue to report them in.
And a moment to thank the Toledo Blade for their courageous coverage of Vietnam era atrocities, reported in the paper as we went to war in Iraq.
We need more courage: the courage to avoid war, the courage to end war of torture and attrition. Which is not to bomb from above, from 30,000 40,000 thousand feet, either, addressing issues in the former Yugoslavia late and being careful to only kill on the ground, from above, and not lose one of ours.
Wars are waged on and agaisnt civilians. Just the way it is, the horror of what war is... from antiquity to Vietnam to Dresden to US bombing raids in Iraq, 53 this past Wednesday alone.
Posted by Marisacat at January 7, 2006 02:01 PMYour observation that we don't value true heroes made me think of Jimmy Carter, our only real Christian president. Half the country hated him for not nuking Iran.
Let us also not forget that My Lai did not "break" at all--professional journalism wouldn't pick up the story, Hersh had to seriously shop it before it ran.
Alterman has consistently pointed out that Officialdom has lied easily to our media and all through the generations they gullibly swallow it down and spit out the lies. After the Iraq war one can say our media and military ethics have not progressed at all, and likely have regressed. Great post.
Posted by paradox at January 7, 2006 02:13 PMYou were on the right track right up until "Abu Ghraib (and Sy Hersh again) reminded us that our military hasn’t changed." From that point on your post reads like a parody of what Republicans like to say that liberals really are.
You "loathe" the military? Sorry, but the military is not a monolith.
You should have stuck with paying tribute to Hugh Thompson. The rest of your post is off the rails.
Posted by Roman Berry at January 7, 2006 03:13 PMChuck, thanks. I thought a scapegoat was someone, whom being guilty or innocent, took the blame for others. I stand corrected.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2006 03:51 PMNo excuses for Lt. Calley's behavior. No question that some of our soldiers have the same character flaws of those that they defend. So by no means do I want to summarily dismiss what he did. His punishment was obviously not consistent with the evidence as reported, which I have no reason to doubt, but there was another that deserves to be punished and recieved a huge pass. Instead of living in obscurity, this traitor is celebrated as a leader of the left. Instead of shame and disgrace that rightfully should follow Calley, so also too should this person be reminded of what anti-American acts were committed in the name of peace.
If I believed in a Hell, I'd hope that a cell were waiting for Calley and for Ms. Barbella to share.
Where is the outrage of her behavior?
Posted by carpediem at January 7, 2006 05:02 PMOh pulleeeze, the same tired Jane Fonda claptrap. You people are like a broken record. I believe she expressed regret and that's good enough for me. I believe she was trying to stop the useless killing, a worthy cause.
"US film star and activist Jane Fonda has spoken of her regret over a visit she made to a North Vietnamese gun site during the Vietnam War in 1972.
Fonda said the incident - which earned her the nickname "Hanoi Jane" - was a "betrayal" of the US military.
But she said she did not regret going to the country being photographed with American prisoners-of-war (PoWs)."
that's from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4400891.stm
">this guy's blog spot talks about the Swift-Boating of Hugh Thompson, Jr.
Posted by Sharon at January 7, 2006 05:22 PMWhy is "good germans" acceptable but "lazy wet backs" not? Just wondering.
Jimbo
Ms. Barbella to share.
Where is your moral indignation at Hanoi-Hannity? After all, he told the youth of America to desert the military if Kerry won. Your heart is in the right place. Up your ass next to your head.
Posted by phidipides at January 7, 2006 06:02 PMWasn't it Hanoi-Coulter who suggested someone bomb an couple of American buildings. Talk about being a traitor.
Try again Carppy.
Posted by Judith at January 7, 2006 06:08 PMCarpe - The Fondas were against the war because they/we knew that Mai lais were one of the inevitable outcomes. Your lameass,stale talk radio memes masquerading as insights are getting real old. Why dont you rerun your "original" Few Good Men speech-that at least has entertainment value.
Posted by jondee at January 7, 2006 06:16 PMBy the way, Judith, scapegoats are by definition, innocent.
This is a bit of an oversimplification. Though the tradition of scapegoating does involve centralizing punishment onto a being (the goat) that didn't do the acts in question, it's still a goat, which in Biblical symbolism is not a pure sacrifice like a sacrificial lamb, fatted calf, first-born son, etc. By virtue of its goatness, a scapegoat is dirty, even if not dirtied by the sins in question.
Posted by dj moonbat at January 7, 2006 06:38 PMThanks dj.
Posted by Judith at January 8, 2006 12:03 AMSharon . . . thanks for the link!!!! It was great.
Posted by Mrs. Blanche Maison at January 8, 2006 01:05 AM