Wednesday, 14 March 2012

Kandahar And My Lai

Victims At My Lai - March, 1968
The My Lai massacre was one of those seminal incidents that changed public perception of the Vietnam War, like the 1972 image taken by my friend Nick Ut, of the Associated Press, of burned children running screaming down a road after they had been accidentally napalmed by the South Vietnamese.
I thought of Calley when I heard of Sunday night's killings of the sleeping Afghans. It was immediately and forcefully condemned by military and civilian leadership -- unlike My Lai, when military leaders initially commended Calley's unit and the U.S. leadership resisted the idea that the Calley unit had done anything wrong. LINK
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2 comments:

  1. The Analog Kid15 March 2012 at 05:04

    You cannot unduly assign the blame on the unnamed perpetrator of the Afghan massacre or Calley. The fact of the matter is, the flawed Army personnel was and is to blame for the opprobrious warcrimes. In the case of the former, the Army paid no attention to the fact that the staff sergeant sustained a brain injury during one of his tours in Iraq. In the case of the latter, the Army Infantry OCS recycled this misfit named Calley who should have washed out of the otherwise rigorous program.

    In both cases, the warcrimes not only had their origins in the chaotic nature of COIN operations, but also in personnel shortages.

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    1. TONY @oakroyd16 March 2012 at 03:24

      Much has yet to emerge. I agree that the military generally must take responsibility for the frequent break-downs of discipline (and of civilisation on occasions). But I can't see this man as any more of a victim than Frank Wuterich. The victims were the villagers. I hope the US media don't lose sight of that.

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