Hypocrisy of American Politics and Justice for Crimes by American Soldiers : Case Study of My Lai (Vietnam) Massacre
Read here original article by William F. Buckley, Jr Levenick wrote: "Indeed, it is not uncommon to learn that such men are capable of living out the rest of their lives without any sense of guilt for their actions. It remains a basic truth of human nature that a uniform is all that many men need to dissociate themselves from the evil they commit."
Quote:"It remains a basic truth of human nature that a uniform is all that many men need to dissociate themselves from the evil they commit."
We hope day by day that the facts will become plain as to what occurred at Haditha in November.
- Christopher Levenick
But this isn't happening.
We read that 24 Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. Marines in blood lust, the Marines reacting to the killing of a beloved member of their unit by a roadside bomb.
There is this confusion having to do with the facts. Somebody killed those Iraqi civilians, including women and children.
We turn to April 7, 1971.
It is the aftermath of the court-martial of Lt. William L. Calley Jr., who was in command of the platoon in Vietnam that slaughtered dozens, perhaps hundreds, of civilians in the little village of My Lai,Vietnam.
The court-martial began two years AFTER Richard Nixon had been elected president.
The news of what seemed to be cold-blooded murder was arresting, gripping the American conscience, demanding to know how to square the American deed in Vietnam with the American ideals that sent us to Vietnam.
There was immediate dismay over the court-martial verdict that the Pentagon sent out a "white paper" explaining what had been done.
The United States' subscription to the Geneva Convention required courts-martial against the 13 defendants, i.e., soldiers concerning whom there was evidence that they had engaged in knowingly firing at civilians, or had ordered others to do so.
What then happened has NO parallel in U.S. history.
Calley was sentenced to life imprisonment, dismissal from the Army, and forfeiture of pay and privileges.
That set off pandemonium.
Which ... Nixon just about did.
He asserted authority over the proceedings, on the grounds that as commander in chief, he had ultimate responsibility for convening courts-martial. He then said that he would review the court's findings, and meanwhile Lt. Calley could stay at Fort Benning and return to his base apartment, with a single guard.
President Nixon wanted a good long time to "weigh" the Calley case.
The Army prosecutor, Capt. Aubrey M. Daniel III, was feverishly resentful. He had presented evidence of the premeditated murder of those South Vietnamese civilians ...
Coming back to Haditha, Iraq, 2006.
Is the American public refusing to believe the story of what allegedly happened at Haditha? On the grounds that Americans simply could not be guilty of such acts? Surely what happened reflected not base instincts, but chaos and anarchy?
In a brilliant essay in National Review, Christopher Levenick of the American Enterprise Institute reviews "My Battle of Algiers," by Ted Morgan, recalling the bestiality of that wretched war. And yet French soldiers who committed torture routinely went on to successful careers.
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