Never Forget, Never Forgive- The American
War Crime Atrocity At My Lai, Vietnam
Frank Jackman comment:
Recently I made a short comment about
the contradiction between those who generally write the history of any
particular war, the “winners” according to more than one source, and the fact
that in the case of Vietnam the losers have had a chance to re-write the
history to make it appear that that historic American loss was less than a
loss. You know the obfuscation and outright lies of those who “won” every
battle yet lost the war. And in the case of Vietnam when the deal went down and
the reality was that those forces fighting against the monster that loss rightfully
so. Which brings us to the question of atrocities of which there were almost an
infinite number committed by the sheer ferocity of the American air bombing and
fields of fire on the ground (most of them unnamed and un-mourned except by
family, fellow villagers and friends).
One atrocity that stands out, that should
stand out for all eternity along with the long line of such horrific events which
dotted the 20th and now 21st century was My Lai (a name which
is hard to write down even now without rage at the monster still with us). My Lai-a
name that spoke volumes of what the American presence was about when after years
of believing they would “win” in a cakewalk the fury of the loss confronting
them drove them to even greater levels of depravity. That “they” by the way was
us, us from dog soldiers without any real mission to dogged taxpayers without
and real regard for human life. The human life of the other side. We can give
it a name My Lai. We can give it another name-scandalous-scandalous that those directly
involved from MACV to the lowlier grunt paid not price. So yes we should honor guys
like Hugh Thompson, maybe along with his crew the only American heroes of the Vietnam
War. So yes as well we should make sure that the physical monument to that atrocity
is not taken to ground. My Lai, nothing more needs to be said.
No comments:
Post a Comment