Never Forget, Never Forgive- The American War Crime Atrocity At My Lai, Vietnam

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 20^th and now 21^st 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 gunship helicopter pilot 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. Except maybe by some guys like Brian Wilson, a Vietnam Vet who knew what the real deal was when American GIs were ordered in to “save” villages, search and destroy or “pacify” or whatever the desperate military strategy of the moment dictated. Yeah, that needed to be said. Thanks Brian.