Four Hours In My Lai (7 of 7)

As an Ex Brit soldier who saw atrocities in the Balkans. I can tell you now that this is cold blooded murder and nothing else! Sad are the ones who feel sorry for the guilty, they are just murderers and nothing else. But at the same time, the boys who refused are deserving of respect.
Programming my fucking arse.

Viet Cong were at home; JIs were 3000 miles from home. Jut that.

VERY valid point -- which is one of the BIGGEST reasons WHY I have a TON of compassion for our soldiers who are willing to die for a cause 3,000 miles away from their homeland. Regarding Vietnam - those who were drafted into the military to go there is NOT the same as the volunteer military we have today. That backed up resentment can cause a TON of potential anger to get released in some very "compromising"and "stressful" situations -- especially when one's life is on the line.

Is that an excuse for Raping minor Vietnamese? Slitting open vaginas of kids?

spawaritc: As a vet of Vietnam,and can say this,the actions of these soldiers SHOULD be judged,,,what would be justice,is,what they did,they should have been lined up,and mowed down with machine guns for what they did ,and you wonder why other countries hate America

Pt 5 of 9 - Thus it was TOTALLY SAFE in the minds of the local Vietnamese villagers to claim they knew NOTHING about the Viet Cong and NVA down below about 5 15 feet in tunnels very close and maybe even directly below where they were standing!
Hey what was there to FEAR by lying to the Americans, they reasoned? The Americans left the area before dark, when the Viet Cong cockroaches came out at night to plot strategies to kill more Americans. Keep something in mind here.

Pt 6 of 9 - This wasnt the way it was in JUST the My Lai area either. There were enemy strongholds in village after village; hamlet after hamlet around South Vietnam. Some areas were stronger enemy saturated than others, usually for strategic reasons.

Pt 7 of 9 - As a local Vietnamese living in those enemy controlled areas, you tried to passify the American soldiers during the day if they came to your area, which was the easiest to DO because at night when the Viet Cong and the NVA came out of hiding from underneath the ground in that very area retribution was waiting you if you ratted on their hideouts/whereabouts; etc to the very point of being murdered by them if there was so much as a HINT that you ratted on them.

Pt 8 of 9 - Least anyone get the impression that I am condoning what happened in My Lai, you are 100% wrong. But until youve walked in the shoes of a soldier - in certain areas on certain occasions - in certain conflicts where people shoot at people in the name of war I encourage one and all not to be so sure that YOU couldnt or wouldnt do things that you cant POSSIBLY imagine you are capable of doing otherwise.

Pt 9 of 9 - War is an atmosphere where evil madness (an open emotional door for insane RAGE to take over a person) can PROSPER easier than what most realize. Only a soldier in serious combat realizes that, to the fullest extent, or a policeman or policewomen when someone is trying to take them out for simply trying to enforce the law for the betterment of ones community and country.