Reply #6: It's unfair to compare My Lai to... [View All]

[TreasonousBastard]

what's going on in the present conflict. Much has changed since then.

In Viet Nam, villages were "ours" or "theirs, and body counts were considered a measure of success.

But, what we're going through now, and this DID happen in Viet Nam, is a situation where the country is NOT pacified, and there are no "front lines." The whole country is essentially a free-fire zone, even though they won't dare call it that.

All of the combat units are on edge, and have permission to fire if they feel threatened. They do feel threatened, and there are far too many stories of civilans blown away simply because they didn't understand instructions in English.

One of the worst things I saw was a clip when Koppel interviewed Chris Hedges about Iraq. The clip showed a Marine squad just hanging out when one of them heard a noise in an alley nearby. He made it over to the alley and lobbed a grenade in there. Next thing you hear is a scream-- the kind of scream someone will make when a grenade goes off between his legs. The Marine just calmly walked back to the squad, without ever looking into the alley to see who he just killed.

This is the way it is now-- not quite the killing fields, but killing is acceptable, perhaps the norm. Shoot first, ask questions later.

Perhaps we should bring back body counts. The numbers would be staggering.