What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?

[Smitty-48]

None the less, Domestic spying is no revelation, SIGINT has been going on since at least the First World War.

My Lai doesn't shock me neither, but that's not the point, it was shattering to the America of 1969.

My Lai is a large component of the identity politics schism.

Where you fall on My Lai tells me which camp you're in.

McGovern Camp; War Crime.

Nixon Camp; understandable considering the morale problems incited by LBJ's failed strategy.

[heydaralon]

None the less, Domestic spying is no revelation, SIGINT has been going on since at least the First World War.

My Lai doesn't shock me neither, but that's not the point, it was shattering to the America of 1969.

My Lai is a large component of the identity politics schism.

Where you fall on My Lai tells me which camp you're in.

McGovern Camp; War Crime.

Nixon Camp; understandable considering the morale problems incited by LBJ's failed strategy.

I'm in Nixon camp. Zomg dead civilians from a major war. Who would have guessed?

[Smitty-48]

Now bear in mind, My Lai was not okay with the soldiers.

The other soldiers in Vietnam were not okay with it.

They all had to wear the name of Baby Killer, for the actions of one platoon led by one psycho.

Contrary to popular media myth, My Lai was an aberration. That was not the norm.

[heydaralon]

Now bear in mind, My Lai was not okay with the soldiers.

The other soldiers in Vietnam were not okay with it.

They all had to wear the name of Baby Killer, for the actions of one platoon led by one psycho.

Contrary to popular media myth, My Lai was an aberration. That was not the norm.

Have you read that Nick Turse book Kill Anything that Moves? His thesis is that it was normal. I'm not defending raping and murdering innocent civilians, all I'm saying is that it is ridiculous that we act like this will not happen or that it is unprecedented. We killed hundreds of thousands of civilians to win WW2 using firebombing. That led to us being number 1. We killed and displaced millions of Native American savages from the start of our country's history. The land that many complaining liberals live on was taken from them. We were fighting a series of wars with some tough-as-nails savages. If dropped back in the 19th century, I probably would have been gutted and skalped by a Sioux. If dropped into the Vietnam war, I would have died from blood poisoning from a punji stick. I can't imagine how tough it would be in those scenarios. It takes hard men to win these wars, and if you put a millions of trained fighters in a hostile environment, some civilians will die.

[Smitty-48]

Like even the infamous Tiger Force.

Reconnaissance Platoon, 1st of the 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.

They shot civilians in the Free Fire Zone.

They had an incident where a girl got raped.

But even they would have balked at shooting babies point blank in cold blood.

[Smitty-48]

Now bear in mind, My Lai was not okay with the soldiers.

The other soldiers in Vietnam were not okay with it.

They all had to wear the name of Baby Killer, for the actions of one platoon led by one psycho.

Contrary to popular media myth, My Lai was an aberration. That was not the norm.

Have you read that Nick Turse book Kill Anything that Moves? His thesis is that it was normal. I'm not defending raping and murdering innocent civilians, all I'm saying is that it is ridiculous that we act like this will not happen or that it is unprecedented. We killed hundreds of thousands of civilians to win WW2 using firebombing. That led to us being number 1. We killed and displaced millions of Native American savages from the start of our country's history. The land that many complaining liberals live on was taken from them. We were fighting a series of wars with some tough-as-nails savages. If dropped back in the 19th century, I probably would have been gutted and skalped by a Sioux. If dropped into the Vietnam war, I would have died from blood poisoning from a punji stick. I can't imagine how tough it would be in those scenarios. It takes hard men to win these wars, and if you put a millions of trained fighters in a hostile environment, some civilians will die.

The difference to me, as a soldier, is hot blooded, in contact v. cold blooded, no contact.

Cold blooded, no contact, raping and a pillaging and a shooting babies, cannot be justified.

[Smitty-48]

To me, the Hague Convention makes sense.

If they are forcing you to fight, and they are defending it, then it's fair game, shit happens, collateral damage.

If there is no contact, and it is undefended, that's protected by the Hague Convention.

[Smitty-48]

I'm in Nixon camp. Zomg dead civilians from a major war. Who would have guessed?

Don't cry to me about Domestic Spying then.

My Lai is Waffen-SS

If you allow a Waffen-SS, you're allowing a Gestapo by default.

If the security forces can get away with My Lai, they can get away with anything.

What is imposed on the fringes of empire, will come to roost in the center, inexorably.

[heydaralon]

Didn't that dude get like 500 hours community service or some shit? Then he ended up on Playboy's cover with an adopted Vietnamese child in each arm. Glad we in the West stick to our convictions and really stuck it to those war criminals... The Fag-ue convention seems to be an outlet for Great Powers to prosecute tinpot dictators and warlords who do shit without Great Power apporval in absentia.

[Smitty-48]

Well I am in favor of employing the Hague Convention against the Communists.

If you sink to the level of the Communists, what are you even fighting for then?