Flower Leis & Lies
Morgue with bodies of Iraqi civilians thrown in heaps: from video provided to Time Magazine by Iraqi journalism student
Well, not only were we not greeted with flowers & a big welcome as "liberators" as the Bush Ministry of Disinformation once promised Iraqis would, we've gotten to the point where our forces are allegedly slaughtering civilians, & as with everything in this Administration generally & anything & everything to do with the glorious "war on terror" specifically, when the facts don't support the propaganda, they're covered up.
So it was with the Marine debacle of murder-lust, venting their rage & frustration on civilians, including women & children, last November (before I began this blog, so bear with me as we catch up.) Click on the title bar to read the article.
The simplest way to state it: anybody here remember My Lai in Vietnam? If 1968 was before your time--I was just a Demon Princessette myself at the time--I'll refresh us all thus.
We realize that Bush, Cheney & the rest of the hawk brigade don't remember it, because, hey--if you're wealthy & privileged, you never have to fight--although you can grow up to be assholes who send others off to do your dirty work for you.
And, yes, folks, these are real contemporaneous photos, not reenactments. (With the possible exception of the first, the provenance of which I can't document.) Seems that then, as now, young men under ferocious stress can't resist documenting their handiwork, and the rest were taken by press photographers after the fact.
posted by Demon Princess at 3:06 PM
2 Comments:
I remember My Lai vividly. The whole world was outraged.
This happens when young people are put in a very bad situation and given absolutely no direction. This is like a broken record, the same sick lyric is playing over and over and nobody knows where the off switch is located. John Murtha is pointing the way, we need to listen.
I agree, Pat (& thanks for checking in again!) Murtha comes from a principled place & carries significant weight as a man who knows whereof he speaks: a veteran (decorated, I believe) of that same war. What scares me is that, My Lai occurred in 1968, but nobody was actually convicted for it until 1971. And, in this political environment, where cover-ups are the norm, my guess is it will take even longer, if Congress doesn't significantly change hands in November.
And P.S., the same story occurred recently in Afghanistan: reports of American troops just shooting anywhere & everywhere indiscriminately & civilians dead as a result. It's depressing.
You're right: war creates stressed-out personnel, mostly young men (who haven't gotten the support, equipment & we daresay the training they need to enable them to handle these very stressful situations, either as they occur, or afterwards, when they come home & can't get the VA to pay attention to PTSS.)
I was talking to a girlfriend the other day who observed that Europeans aren't as gung-ho about war as Americans, & I said I imagine that's because they have a deeper experience & appreciation of the tragedies that result, both to the troops & the civilians who must bear the scars of it.
We, on the other hand, remain brash & cavalier about it, even after WWII. We as a nation have very short attention spans. I wish I could wave a magic wand & fix it!! (Thus, in a small way, this blog.) I appreciate your comments.
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