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To: SJSAMPLE

Stopping the massacre was a good things.

It's exposure certianly was not. This was the sort of thing that should have been handled by transferring Calley to some stateside post and telling him and his men to keep their damned mouths shut, or else, combined with the destruction of as much evidence as possible.

The truth was not worth the price.


9 posted on 01/06/2006 11:35:30 AM PST by furquhart (God is not dead)
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To: furquhart

I agree that in war -- in the PR game -- sometimes something needs to be covered up.

Once out, a firing squad could have finnished Calley in My Lai. Then the Army's PR could ask where is similar justice for the much larger Hue massacre brought about by the communists.


10 posted on 01/06/2006 11:45:30 AM PST by Monterrosa-24 (France kicked Germany's teeth out at Verdun among other places.)
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To: furquhart

I'll not honor him any more than honoring the person who sent the Abu Grahib photos to the media.


11 posted on 01/06/2006 11:52:47 AM PST by OldFriend (The Dems enABLEd DANGER and 3,000 Americans died.)
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To: furquhart
"It's exposure certainly was not. This was the sort of thing that should have been handled by transferring Calley to some stateside post and telling him and his men to keep their damned mouths shut, or else, combined with the destruction of as much evidence as possible."


I don't know how any individual could say such a thing.

Americans must be held to a higher moral standard. Sending them to port, giving them a little slap on the wrist? Disgraceful and unAmerican. People must be held accountable, otherwise we have nothing to stand upon, our moral authority is totally sunk.

It wasn't worth the price? Vietnam was not lost because the Mai Lai massacre was exposed. It was lost because no Political will existed for victory. Hell, victory wasn't even defined in any concrete terms. We had the means for total victory in this limited war context, but there were no aims, thus no strategy was ever concocted that would lead to victory.

To blame it on the Mai Lai massacre (which clearly was what was implied by the statement) shows a bad assessment of history and the facts.

God bless that man who died and his family. He was a True American Hero.
13 posted on 01/06/2006 12:04:34 PM PST by henry_thefirst
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To: furquhart

The exposure wasn't the problem. It was certain people in the gov't who rather than handle the situation in private tried their best to ignore it in total. Calley, arguably his company, violated orders and in doing so committed a war crime. When you're killing innocent civilians to release some anger you're due more than a transfer.


56 posted on 01/06/2006 6:04:20 PM PST by Bogey78O (<thinking of new tagline>)
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To: furquhart
While the exposure of the atrocity was rough, the Liberal MSM twisted the self-policing of the US Army into some sort of implication that all serving were acting that way, instead of using the incident and its subsequent handling to prove that Americans did, in fact, hold their troops to a high moral standard.

You want to point a finger, the same old socialist anti-American Media are where you should be pointing it. They spun this to make everyone in country look like some sort of monster.

69 posted on 01/07/2006 1:48:20 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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