Happy Atheist Forum

General => Obituaries => Topic started by: billy rubin on March 17, 2020, 05:32:26 PM

Title: my lai
Post by: billy rubin on March 17, 2020, 05:32:26 PM
yesterday was the fifty-second anniversary of the my lai massacre in viet nam.
(https://www.greenleft.org.au/sites/default/files/styles/glw_full_content/public/widerimages/My-Lai-Massacre.jpg?itok=0HAg0cxy)

somewhere around 400 unarmed women, children, and old men were killed by american troops under orders to destroy a viet cong stronghold.

i was a teenager in singapore at the time, and i remember the images in the straits times of the murdered civilians when the story broke. the pictures were graphic. some i have never seen again.

i'm not sure we've learned anything since then, or if learning is possible. but i remember.
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: Tank on March 17, 2020, 05:38:41 PM
Good place to put this reminder.
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: Magdalena on March 17, 2020, 06:26:39 PM
Quote from: billy rubin on March 17, 2020, 05:32:26 PM
...
somewhere around 400 unarmed women, children, and old men were killed by american troops under orders to destroy a viet cong stronghold.
...
Wow. That's horrible.  :felix:
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: billy rubin on March 17, 2020, 06:44:05 PM
they had a photographer along with them

(https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5d5b0517f389ac0008297f13/master/w_1706,h_2560,c_limit/ra663.jpg)

sorry. this was a big deal for me.

rip
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: Magdalena on March 17, 2020, 07:03:43 PM
^^^
Yes, Rest In Peace.  :(
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: Recusant on March 18, 2020, 12:38:22 AM
Atrocities litter the history of the US, and many other countries. This one happened to be fairly well documented, and the US public learned of it. Perhaps that will help prevent other atrocities of a similar nature. At least for a good long while, anyway.
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: Dark Lightning on March 18, 2020, 01:27:54 AM
Quote from: Recusant on March 18, 2020, 12:38:22 AM
Atrocities litter the history of the US, and many other countries. This one happened to be fairly well documented, and the US public learned of it. Perhaps that will help prevent other atrocities of a similar nature. At least for a good long while, anyway.

I'm suspecting that the Middle East isn't quite out of the woods yet, sad to say.
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: Sandra Craft on March 18, 2020, 01:29:59 AM
I was in high school when that happened.  I remember how many adults defended it, and how many people -- both those I knew and those writing letters to the editor of newspapers -- declared that those of us who did not defend it had no right to an opinion unless we were soldiers at the front.  I don't think things have changed very much.
Title: Re: my lai
Post by: xSilverPhinx on March 18, 2020, 12:21:25 PM
Oh wow...