Interesting to see that a newspaper's investigation into possible war crimes by a US military outfit in Vietnam, the subsequent investigation and success in burying it for 30 years were rewarded. Killing unarmed civilians, with the complicity of higher-ups, is not normal Army procedure but is one that was allowed to be hidden from the American public for too long.
After a 4 1/2 -year Army investigation concluded that at least 18 Tiger Force soldiers committed war crimes, the matter was dropped by the Army. The official files were buried in the Army's archives since 1975, and to this day military officials continue to withhold them from the public.
That is how The Blade introduced the story. It is something that we need to be reminded of when we have people calling for the destruction of Iraqi cities for the killing of Americans. Our own history is not clean when it comes to committing atrocities. It is rare. It does not happen often. But when it does, we need to be able to examine it and work to prevent it from occurring again.
Today, too many US soldiers refer to all Iraqis with contempt. British officers (who certainly have a history of denigrating the native cultures around them) are discussing the overuse of American force on civilian populations. The Telegraph reports : Speaking from his base in southern Iraq, the officer said: 'My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans' use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. They don't see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are. Their attitude towards the Iraqis is tragic, it's awful.
'The US troops view things in very simplistic terms. It seems hard for them to reconcile subtleties between who supports what and who doesn't in Iraq. It's easier for their soldiers to group all Iraqis as the bad guys. As far as they are concerned Iraq is bandit country and everybody is out to kill them.'
I hope that our soldiers in Iraq are not being placed in another situation that can spawn another 'Tiger Force' incident. If they do, we will be paying for it for a long time. Because Iraq IS NOT like Vietnam. It is much more dangerous for us in its long term ramifications. It will not take 30 years for our mistakes to become known. 5:27:11 PM
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