Forty Years Ago Today: My Lai

Perhaps, but I don't think anyone really knows that for sure. Japan was already nearly defeated as it was.

But we could debate this question forever. There's no way to come to a definitive conclusion.

 

Yes Japan was nearly defeated, but their troops on Iwo Jima and Okinawa knew they were in a hopeless battle but fought on, killing as many Americans as possible while kamikaze planes attacked our ships. They refused to surrender again and again, telling us the Japanese people would collectively fight to the death to defend their homeland and their emperor. In fact, when Emperor Hirohito finally capitulated, there was an attempted coup to prevent him from airing his surrender speech.

Truman was forced to choose between two evils, using the bombs or invading Japan, and all things considered I think he chose the lesser of two evils.

 

There's no reason the destructive power of the atomic bomb couldn't have been demonstrated without dropping it on a civilian population center.

 

True, a military target would have been more sensible. Apparently the aim was to horrify the Japanese into surrendering.

 

The war was so sad....

We are doing a research paper and powerpoint about the Vietnam war.

 

I was just a babe when it came out but I remember they lyric to a song by Edwin Starr that went like this: "War, huh, Good God ya'll! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again!"

Both my stepfather and my uncle fought in Viet Nam. My stepdad in the Navy and my uncle in the Marines. Neither of them carry very good memories of their experiences. At the age of 20, I ended up joining the Navy and spent the next 20 years in it. Why? I don't know. My brain must have misfired. Now, I find myself in my 40s and have seen history repeat itself first in the Gulf War, then Kosovo, then Afghanistan and Iraq. None of those wars solved a single thing.

My Lai was repeated at Haditha. The Tet Offensive at Fallujah and Bora Bora. Afghanistan is in it's 9th year and Iraq is in it's 7th. It's sad when I think that we've learned absolutely nothing from our experience in Viet Nam.

 

I'm think you're probably right, as much as I hate to think that we could be so blind.

 

I might say that while we as a nation have forgotten the lessons of Viet Nam, the government has learned quite a few new tricks ... like how to sell the war to the public. They've become masters of the use and manipulation of propaganda. I continue to shake my head in disbelief at the large number of people who still believe that Saddam Hussein and Iraq are tied to the attacks on 9/11 even when no evidence has ever surfaced tying those attacks to Hussein. From what I've read, Hussein thought Bin Laden was a quack. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black? Even when very flimsy evidence about Iraq's supposed chemical and nuclear weapons program was completely unraveled after the invasion (there were no chemical munitions nor nuclear weapons found) people still blindly support the war and ask very few questions of our government.

I believe this is because it's a very different generation out there. Very few people are willing to spend time looking into things even when news reports sometimes conflict with one another. They want their news fast and furious and they live off of sound bytes taken out of context. There is very little real investigative journalism; hence the popularity of the "talking heads" on Fox, CNN, CBS, ABC & MSNBC. "Big Brother" would be very proud of how the media acts today. Who knew that George Orwell was going to be a prophet?

I do love my country, otherwise I'd never have served as long as I did with the military, but I no longer suffer from blind patriotism. I am no fool and do not believe that America has waltzed through history always upholding the twin virtues of liberty and freedom. We've done some very bad things (check out the history of Viet Nam after WW2 and nearly the entire history of relations between Latin America and the US and you'll see what I mean). I personally question everything we do. I want America to do well, but I also want it to do well honestly and to treat our neighbors fairly and to stop sticking our noses where they don't belong.

 

Well said, oneblackcrowe.

 

One lesson the government has learned is not to reinstate the draft. While I damn sure don't want to see a draft, let's face it, without the draft the anti-war movement won't amount to much.

 

For as long as people have trouble finding jobs and the Iraq/Afganistan troop levels stay far below the Vietnam level, I don't think we'll have a draft.