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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
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To: Thomas A Watson who wrote (530589)1/27/2004 1:43:41 PM
From: cnyndwllr  Read Replies (2) of 769670
 
No one had to "make up atrocities" in Vietnam; they were everywhere and they were brutally real. If you were a grunt and had the "look," on the rare instances when you were out of the jungle traveling to RxR or coming back to your unit from some kind of skate, you could stop in any bar and find other grunts.

A few beers later and the stories would come. Stories about "wasting" gooks from choppers, from the ground or through calling in artillery or air strikes. Sometimes whole villages were wiped out. And I'm not talking about VC or NVA. I'm talking about men, women and children who paid the price for the fear, anger and rage that built up over days, weeks and months of taking deaths and wounds from unseen snipers, ambushes and booby traps.

Grow up. It happens in every war and Americans are not exempt from the abuses that occur when young men with the power of weapons react violently and brutally when they're scared and angry. In Vietnam it was compounded by the "unofficial" policy of the lifers to "pacify" the areas that were leaning toward the insurgents. People like Calley were encouraged, if not authorized, by their commanders who felt the ends justified the means.

In the end it was an act of desperation; you can NEVER pacify a population of people that resent occupation and see resistance as a national duty. As long as they fight, you will pay a high price. The question is how long you're willing to sacrifice the lives of your young in an attempt to force compliance from a population unwilling to fight for your causes and willing to fight and die to oppose them. It's not rocket science and it's amazing that most right wingers can't figure it out.
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