<It is unreasonable to imply any sort of equivalence between Mai Lai, and the Rape of Nanking.>
Tim, no it's not. It's a matter of scale and proportion. Not many USA soldiers were like that. Swarms of Japanese were. Not all Germans were genocidal sadists either.
All are seeking absolute power over other people and will kill them and usually enjoy doing so too. It's as old as DNA.
Hiroshima, Nagasaki and other civilian bombings such as Dresden, The Blitz etc are also equivalent, but not so up close and personal. Children writhing on the ground, being fried alive, are just as suffering and dead as being bayoneted or tossed on a fire. The fig leaf is the euphemism 'collateral damage'.
China's troops weren't playing Mr Nice Guy in Tibet and Mao's monsters were not too genteel either. No apologies from them yet. Japan apologies, again and again. Not that they should. The people apologizing had nothing to do with it. Hu Jintao DID have something to do with murder in Tibet.
"Our side" aren't all arch angels, surprising though that might seem. Plenty of them are sadistic, vicious, murderous, thieving, bastards.
Mqurice |
