Saturday, November 29, 2003
I stayed up all last night reading a book titled "Crimes of Obedience" by Kelman and Hamilton. It turned out to be an in-depth analysis of authority, from the psychological, social and political perspectives. Much of the theoretical discussion revolves around a case study of the My Lai massacre.
It's amazing how reading about America during Vietnam reminds me of America today. For example, LBJ told the American soldiers in Vietnam that they were fighting communists in Indochina so that they wouldn't have to fight them in the future on the "beaches of San Diego". Just hours ago, Bush told his soldiers in Iraq, "You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq, so we don't have to face them in our own country". It seems that what Bush lacks in creativity he makes up in glitz and media coverage.
It's almost like Hollywood today.
Speaking of the My Lai massacre, the only American ever convicted of the killings, a Lt. Calley, was charged by an American military court with the murder, "with premeditation, [of] an unknown number of Oriental human beings, not less than seventy, males and females of various ages, whose names are unknown". Those were the words of the official court document, as if the murder of an Oriental human being was somehow different from the murder of a white human being in the eyes of the military prosecutors who wrote the charge.
Which, incidentally, explains why American soldiers who run over teenage schoolgirls in Korea with their tanks are allowed to go free even today.
It's amazing how reading about America during Vietnam reminds me of America today. For example, LBJ told the American soldiers in Vietnam that they were fighting communists in Indochina so that they wouldn't have to fight them in the future on the "beaches of San Diego". Just hours ago, Bush told his soldiers in Iraq, "You are defeating the terrorists here in Iraq, so we don't have to face them in our own country". It seems that what Bush lacks in creativity he makes up in glitz and media coverage.
It's almost like Hollywood today.
Speaking of the My Lai massacre, the only American ever convicted of the killings, a Lt. Calley, was charged by an American military court with the murder, "with premeditation, [of] an unknown number of Oriental human beings, not less than seventy, males and females of various ages, whose names are unknown". Those were the words of the official court document, as if the murder of an Oriental human being was somehow different from the murder of a white human being in the eyes of the military prosecutors who wrote the charge.
Which, incidentally, explains why American soldiers who run over teenage schoolgirls in Korea with their tanks are allowed to go free even today.
