Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of My Lai. She takes on the myth that is My Lai and lays it directly on the feet of those who should be most ashamed of its occurrence by starting out with this line:
Like it or not, My Lai was the best thing ever to happen to those who malign our troops and what they do - to the anti-troop crowd, My Lai was an unprecedented gift.Oh so true Pam, oh so true. Just as the left waits in the wings for another "atrocity" to occur in Iraq or Afganistan so they can malign the millions of those who serve based upon the actions of a select few, so they did with My Lai. Pam in her post digs deep into the myth presents the numbers and reminds us that yes, My Lai did occur, and so did Abu Ghraib, but those acts are not the acts of a military bent upon destruction or murder, but as we already know the mistakes of a few who could not handle the stressed placed upon them by a populace that expects no risk and a divided administration that accepts no mistakes.
No thanks to the first Gulf War where the populace began to believe that we could prosecute war without any risk to ourselves, war is not the sterile environment of explosions on your monitor, and detached voices authorizing the killing of another. War is dirty, grimy and painful. It is the most depraved thing man could wrought upon man, to think otherwise is to live a fantasy. The terms surgical strike and collateral damage are misnomers, oxymorons in a world where oxymorons thrive. War is not clean and pretty and as I've said before you can't save the game and start over or respawn back at the start when things start to go sour.
Every war has its trial, its villains from the winning side. The victors have to find those who will bear the cost of what we needed to do to win; those who will in essence shoulder the responsibility for the fact that when armies meet to settle things, people are killed and maimed. Vietnam had My Lai. Iraq had Abu Ghraib - the stupid behavior of a very few soldiers, who took some idiotic pictures. Since that didn't turn out to the torture-fest that would have satisfied the need to demonize someone on our side, the hunt went on. They almost got Lt. Ilario Pantano. And they almost got Haditha - a tale that has been falling apart from the start. Frighteningly, both could have gone far worse for the troops involved had it not been for a couple of factors that didn't exist during the My Lai circus - milbloggers and talk radio. This time, there was opposition to the lynch mob that always waits in the wings. Haditha is still open, and it is up to that opposition to remain vigilant.
What always throws me for a loop in these situations is that we are collectively so ready to view American troops as if they're something other than human. We're always so ready to forget that those "animals" at My Lai were, in some cases, barely out of high school. They were brothers, sons, fathers...they were ours. In another place, at another time, some of them might have been that nice kid next door.
I wonder what's more savage - the behavior of troops in war, who occasionally cross the line after they are pushed to their limits, or the behavior of the bloodthirsty mob of critics who clamor for the heads of the heroes that protect their freedoms? I think, and always have, that the latter is more reprehensible. Our Heroes display remarkable restraint when criticized, often enduring the attacks without a word.
As Pam so succinctly notes - noting the passing of these ignoble anniversaries is one thing, but if we are only going to do so so that the left can use them to attack the millions who serve proudly and honorably then what is the reason of "celebrating" them at all? We don't celebrate Memorial Day because we enjoy killing our sons and daughters in war. We celebrate Memorial Day because we as a nation must remember those that have sacrificed their lives for our lives. We should as Pam recommends remember these occurances and learn from them. We must realize that war is not without risk, that it is dangerous and it does things to our young men and women that we should not wish upon anyone. Many come home from war, some broken and unable to adjust, many with no problem at all, and yes our sons and daughters die in war. But that is not the depravity that is war, the true depravity is those who sit idly by and debate and slander those who go off to war. The true depravity is the active anti-war activist that conducts war upon those who go off to war form the safety of their office or classroom.
War is hell to paraphrase Sherman, but a greater hell is to expect our sons and daughters to accomplish their mision while putting barriers in their way to accomplish that very mission. When the Rules of Engagement are twisted by Monday morning quaterbacks to satisfy the bloodlust of a few in our society that can find nothing right with the mission that is when war becomes a deeper hell for our sons and daughter.
If we truly want to learn from events like My Lai then we should start to point the finger at those most responsible for My Lai and its lingering mysticism of evil, the left and their war on the military is the perfect place to start.
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