Where has the US committed more war atrocities - Japan, Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan?

Question

I was called a traitor just for commenting that the US used Napalm on the Vietnamese and the US left Vietnam in shame following the fall of Saigon. You are more than welcome to enter a different war if you provide enough justification and a web source.

Therefore, I ask you in a respectful and dignified way where do you think that the US committed the worst war atrocities. This is a heated topic and I have a quick trigger finger on the abuse button for those who want to be immature, irreverent and disrespectful. Your cooperation is appreciated.

My thanks to those who have answered the question like I asked. My contempt to those who call me a traitor and anti-American.

Sounds like this question is already hitting a raw nerve. Some of you would rather see questions like: "my ***** is curved" or "my bf is gay" or "what is 2+2". If I'm immature for asking a relevant question then what are you for answering questions like the examples above?

OK - I can deal with fingers coming back to me. I used to respect the US until bloodthristy influences have pervaded every aspect of US life. I am a religious man and I know that the Jewish nation lost 2 temples - one in 586 BC to the Assryians from Babylon and one in 70 AD to the Romans. Five years ago, two of America's temples were leveled by "jihadists." and the US launched wars of aggression. Does the aggression justify the initial damage or is the aggression making America look like the next Roman Empire?

I have not given the other countries a free pass on this issue. The US is a superpower just as Japan was a superpower without oil in the 30's. We can say that everyone has committed war atrocities, but no one has considered what happened if atrocities happened to you.

I see people are following me into this question and making personal attacks. I don't know all situations and I haven't received any abuse reports so far. What is so abusive about this question?

Answer 1

I really believe that its Vietnam ... the war there is still effecting the country, children are still being born with horrible disfigurements and growths because of the use of agent orange. There are a number of children that the US troops left behind and it seems that it is only now getting back on its feet. If you consider that it was over thirty years ago and that the Vietnam War was longer than WWII thats a lot of devastation.
I do also feel that Afghanistan has been ravaged by the US and am particularly worried about the heroin problem there now that the Taliban are not there to control it anymore (not that I support the Taliban). Although the bombings of Japan during WWII were horrific, Japan has recovered as a country and it is a much more complex issue than America using its foreign policy to 'right the world's wrongs' (i.e. force Western style democracy on countries that do not want it, and at the moment, do not need it).

I dont have any web sites to back my views as they have been formed over a long period of time taking into account a huge amount of sources... is that ok??
Its good to have some intelligent questions on Yahoo Answers- I think that this is where is works rather than 'How can I tell if he likes me?' !!


BTW those of you who think that he is a traitor for asking questions about the USA- that is jingoism at its best! Seriously, if you are not allowed to question your government in a democracy then it is not a true democracy. George W's quote that 'either you are with us or against us' was shameful- a real low point in US history.

Answer 2

Okay, let's balance this a bit.

Japan: Tortured and summarily executed POW's and civilians in the most hideous ways.

Vietnam: Same.

Iraq: Terror sponsor, i.e., war crime. Murder of civilian non-combatants.

Afghanistan: Same. Hideout of OBL.


The US left Vietnam in shame because then, as now, politicians and not military men were calling the shots as to how the war was to be run. Plus then, as now, it is almost impossible to fight a population and we will wind up leaving this one in shame as well. It's a no-win situation that our politicians are screwing up -- again.

Gen. Wm. T. Sherman, Union Army, said, "War is a messy business." He was right.

Remember, when you point a finger, there are three more pointing back at you. Your question, while legit, leaves out some rather important facts which I have graciously given you. Obviously you don't approve of war. Your perrogative but you had better understand that as long as there are humans on this rock we call Earth, there will be wars and they are never fought 'fairly,' whatever that is. Troops and commanders will do things to gain superiority or victory that a civilian puke will never understand.

We won WW II because the troops were allowed to fight. That's not happening here, and that is the greatest war crime of all.

And by the way -- you're not at traitor; just a misinformed, misguided youth that needs to quit watching CNN and FOX. Try reading (if you can), and I would recommend reading several news mag's for better, in-depth reporting.

Answer 3

War crimes can found in any conflict, unless you have been in combat, there is no way to know how one will react to it. It most definitely changes your view on the world. Some guys cannot handle the stress and at some point may "lose it" and commit an atrocity.

Now if you refer to mass murder of large numbers of combatants an civilian loss, there is no doubt that the carpet bombing in Europe and later over Japan caused the largest loss of civilian casulties. Especially the LeMay led fire bombing of Japan just prior to the dropping of the atom bombs in August 1945.

But was it an atrocity or not? One must consider that the good of the many outweighs the good of the few.

Answer 4

You have a trigger finger for pushing the abuse button, yet in asking these questions, you are doing no more than inviting abuse to be put upon you. My suggestion to you, sir, would be that if you are just starting a topic to anger people, and then warning them ahead of time that you will place an abuse complaint if they say anything negative to you, you should go somewhere else and play your games. Talk about being immature.

Perhaps, if you are so against the US, as it seems by this post you are, you should also consider posting this crap on a non-us website. Do not come on here and trash our country for your s**ts and giggles.

Answer 5

first of all i dont have any sources to give you, because every thing on the internet is either bias or false. Every where the us have invaded a place , a lot of war atrocities happend..far back as the phillipens and to nowdays iraq and afghanistan. we all know about iraq, and the prison incident, but there are worse stuff happeing , hateful american soldiers that randomly attack houses and kill families, rape women, and just snipe a kid or run him over with a hum-vee..alot of people might dissagree and say thats nothappenig, but it is, even commanders give orders of such hateful attacks,..any invading army is wrong and criminal...of course if you werent america..i am an american, but i alos like to know the truth, way back in the 1800's when spain was occuping the phillipens, the spaniards tortured, enslaved, and destroyed the phillipens, at the time for economic , and political reasons, the u.s was still on its manfiest destiny , to go even beyond the pacific, its the period when we took over the carribian, so already enemies of spain, the americans declared war and invaded the phillipens in order to drive the brutal spaniards out. yeah i know very american, at least thats what every one thought, but whn the americans took over nothing changed, actually more phillipenos were killed, and put to work , and their economy further sufferd. this is an actual fact, for obvious reason many do not know about it, or say that its wrong but it happend, it happens, and its always going to happen, if we dont stop our leaders and wake them up from the false dream that america can controll the planet..and even if that was possible, its wrong..war atrocities are happeing as we speak, and we should do something about it. STOP THE WARS, STOP COLONIZAtion of the tewenty first century by america.

Answer 6

Whatever atrocities that one may think usa did, doesnt compare to the atrocities done by most many others everywhere.

Excluding dropping a nuke (though justified)..> I would say only the CIVILWAR - but then that was survival justification.

There havent been any real atrocities done by USA excluding economic (I would say we have used $$$ as a weapon, and that our economy has been too successfull at times.

But thats ok too, because anybody can do what we have done if they try hard enough.

Answer 7

Our bombs were a lot different in Vietnam, and we had few smart bombs! We didn't leave Vietnam following the fall of Vietnam, we left before it!

There were probably more innocent people killed in WWII than in any war in history!

There were more people killed in Vietnam (4 million)than Iraq, but we were in Vietnam for 14 years and it was a civil war, not a war in which we unilaterally attacked a nation preemptively and illegally!

Answer 8

Japan during WWII. Besides the two atomic bombs, the U.S. was fire bombing Japanese cities. It took that much to get the Japanese to finally surrender, but that's probably where the U.S. has killed the most civilians. The enemies of the U.S. have been far more brutal to civilian populations. Millions died between the Soviets and the Nazis. The North Vietnamese killed all the rich and smart South Vietnamese and were destroying villages and kidnapping civilians.

Answer 9

Aside from Vietnam (Three million Vietnamese (mostly civilians) and 30,000 USA soldiers lost their lives) the answer is Iraq .

The Atom bombs in Japan killed around 214,000 civilians... the incendiary bombing of Tokyo around 100,000.

The sanctions against Iraq are estimated to have killed as many as 1000,000 people - most of them children. Since the second Gulf War began civilian casualties are now above 100,000.

That's Freedom and Democracy for you Bush style. As long as the oil fields are controlled and profitable he does not seem to give a hoot for human life or liberty.

Answer 10

While no doubt the US has committed some war attrocities in the past, you fail to mention the war attrocities committed by those countries you listed in your question. Let's start with Japan.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, killing some 2,800 service men. It also committed horrid acts of inhumanity against China, the most famous of exploits was the raping of Nanking. Japan did not uphold Geneva Convention guidlines for dealing with POWs and those who suffered in Japanese prisoner camps were subjected to all manners of torture.

The Viet Cong, the enemy that the US was fighting in Vietnam, was another enemy that didn't play be the rules of war with regard to the Geneva Convention. Aside from the horrid acts that it inflicted upon POWs, it also forced fellow Vietnemese citizens to join its movement, or suffer the consequences. Such consequences could be death of the person refusing to join, death of their family members, or any number of other horrid acts.

The Baath Party of Iraq was responsible for cruel, inhumane acts on those that they considered ethnically unclean. Kurds were the primary recipients of their cruelty, sometimes being subjected to erradication in certain parts. Saddam had no problem in ordering the systematic gassing of Kurdish populated areas, resulting in the deaths of thousands of men, women and children.

The Taliban of Afghanistan ruled the region with an iron fist, subjecting the populace to harsh islamic law. Women were beaten and flogged into submission, sometimes even publicaly executed for the most minor of offenses. By allowing Al Queda to work within their country, even assisting them in some cases, the helped them to commit acts of terrorism throughout the world.

Tell us, why did you refuse to mention these attrocities? Why is it that you only wish to focus on the negative of the United States, while giving all others a free-pass on the issue?