2007-10-02 16:14:23 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Military
War makes people do crazy things. We are seeing the same types of events alleged in Iraq.
When we fight insurgents...we cannot tell who is the enemy as they hide among the locals. The massacre happened because some bad GIs rushed to judgment and massacred either people they thought were the enemy, thought were ading the enemy, and/or thought they were enemy-sympathizers.
OUr soldiers shoot out of fear/disparity because they are scared that the local guy is actually the enemy in hiding and will ambush them.
See the movie "Rules of Engagement." It's a good idea of how these atrocities happen.
For the record, I am not condoning the killing, but putting it in a context and not the vacuum that many people put it in. War is hell on our young soldier's minds. Don't put it in the context of you sitting in your living room not having your life in danger with a potential enemy right in front of you.
2007-10-02 16:20:52 · answer #1 · answered by ironjag 5 · 4⤊ 0⤋
Pure frustration, tinted with anger, despair and fear, at an enemy who was inflicting many casualties by booby-trap and ambush day by day.
A willing belief that all Vietnamese civilians were Viet-Cong sympathisers, a total breakdown of command and control, despite the fact that other officers were involved, Lt. Cally should never have been a party to it, he lost control of his men, and the buck stops at the officer involved.
2007-10-03 09:14:14 · answer #2 · answered by conranger1 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because their commanders told them to do it. Hours before the mission, they were told that the whole village is to be considered a war zone, and that everyone and everything in it is a fair target. Their commanders never gave specific instructions "not to target civilians".
The whole controversy regarding the event arose because of this fact. During the court-martial hearings, Lt. Calley and others who were tried for committing the crime mentioned that they carried out their orders as told by their commanders who sent them for the mission. Those commanders who organized the mission, during their own testimonies, mentioned that although they never literally issued orders to "spare civilians", they assumed that the soldiers already knew that they should not harm civilians, and left that on the soldiers' own moral judgments.
So the whole issue is that of the soldiers claiming to be simply following orders, and their commanders claiming of a soldier's duty to adhere to the military code of conduct to his actions in the battlefield, without the need of having to be told.
2007-10-02 17:35:47 · answer #3 · answered by Botsakis G 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
too many Gi's lost in the area to Bobby traps lad to frustration,then their leaders didnt stop them...there were 4 Lt's there that day,but 3 were killed before the story broke..Calley was just a scapegoat....those people were at fault for not warning the Americans about enemy activity
2007-10-02 16:22:51 · answer #4 · answered by Bushrod 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Anger, adrenaline, and the inability to properly reason shortly after a highly intense combat situation.
2007-10-02 16:17:40 · answer #5 · answered by redlegman64 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
They had been ambushed repeatedly in the vicinity of the village.
2007-10-02 16:18:33 · answer #6 · answered by Yak Rider 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋