12-01-2011, 10:07 PM
Doug,
First let me explain that I never heard of the Phoenix Program until I joined this forum.That may seem strange because I'm actually a Vietnam Veteran.If you have read my other posts in this thread,you can get an idea of my feelings about My Lai,and the use of Phoenix in that operation.
I guess I question that the massacre at My Lai was perpetrated on purpose.I can't see that.I can't see a secret CIA operation (Phoenix),risking being exposed for the mass murder of 500 women and children.I gather that most Phoenix ops were nightime snatches,or just kill.But,My Lai was different.There was involvement by hundreds of soldiers,along with unit photographers.Surely,NOBODY would want this kind of horror to be archived.
My argument though,is blunted by said orders in this thread to "kill everything in the village".So,there is my perplexity.I cannot for the life of me understand how you can get an Army unit,which is made up of 30%-40%(?) draftees to actually participate in this kind of mass murder.I'm not naive to think that atrocities didn't happen.I know they did.
Doug,I'm hoping you can elaborate more about the use of Phoenix at My Lai,as I and the other soldiers who I have talked to from my unit have come to the conclusion that the Americal Division was a completely undisciplined outfit,with some pretty worthless officers.There is NO WAY that this could have happened in the very professional and disciplined unit that I was lucky enough to find myself in.It is just unthinkable,but we are all stained from it.
Question:
What could have made the Americal Division troopers participate in this slaughter?Any good soldier would have refused,and squealed their heads off.
First let me explain that I never heard of the Phoenix Program until I joined this forum.That may seem strange because I'm actually a Vietnam Veteran.If you have read my other posts in this thread,you can get an idea of my feelings about My Lai,and the use of Phoenix in that operation.
I guess I question that the massacre at My Lai was perpetrated on purpose.I can't see that.I can't see a secret CIA operation (Phoenix),risking being exposed for the mass murder of 500 women and children.I gather that most Phoenix ops were nightime snatches,or just kill.But,My Lai was different.There was involvement by hundreds of soldiers,along with unit photographers.Surely,NOBODY would want this kind of horror to be archived.
My argument though,is blunted by said orders in this thread to "kill everything in the village".So,there is my perplexity.I cannot for the life of me understand how you can get an Army unit,which is made up of 30%-40%(?) draftees to actually participate in this kind of mass murder.I'm not naive to think that atrocities didn't happen.I know they did.
Doug,I'm hoping you can elaborate more about the use of Phoenix at My Lai,as I and the other soldiers who I have talked to from my unit have come to the conclusion that the Americal Division was a completely undisciplined outfit,with some pretty worthless officers.There is NO WAY that this could have happened in the very professional and disciplined unit that I was lucky enough to find myself in.It is just unthinkable,but we are all stained from it.
Question:
What could have made the Americal Division troopers participate in this slaughter?Any good soldier would have refused,and squealed their heads off.
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.â€
Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller