Accept No Apologies

For those of us who just missed being old enough to die in the jungles of Southeast Asia, the defining event of the Vietnam War was the My Lai Massacre, and the trial of Lt. William Calley for murdering innocent Vietnamese civilians.

My Lai confirmed everything we'd suspected about the war - the waste, the stupidity, the war crimes - and Calley confirmed everything we'd suspected about the military officers who defended it - their soul-less, conscience-less, blind obedience to criminal leaders.

My Lai was the line that separated us from them. We shouted "murdered civilians!" They shouted "following orders!" That many of the ones defending Calley were World War II veterans who had shed blood to prove that following orders was no defense to war crimes was an incomprehensible and intolerable insult.

Calley's lack of remorse made it easy to hate him, but after 41 years I don't think I can accept his apology.

William Calley, the former Army lieutenant convicted on 22 counts of murder in the infamous My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, publicly apologized for the first time this week while speaking in Columbus.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai," Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus on Wednesday. His voice started to break when he added, "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

In March 1968, U.S. soldiers gunned down hundreds of civilians in the Vietnamese hamlet of My Lai. The Army at first denied, then downplayed the event, saying most of the dead were Vietcong. But in November 1969, journalist Seymour Hersh revealed what really happened and Calley was court martialed and convicted of murder.

Via dakine01 at Firedoglake, who has an excellent take.

So here we are, forty plus years after the massacre where former 2nd Lt Calley is quoted

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai," Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus, [GA] on Wednesday. His voice started to break when he added, "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

And as always, there are two or three relatively anonymous heroes in this story, most especially Warrant Officer One, Hugh Thompson, Jr, who led a helicopter crew that confronted Lt Calley and his men.

One man (and his crew) stood up for what is right. One man "followed orders" and was convicted (officially of 22 murders although the death toll reported ranged from 347 (the official US Army number) up to 504). No other convictions of anyone at any level. Cover-ups at multiple levels. The victims were all "VC" or "guerrillas."

Over forty years for the one man convicted to apologize.

I do hope folks aren't holding their breaths waiting for George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and all the others to apologize for their atrocities.

The ones who issued the orders Calley claimed he followed were never officially identified, never charged, never tried. Of course they've never apologized.

Accept no apologies. Arrest, indict, remand, try, convict, imprison. Nothing else works.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ...