From the My Lai Massacre to Abu Ghraib Prison!

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/241111/from-the-my-lai-massacre-to-abu-ghraib-prison/

The Abu Ghraib scandal, with its ethical, humanitarian and legal symbolism, was the beginning of the end for the American occupation of Iraq.

From the My Lai Massacre to Abu Ghraib Prison!
Sot al-Iraq, Iraq
By Dr. Abdul Hussein Shaaban
Translated By http://www.sotaliraq.com/mobile-item.php?id=160749#axzz33jReu7Dc
4 June 2014
Edited by Kyrstie Lane

Seymour Hersh is one of the most renowned investigative journalists. He exposed the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. The world was shocked by the report he published and the accompanying pictures, which showed naked prisoners being degraded and led around on a rope by a female American soldier. Did Washington learn a lesson from what happened? Did the world wake up and put a stop to this disgraceful phenomenon? Even though the international community decreed in 1948 in Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” the phenomenon is still occurring. Later, in 1984, the Convention Against Torture determined that perpetrators of the crime of torture can be prosecuted irrespective of the location or history of its occurrence.

On the tenth anniversary of Abu Ghraib, Seymour Hersh, who previously exposed the American army’s My Lai massacre in 1979 and who has won numerous notable prizes, said that “there were naked Iraqi prisoners being sexually degraded, tortured and led around one after another like dogs. Beside them were American soldiers delightedly taking pictures.”*

Those pictures spread around the world on a staggering level, provoking a vigorous debate first over the crime of launching a war against and occupying Iraq without so-called “international legitimacy,” and then over the war crimes perpetrated, including inhumane exterminations (especially of civilians), in contravention of the 1949 Geneva Convention and the protocols added to it in 1977.

The Abu Ghraib scandal, with its ethical, humanitarian and legal symbolism, was the beginning of the end for the American occupation of Iraq. Matters were made worse by the material losses and moral blow sustained by the United States and its reputation: The Pentagon recorded more than 4,800 dead and 26,000 wounded (figures that don’t include the personnel of contracted parties, security companies and mercenaries) and more than $2 trillion spent. These losses, along with the financial crisis in the United States and around the world, amplified and rendered more influential the push in public opinion for withdrawal from Iraq.

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The My Lai massacre is the reason I NEVER wear my Americal patch.

For those of you younger than 40:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_lai

My Lai Massacre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the massacre. For the hamlet called Mỹ Lai, see Sơn Mỹ. For the documentary, see My Lai (film).

Coordinates: 15°10?42?N 108°52?10?E
Location: Son My village, Sơn Tịnh District of South Vietnam
Date: March 16, 1968
Target: My Lai 4 and My Khe 4 hamlets
Attack type: Massacre
Deaths: 347 according to the United States Army (not including My Khe killings), others estimate more than 400 killed and injuries are unknown, Vietnamese government lists 504 killed in total from both My Lai and My Khe
Perpetrators: Task force from the United States Army Americal Division

Massacres of the Vietnam War

Châu Đốc
Tây Vinh
Gò Dài
Binh Tai
Tinh Son
Bình Hòa
Đắk Sơn
Huế
Phong Nhị and Phong Nhất
Hà My
My Lai
Thạnh Phong
Duc Duc
Vinh Xuan

The Mỹ Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [tʰɐ̃ːm ʂɐ̌ːt mǐˀ lɐːj], [mǐˀlɐːj] ( listen); /ˌmiːˈlaɪ/, /ˌmiːˈleɪ/, or /ˌmaɪˈlaɪ/)[1] was the Vietnam War mass murder of between 347 and 504 unarmed civilians in South Vietnam on March 16, 1968. It was committed by U.S. Army soldiers from the Company C of the 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment, 11th Brigade of the 23rd (Americal) Infantry Division. Victims included men, women, children, and infants. Some of the women were gang-raped and their bodies mutilated.[2][3] Twenty six soldiers were charged with criminal offenses, but only Lieutenant William Calley Jr., a platoon leader in C Company, was convicted. Found guilty of killing 22 villagers, he was originally given a life sentence, but served only three and a half years under house arrest.

The massacre, which was later called "the most shocking episode of the Vietnam War",[4] took place in two hamlets of Son My village in Sơn Tịnh District of Quảng Ngãi Province on the South Central Coast of the South China Sea, 100 miles south of Da Nang and several miles north of Quảng Ngãi city east of Highway 1.[5] These hamlets were marked on the U.S. Army topographic maps as My Lai and My Khe.[6] The U.S. military codeword for the alleged Viet Cong stronghold in that area was Pinkville,[7] and the carnage became known as the Pinkville Massacre first.[8][9] Next, when the U.S. Army started its investigation, the media changed it to the Massacre at Songmy.[10] Currently, the event is referred to as the My Lai Massacre in America and called the Son My Massacre in Vietnam.

The incident prompted global outrage when it became public knowledge in November 1969. The My Lai massacre increased to some extent[11] domestic opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War when the scope of killing and cover-up attempts were exposed. Initially, three U.S. servicemen who had tried to halt the massacre and rescue the hiding civilians were shunned, and even denounced as traitors by several U.S. Congressmen, including Mendel Rivers, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Only thirty years later they were recognized and decorated, one posthumously, by the U.S. Army for shielding non-combatants from harm in a war zone.[12]