Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
"it's a FACT" that you are wrong.
-Rudey
--Deal with it. Record an LP about it. I don't care.
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Unfortunately, it isn't. US forces have been accused of atrocities in just about every major conflict we've been in.
The important thing is that those are a TINY part of our military heritage. Generally, we ARE the good guys.
The heat of battle can make honorable people do bad things. That's why officers like DekeGuy are so important -- not only to carry out the mission, but to control and eliminate the opportunity for incidents like MeiLai (which he mentioned above).
I believe I am pretty much a realist when it comes to wars, and there is only one additional thing I would comment on. Wars aren't "clean." You use any tactic at your disposal to bring overwhelming firepower on the enemy and win the engagement. That's not necessarily fighting "fair." The days of lining up two armies behind flags and drums and marching across the "fields of honor" at each other until one prevailed went away with the American Revolution. If "clean" means that we treat prisoners as well as possible and don't go out of the way to cause civilian casualities -- I think we get fairly high marks, but in reality, war is about killing, and destroying the opposing force with as few casualities to your own unit. Remember, we're the country who dropped the atomic bombs.
That's not meant to be judgemental. It was an alternative to invading the Japanese mainland at huge potential losses. And I'm sure it did.
On the other hand, when I went through ROTC (1965), the United States had never signed the Geneva Conventions. I don't believe we have since. Importantly, though, we do tend to abide by them.
In the end, I have great confidence that our forces will comport themselves with honor -- as I believe we did in the last Mid-East war.
May they all return safely. I still wish they didn't have to go at all.