My Lai was not intentional on the part of the army. It was a unit reacting under stress and doing the exact wrong thing. It was horrible; it was an expected result of the war we were waging; and it's one reason we try not to wage war like that any more. But it wasn't something that the military aimed to do, and it's not good evidence of what the military would do today.
If it wasn't no holds barred, how do you think it would play out if Hamas had the same weapons, the war lasted for 2.5 years and Israel maintained the same approach they've had for the last two and a half years?
If the two sides were military equals, there wouldn't have been a war. MAD has never operated in that region because the US has always supplied Israel, but if the sides were equal, then it would likely be exactly that and any war would likely wrap up immediately. You know, like some of the actual wars.
It's excellent evidence that we will do it and that being American won't stop us. You're assuming our current military is competent.
The unit would get Silver Stars for the massacre if they were under Hegseth.
That is true.
I'm not assuming anything. I just don't think that My Lai tells us anything we don't know by other means. Listening to Pete Hegseth is evidence enough. I suppose I never gave any consideration to the idea that being American prevents us from doing terrible things. If that is a serious claim, then yes I agree with you.
Because the claim by cford is that the school bombing makes us the "evil" oned, which is not accurate.
I think the mistake is labeling one side as good and the other as bad, in this case. There is a hell of a lot of evil to go around, and the US definitely is not acting like the good guys at the moment. But, yes, I agree that anyone operating under the rules of Sharia law is also pretty fucking bad.
Yes, inadvertently bombing a school and killing dozens upon dozens of innocent children absolutely makes us evil **when we refuse to hold the responsible folks accountable**. That’s, like, not even remotely up for debate. The bombing itself was almost certainly accidental. The cover-up and the refusal to hold the responsible parties accountable, is not accidental, and therefore it is evil. This is pretty basic stuff, man. I knew we had a pretty big divide between our politics, I did not know we had a pretty big divide between our humanity and inhumanity. I’m disappointed in you.
We have established that Hamas is evil. I am fairly confident, though, that Hamas did not bomb the Iranian school. Perhaps we should keep the focus on what actually happened in that incident, and who is responsible, rather than trying to change the subject?
If I could, I would. Organized religion is the single greatest evil in the world today.
It's the monotheistic "It's my way or the highway to Hell" that are the real PITAs. I believe in religious tolerance. They think it's an oxymoron.
