[Wikipedia-l] War Crimes

Thu Sep 5 23:25:14 UTC 2002

"Poor, Edmund W" wrote:
> 
> mirwin wrote (in part):
> 
> >The U.S. has never accepted other countries allegations
> >that our soldiers are terrorists or war criminals.
> 
> What about the My Lai Massacre? 

IIRC, Calley was court martialed by a U.S. Military Court.

>Wasn't Calley convicted of a war crime, under US law? 

I do not know the precise articles of the UCMJ which he 
was charged under and convicted.   The thing that really
seemed to stand out for me was that his defense that he was 
following verbal orders was dismissed because no written 
substantiation could be produced and his superiors denied 
issuing the orders.

Aircraft napalming villages usually have a substantial 
paper trial.  It is useful in getting the aircraft off
the ground.  Hence the usefulness of terms such as
"collateral damage".

A platoon or battalion commander in the field for a few
weeks would seem less likely to be maintaining written
records in well organized filing systems.

>As a former US soldier, I must say >that American servicemen are considered to be >responsible for their actions, even (or >especially) when under the stress of combat or >captivity.

Responsible to who?  Their own chain
of command and U.S. public opinion.

How many have been tried by the other side of
the conflict?   Has the U.S. Government ever
acknowledged the validity of these trials?

> 
> One of the things I admire most about my country, America, is the exaltation of law and >principle. All people are required to respect the rights of others, and no one is above >the law. Our freedom of press makes evasion of justice exceedingly difficult to hide.

lol  Yes, we have an amazingly meticulous "rule of law
party" running things now.  No t left uncrossed or i
undotted when it comes to "warfare" on "terrorism".

It would be my assertion that we do better than most
other places on the globe.  I have no intention of
emmigrating anywhere anytime soon.

I shall certainly scrutinize the charter, contract,
organization, etc. of any space settlement effort 
that I choose to consider joining.  No sense in
giving away hard won freedoms.

> 
> Excuse me if I sound patriotic this month, but the anniversary of 9-11 is coming up...

No problem.  Just keep an eye out for scoundrels.

Regards,
Mike Irwin