Reply #16: The Troops

[bigtree]

are led by a mindless, murderous madman. Perhaps you would argue that they should desert and subject themselves to the judgement of a military court:

By the articles of war, it is enacted that 'any non-commissioned officer or soldier who shall, without leave from his commanding officer, absent himself from his troop, company, or detachment, shall, upon being convicted thereof, be punished according to the nature of his offence, at the discretion of a court-martial.'

By the articles for the government of the navy, it is enacted, that 'if any person in the navy shall desert to an enemy, or rebel, he shall suffer death;' and 'if any person in the navy shall desert, or shall entice others to desert, he shall suffer death, or such other punishmemt as a court-martial shall adjudge.'

I don't recommend this for any of our servicemen, especially the younger members who are, in many ways, still working through revelations of right and wrong, good and evil.

I believe that their leaders, who order these men and women into situations which violate human rights, conventions of war, and basic common decency, generally should be the ones who are held in contempt and account. There are, of course, many outright abuses that are the sole responsibility of individual soldiers which are not approved or mandated by anyone. These should be prosecuted to the fullest extent and severity that the law provides.

John Kerry had it about right in his '71 testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations as he answered to questions about the complicity of Lt. Calley who was charged with war crimes:

Sen. Pell: . . . in connection with Lieutenant Calley, which is a very emotional issue in this country, I was struck by your passing reference to that incident.

Wouldn't you agree with me though that what he did in herding old men, women and children into a trench and then shooting them was a little bit beyond the perimeter of even what has been going on in this war and that that action should be discouraged. There are other actions not that extreme that have gone on and have been permitted. If we had not taken action or cognizance of it, it would have been even worse. It would have indicated we encouraged this kind of action.

Mr. Kerry: "My feeling, Senator, on Lieutenant Calley is what he did quite obviously was a horrible, horrible, horrible thing and I have no bone to pick with the fact that he was prosecuted. But I think that in this question you have to separate guilt from responsibility, and I think clearly the responsibility for what has happened there lies elsewhere.

I think it lies with the men who designed free fire zones. I think it lies with the men who encourage body counts. I think it lies in large part with this country, which allows a young child before he reaches the age of 14 to see 12,500 deaths on television, which glorifies the John Wayne syndrome, which puts out fighting man comic books on the stands, which allows us in training to do calisthenics to four counts, on the fourth count of which we stand up and shout "kill" in unison, which has posters in barracks in this country with a crucified Vietnamese, blood on him, and underneath it says "kill the gook," and I think that clearly the responsibility for all of this is what has produced this horrible aberration.

Now, I think if you are going to try Lieutenant Calley then you must at the same time, if this country is going to demand respect for the law, you must at the same time try all those other people who have responsibility, and any aversion that we may have to the verdict as veterans is not to say that Calley should be freed, not to say that he is innocent, but to say that you can't just take him alone, and that would be my response to that."


That would be my response to that.