Play by rules of war, law expert advises

[thedrifter]

June 05, 2006 <br />
Play by rules of war, law expert advises <br />
Knowing when orders are illegal can be crucial <br />
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By William H. McMichael <br />
Times staff writer <br />
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When the enemy doesn’t obey the rules of war,...

[thedrifter]

June 05, 2006
Hadithah may prove My Lai’s lessons lost

By Bryant Jordan
Times staff writer

American troops raped and mutilated and murdered hundreds of civilians in an attack 38 years ago, turning a small village into wartime hell.

The place was My Lai, South Vietnam, and when the massacre that occurred there March 16, 1968, exploded before the American public 20 months later, the incident added steam to a growing anti-war movement, precipitated a fight between powerful politicians on one side and the Army on the other, and prompted the Pentagon to strengthen its commitment to military professionalism.

Now, as Marines may face allegations they killed as many as two dozen Iraqi civilians, including women and children, in Hadithah, Iraq, in November, the specter of My Lai is once again being raised.

Retired Army Col. William Eckhardt, who served as chief prosecutor in most of the My Lai court-martial cases and is now a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, said the mere mention of My Lai now is synonymous with “battlefield atrocity.”


Though the My Lai story broke in November 1969, the Army already had investigated the massacre and was preparing its case against 16 soldiers, including 1st Lt. William Calley, the only man among the five put on trial who was convicted in the slaughter of at least 350 men, women and children by troops of the Army’s Americal Division.

While it appears only a few soldiers committed the atrocities, it is known that other soldiers stood by and did nothing. The slaughter finally stopped when a pilot, Hugh Thompson, set down his OH-23 helicopter between terrified civilians and the troops and ordered his door gunners to fire on the soldiers if they fired on the villagers.

“I suppose the biggest lesson to be learned from My Lai is the necessity for professional conduct on the battlefield,” Eckhardt said in a May 24 interview.

Poor discipline on the battlefield loses wars, said Eckhardt, who added that My Lai may have been the turning point in the debate at home over the unpopular Vietnam War.

But David Anderson, a Vietnam Army veteran and editor of “Facing My Lai,” a 1998 book that includes chapters by former soldiers and journalists close to the story, said the incident probably had a greater, longer-lasting effect on the military than it did on the American public.

“The anti-war [movement] was already there, but for many people who had been ... less vocal, it was another element to questioning the war,” he said. “In many ways, the military looked long and hard at this incident. In fact, I think the professional military took it to heart.”

The law of war, with particular emphasis on My Lai, became part of the service academies’ curricula, he said, as military leaders were determined that there would be no more My Lais.

“Today, the military does do a better job in training in the laws of war,” Anderson said, “but, having said that, does the political leadership, the civilian leadership ... pay the kind of attention to this issue that the military does? A lot of Vietnam War lessons have to be returned to, re-examined, revived in the current context, over and over. We’ll never end this discussion, which is for the best.”

With My Lai, some in the political leadership weighed in a way that threatened the military justice system, harmed the prosecution and, in the case of Calley, effectively thwarted justice, Eckhardt said.

Lawmakers seeking to “veto” the prosecution helped paint Calley as a hero, and Thompson and his crew as the villains, he said.

Calley was convicted in 1971 of murdering 22 villagers. He was sentenced to life in prison, but his stay at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., was brief, as President Nixon said he would personally review the case during its appeal.

Calley remained under house arrest at Fort Benning, Ga., and his sentence was regularly rolled back, prompting Army prosecutor Capt. Aubrey Daniel to fire off a letter to Nixon, accusing his commander in chief of enhancing the reputation of a convicted murderer and doing a disservice to the jurors.

“You have subjected a judicial system of this country to the criticism that it is subject to political influence,” Daniel wrote. “What will be the impact of your decision upon the future trials, particularly those within the military?”

Calley was paroled in November 1974.

One of the former soldiers most familiar with My Lai said the lessons of the massacre are lost.

“We don’t learn from history,” said former Spc. 4 Lawrence Colburn, an enlisted door gunner in Thompson’s helicopter. “We just keep making the same mistakes again.”

Referring to the allegations against the Marines at Hadithah, Colburn said, “At least [the Corps is] addressing it. ... They’re not covering it up.”

Colburn and Thompson were awarded the Soldiers’ Medal in 1998 for their actions at My Lai 30 years earlier, as was Spc. 4 Glenn Andreotta, posthumously. Andreotta was killed in action about three weeks after My Lai.

“But I can also understand the guys in uniform,” Colburn said. “I’ve done it myself. I’ve gone out seeking revenge myself. When you see a buddy taken down, something primal inside you clicks, and you go out and take revenge. And it’s a vicious cycle.”

There’s a difference, he said, between going after the enemy and murdering civilians. The problem, he said, is troops are “brainwashed” into seeing good versus evil.

Speaking about the war in Iraq, Colburn said he is saddened to hear echoes of the same rhetoric that was often heard in Vietnam.

“‘Hearts and minds?’” he said. “Can you believe they’re using that again?”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

June 05, 2006 <br />
Experts: Comparing killings to past war crimes undeserved <br />
<br />
By Gordon Trowbridge <br />
Times staff writer <br />
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War-crimes charges against Marines who allegedly killed Iraqi civilians in...

[thedrifter]

June 05, 2006 <br />
Massacre fallout <br />
Reports of dozens of Iraqi civilian deaths have Marine leaders preparing Congress for worst <br />
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By Gayle S. Putrich <br />
Times staff writers <br />
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It was a week of growing...