Hugh Thompson, true hero
Hugh Thompson’s recent death went practically unnoticed by the mainstream media. The media are preoccupied with the political and corporate scandals and corruption that erupt like volcanoes all too frequently and spew their lethal lava over the landscape poisoning everything for miles around. The corruption, deceit and decay on which this nation functions can be hidden only so long even with the complicity of the media.
Hugh Thompson, one of those extremely rare people who lived by the principles this nation claims to represent, passed in silence. Those who preach but do not practice high standards would rather this decent man not be brought up for comparison to embarrass them and remind them of their hypocrisy, their crimes, their barbarism.
Thompson was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam who spotted a platoon of American soldiers under the command of Lt. William Calley gunning down unarmed, defenseless civilian men, women, children and babies they had herded into a ditch. Thompson landed his helicopter with guns aimed at the soldiers and threatened to open up on them if they did not stop shooting. Thompson exposed the incident over military efforts to silence him. Our government is not opposed to atrocities. It just doesn’t want them exposed, at least when it commits them.
Only one soldier in the platoon, a black man, refused to join in the slaughter. Does that mean only one American in every hundred is a decent, righteous person? My Lai was not an isolated incident. Worse atrocities occurred without any defiant soldiers emerging.
When the Vietnam War carnage was over, the U.S. had slaughtered nearly 3,000,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians. Human beings could not do that. Only animals could do that. To this day, hundreds, mostly children, die every year from contact with the unexploded ordinance spread like leaves all over the former Indochina.
Americans like to contrast their actions with those of Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who killed over 1,000,000 Cambodians, as an example of a murderous madman who is not as civilized as Americans are. They don’t mention that Americans killed as if they were driven by demons and justified the savage atrocities with an outlandish, baseless rationalization called the “domino theory.” Pol Pot witnessed in Vietnam what bourgeois sociopaths were capable of doing. His actions were intended to cleanse Cambodia of that depraved, sick and twisted type.
The Vietnam War was equivalent to 1,000 Sept. 11 attacks. Only heartless racists could claim Sept. 11 was a significant event in post-WW II atrocity history. During that period, the U.S. military has committed the equivalent of one Sept. 11 per week. Most of those were against small, poorly armed or unarmed nations.
In a nation that is woefully lacking in role models, the media should have jumped at the opportunity to hold up Hugh Thompson as proof that the U.S. can produce a person of high integrity. But that would have emphasized what savages the rest of us are.
The brutal, criminal invasion of Iraq proved that Vietnam was not just a passing moment of madness. Iraq proves that we are a nation of uncivilized thugs and beasts by nature. The U.S. always will be brutes as long as we have the power to do it.
Hugh Thompson, one of those extremely rare people who lived by the principles this nation claims to represent, passed in silence. Those who preach but do not practice high standards would rather this decent man not be brought up for comparison to embarrass them and remind them of their hypocrisy, their crimes, their barbarism.
Thompson was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam who spotted a platoon of American soldiers under the command of Lt. William Calley gunning down unarmed, defenseless civilian men, women, children and babies they had herded into a ditch. Thompson landed his helicopter with guns aimed at the soldiers and threatened to open up on them if they did not stop shooting. Thompson exposed the incident over military efforts to silence him. Our government is not opposed to atrocities. It just doesn’t want them exposed, at least when it commits them.
Only one soldier in the platoon, a black man, refused to join in the slaughter. Does that mean only one American in every hundred is a decent, righteous person? My Lai was not an isolated incident. Worse atrocities occurred without any defiant soldiers emerging.
When the Vietnam War carnage was over, the U.S. had slaughtered nearly 3,000,000 Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians. Human beings could not do that. Only animals could do that. To this day, hundreds, mostly children, die every year from contact with the unexploded ordinance spread like leaves all over the former Indochina.
Americans like to contrast their actions with those of Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, who killed over 1,000,000 Cambodians, as an example of a murderous madman who is not as civilized as Americans are. They don’t mention that Americans killed as if they were driven by demons and justified the savage atrocities with an outlandish, baseless rationalization called the “domino theory.” Pol Pot witnessed in Vietnam what bourgeois sociopaths were capable of doing. His actions were intended to cleanse Cambodia of that depraved, sick and twisted type.
The Vietnam War was equivalent to 1,000 Sept. 11 attacks. Only heartless racists could claim Sept. 11 was a significant event in post-WW II atrocity history. During that period, the U.S. military has committed the equivalent of one Sept. 11 per week. Most of those were against small, poorly armed or unarmed nations.
In a nation that is woefully lacking in role models, the media should have jumped at the opportunity to hold up Hugh Thompson as proof that the U.S. can produce a person of high integrity. But that would have emphasized what savages the rest of us are.
The brutal, criminal invasion of Iraq proved that Vietnam was not just a passing moment of madness. Iraq proves that we are a nation of uncivilized thugs and beasts by nature. The U.S. always will be brutes as long as we have the power to do it.
posted by Unknown at 3:42 PM
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