US Military Atrocities and War Crimes
O.K., so a person doesn’t HAVE to go through a military training course of “Learning To Kill/Combat Training” (check out our short page on that topic) to commit atrocities, but at this time in history, such training certainly makes it easier to justify to yourself.
- Obviously, in spite of recent anthropological research, even in the oldest written documents we know of, the Bhagavad Gita and the Judaeo-Christian Old Testament, war and violence are predominant.
- Meanwhile, from stories and written histories of conquest through the centuries, and more recent accounts as documented below, we take it as axiomatic that where there is war, there are atrocities and war crimes,
- This country was founded on some lofty ideals at the time, but man’s “lower nature” has quite often soured those ideals, at all levels of “government”. This becomes particularly true when certain individuals have clear dominance over others and military training and activity is all about dominance, reinforcing that inclination of subjugation.
- If you believe in the “information” media… the corporate-owned mainstream media (MSM), you’d think that war/military-related atrocities are/have been committed only by the “other guys.” ‘Tain’t so!!! There is a minority in any population willing to kill and with sufficient “training” (Ref our “Learning to Kill/Combat Training” section, including the study of WWII front-line soldiers) many remaining inhibitions to kill drop away, particularly in these individuals, and the potential for atrocities can surface to physical reality.
- For those less inclined to shoot-to-kill, the Army/Marines (applying lessons learned from Vietnam) uses group pressure/go-along-to-get- along techniques and fear of a less-than-honorable discharge (Ref. Our section on “Discharges,” to understand that even an “Honorable” discharge can be deceptive) to “soften” the reluctant shoot-to-kill military member.
Please read the reposted articles in this category, some with additional commentary and accounts of personal experiences by military-truth.org founder Don Chapin, to learn more about the US Military’s history of atrocities and war crimes.
WWII Anecdotes
Anecdotes of WWII Talk about atrocities, how about baby-on-a-bayonet? Did the pilots/bombers who flew over Hiroshima and Nagasaki have any regret? Editor's Note: These quotes and anecdotes were sourced from various comments in a discussion at quora.com. Paul Tibbets...
What People Don’t Tell You About WWII
Quora Question - What don't people tell you about World War II? Addition by Don Chapin: This list Cagle provides (below, in the Quora-published response) is actually only a small part of atrocities conducted, and only because they were made public in some manner. In...
The Bomb Didn’t Stop Japan, Stalin Did
The Bomb Didn’t Stop Japan, Stalin Did: Have decades of nuclear policy been based on a lie? The orthodox view is that, yes, of course, it worked, but there are three major problems with it, and, taken together, they significantly undermine the traditional interpretation of the Japanese surrender.
That’s an Illegal Order
'That’s an Illegal Order' - Veterans Challenge Trump's Officers in Portland Two veterans asked federal agents if they understood their oath to defend the constitution and why they weren’t honoring their oath of office Hallie Golden, Sat 25 Jul 2020 01.00 EDT Last...
The Cursed Platoon
A long, but VERY well-researched article… a prime example of an on-the spot definition/interpretation problem of “a legal order,” as stated in every enlistee’s contract. See “Enlistment Contract, DD Form 4” this website, but in a battlefield environment! Blind acceptance by the troops of an officer’s order and the fallout, including an illegal/unjustified intercession/pardon by Cadet Bone Spurs.
USA Pretend Unmasked
With the perception and honesty of another Howard Zinn, in this piece, Willson addresses US actions on an international scale as a result of personal experiences.
Endemic Impunity
“Five years into the conflict, violations against Yemeni civilians continue unabated, with total disregard for the plight of the people and a lack of international action to hold parties to the conflict accountable.”
Whitewashing War Crimes Has Become The American Way
It seems that whitewashing, excusing and apologizing for criminal military behavior is as American as apple pie
Atrocities & War Crimes
…in the back of my mind was the observed general attitude, behavior and stories of those combat pilots entering the college campus from tours in Vietnam… I wasn’t sure I wanted to be exhibiting such egos and laughing about chasing black-clad farmers out of their fields with an F-4 aircraft cannon simply out of boredom because there were no more North Vietnamese aircraft to engage. ~Don Chapin
War Zone Killing – Vets Feel Alone in their Guilt
Repost of article by PAULINE JELINEK | February 22, 2013 12:32 PM EST | http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130222/us-military-moral- injury/
WASHINGTON — A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, former Marine Capt. Timothy Kudo thinks of himself as a killer – and he carries the guilt every day.
“I can’t forgive myself,” he says. “And the people who can forgive me are dead.” With American troops at war for more than a decade, there’s been an unprecedented number of studies into war zone psychology and an evolving understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder. Clinicians suspect some troops are suffering from what they call “moral injuries” – wounds from having done something, or failed to stop something, that violates their moral code.
Hearing Begins For Five GIs In Rape-Slaying Case
Repost: Hearing Begins For Five GIs In Rape-Slaying Case – An Iraqi army medic told a U.S. military hearing Sunday he was sick for weeks after finding the naked and burned body of a 14-year-old girl allegedly raped and murdered by American soldiers south of Baghdad. It is among the worst in a series of cases of alleged abuse of Iraqis by American soldiers.
Verified Civilian Slayings
Repost: Verified Civilian Slayings by Nick Turse, Deborah Nelson and Janet Lundblad
LA Times, August 6, 2006 – Decades-old Pentagon records show that Army criminal investigators substantiated seven massacres of Vietnamese and Cambodian civilians by U.S. soldiers — in addition to the notorious 1968 My Lai massacre… And this is only what was officially reported and investigated
American War and Military Operations Casualties
American War and Military Operations Casualties: Think of all these combat casualties just on OUR side of the conflicts… how many collateral damage? How many unrecorded lives on the other” side? As far as I’m concerned, this situation is also an atrocity.
Violence in the Bible and Bhagavad-Gita
Repost: Violence In The Bible And The Bhagavad-Glta (.pdf) by Hector Avalos, Iowa State University
“Violence is a primary fact of life for biblical figures in the Hebrew Bible, and the biblical deity is often portrayed as the prime mover for this violence.” AND “If interpreted literally, at least some portions of the Bible are quite explicit in advocating violence as the proper means to settle conflicts that ultimately derive from unequal access to scarce resources, including land, God’s revelation, and human authority.
“Such directives reach back to God himself. If interpreted literally, the BG can also be seen as supporting violence. Krishna directs Arjuna to participate in war. Krishna supports the caste system that in itself may be a sort of violence to those that are in the lower echelons. Krishna devalues bodily suffering and death, which can logically lead to devaluing violence as well.
“If we extend the logic of Schwartz, it might be that all religions, not just monotheistic ones, are ultimately violent. All religions ultimately depend on creating, rather than just addressing, scarce resources. And more importantly, the scarce resources created by religion are generally accepted as unverifiable, which itself leads to violence.”
New Study of Prehistoric Skeletons Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots
Repost: New Study of Prehistoric Skeletons Undermines Claim That War Has Deep Evolutionary Roots by John Horgan – When did war begin? Does war have deep roots, or is it a modern invention? A new analysis of ancient human remains by anthropologists Jonathan Haas and Matthew Piscitelli of Chicago’s Field Museum provides strong evidence for the latter view.
The Cornerstone of War Is Dehumanization: One My Lai a Month
Cornerstone of War Is Dehumanization: Repost of article by ROBERT C. KOEHLER FOR TRUTHOUT. “When somebody asks, ‘Why do you do it to a gook, why do you do this to people?’ your answer is, ‘So what, they’re just gooks, they’re not people. It doesn’t make any difference what you do to them; they’re not human.’
“And this thing is built into you,” Cpl. John Geymann testified almost 44 years ago at the Winter Soldier Investigation,
Special Forces Unconventional Warfare
Special Forces Unconventional Warfare: Government document detailing the role of unconventional warfare in US National Strategy and its execution in various political and civil circumstances.
Vietnam – The War Crimes Files
Repost: Vietnam – The War Crimes Files by Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson for the Los Angeles Times: “…nearly 40 years later, declassified Army files show that Henry was telling the truth — about the Feb. 8 killings and a series of other atrocities by the men of B Company. The files are part of a once-secret archive, assembled by a Pentagon task force in the early 1970s, that shows that confirmed atrocities by U.S. forces in Vietnam were more extensive than was previously known… [and] detail 320 alleged incidents that were substantiated by Army investigators — not including the most notorious U.S. atrocity, the 1968 My Lai massacre.”
New Torture Files
Repost: “New Torture Files- Declassified Memos Detail Roles of Bush White House and DOJ Officials Who Conspired to Approve Torture” by David Cole for justsecurity.org “…the CIA was only one part of this conspiracy to commit war crimes. The scheme had the participation and express or tacit assent of many others…Not one of these people said no…”
Grisly Descriptions of Chaos and Horror at Soldier’s Hearing
Repost of an article by Kirk Johnson in 2012 examining the grisly reality of US atrocities in Afghanistan revealed by testimony in the trial of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales at Joint Base Lewis-McChord
