From My Lai to Haditha – the unlearned lessons

During the height of the Vietnam War, on March 16, 1968, US soldiers opened fire indiscriminately on about 500 Vietnamese villagers – mostly children and women in the hamlet of My Lai.

Failing to locate any Viet Congs, the soldiers from an infantry regiment, killed the villagers, sadly which included some babies too. Some were tortured or raped. Dozens were herded into a ditch and executed with automatic firearms.

The whole sad incident could have been unknown but for a brave soldier who wrote letters about it to President Nixon, the Pentagon, the State Department, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and numerous members of Congress. The copies of this letter were sent in March, 1969, a full year after the event.

This single incident provoked so much of outrage in the US and the rest of the world and proved to be a catalyst for the American pull-out from Vietnam. It also left with one everlasting television image of the US soldiers being airlifted out in a helicopter from the US embassy in Saigon.

Now fast forward to 2005, or November 19, 2005 to be precise. This time around the Americans are at war in Iraq, looking for insurgents and terrorists, in the Iraqi town of Haditha.

On this particular day, US Marine Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas was killed in Haditha in a roadside bomb attack on Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. This prompted his 12 fellow soldiers to shoot indiscriminately on 24 unarmed Iraqis, including 11 women and children, killing all of them instantaneously.

Haditha is now the subject of two US military investigations — one into what happened, the other into a possible cover-up. This after the incident was reported by the Time magazine in March. There were other ‘leaks’ by fellow soldiers who found the act to be so sickening that at least one is known to be suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

If these charges are proven, this incident will surely change the course of war in Iraq. Just like My Lai, Haditha too can be the catalyst for turning the tide of public opinion against US presence in Iraq, prompting an early recall for the troops from there.

I just hope that the situation does not become much worse that it comes to a stage where the American troops will have to be airlifted out in helicopters from the roof of the US embassy in Baghdad.