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Originally Posted by BNaylor
As far as shooting at U.S. citizens over my dead body.
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Yeah I hear you. I think the concern among the high command that US troops probably would be reluctant to fire upon US citizens on our own soil is quite valid. I think it could go either way, but Katrina gave us a taste.
I have conversations about some of this with coworkers and friends, both vets and non-vets. I've brought up that issue and we've talked about it. They say they could never see it happening, and I remind them what the prevailing defense was at Nuremberg. You know the drill: "I was just following orders".
My Lai didn't involve killing US civilians, but it was a pretty heinous affair, nonetheless. From the accounts of it, Calley believed he was following orders and his men participated. Stress will do wild things to people and make them do things they might not otherwise do. It definitely wasn't one of our finest moments, but war sucks and bad things happen in the bush.
I don't get too crazed about the blogs, but it does give food for thought.