Subj : Re: BSG
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : Jim Larson
Date : Wed Sep 28 2005 19:29:57

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

John I wrote:

> TNW7Z7Z7Z12345 wrote:
> 
>> John Iwaniszek wrote:
>>> 
>>> TNW7Z7Z7Z12345 wrote:
>> 
>>> > Yes, all sorts of bad things happen in the chaos of war. But as I
>>> > said above, the one place where we actually have the power to stop
>>> > those things from happening is in the controlled atmosphere of a
>>> > prison. 
>> 
>> 
>>> My Lai.  504 subdued and unarmed civilians (women and children) gunned
>>> down systematically over a period of a few hours.  It was a war crime
>>> and it was a controlled setting.  The soldiers made a choice and they
>>> chose murder.  Not every American in attendance approved and, like at
>>> Abu Ghraib, there were some who were shocked by the barbarism and
>>> tried to stop it.  Good for them.  The ones who did it and the people
>>> who covered it up and make excuses for it are criminals.
>> 
>> 
>> Oh, I agree that My Lai was a war crime, and yes, it was controlled in
>> that it didn't occur in the chaos of a battle. But that isn't what I
>> meant when I referred to prisons being a controlled atmosphere.  
>> 
>> The abuse at the prisons happened within confined facilities where many
>> layers of management were there all the time to monitor what was going
>> on.  And it happened day after day over a long period of time -- there
>> was plenty of time for a superior to step in, stop it from continuing,
>> and then monitor the situation.  But no one did because the superiors
>> thought the behavior was appropriate.
>> 
>> 
> 
> Ths is driven by the ethical requirement that persons under state care
> be protected from harm.  But I don't see a distinction between the 
> responsibility held by custodians in a prison, jail, school, etc. to
> care for thier charges, and the responsibility the command hierarchy in
> a military unit has for civilians in its imeddiate sphere of influence. 

I suppose one difference is that the events at My Lai took place over the 
course of a few hours instead of many months and that the "hierarchy" in 
question was a 24 year old lieutenant. Of course, the subsequent coverup 
stank all the way to the top.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/Myl_intro.html


-- 
Jim

.