Subj : Re: BSG
To   : alt.tv.farscape
From : TNW7Z7Z7Z12345
Date : Thu Sep 29 2005 01:17:17

From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape

Jim Larson wrote:
> 
> 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

Yes, that's what I'm trying to say.  

John - I agree that ethically there's no difference between the two
situations. I just mean that in purely practical terms, it's a lot
easier for the head of a small facility to monitor and correct what is
happening there than it is for someone heading military operations for
an entire country.  The former has the power to put an immediate stop to
what's happening.  The latter can give orders to that effect, but has
more trouble monitoring people's behavior.  But of course there is no
excuse for a cover-up, regardless of setting.


- TNW

[To e-mail me, remove 12345 from my address.]

.