9 ms·

A 1968 massacre in Vietnam

156 points by mardiyah 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
deanCommie 4y ago
If you've never looked closely at the details of this attack, or only saw some of the infamous photos, this twitter thread might not give you the full magnitude of what occurred. It makes it seem like maybe a few dozen people were killed. The number of deaths from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_Lai_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_Lai_massacre: "347 according to the United States Army (not including Mỹ Khe killings), however others estimate that more than 500 people were killed and the number of people who were wounded is unknown; the Vietnamese government lists 504 killed in total from both Mỹ Lai and Mỹ Khe"
renewiltord 4y ago
The military covered the whole thing up even with this guy kicking up a righteous fuss. And his friends and he were treated as pariahs. Makes you wonder what happened when there was no one like this guy around. Reckon there's a bunch of villages there with no one left to tell the tale. I suppose no one there ever asked "Are we the baddies?" Pretty amazing from the people of that nation, though, to beat three world powers in the matter of a couple decades: France, the US, China. Takes quite something to do that when your enemies will do things like this. With the gloves off it's not clear that the powers can beat locals - as Russia is finding out.
- _9xrb 4y ago
  The people of North Vietnam beat the people of South Vietnam, with heavy American (and Chinese and Russian) intervention. There were "baddies" on every side: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Hu%E1%BA%BF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Hu%E1%BA%BF The communist single-party government of Vietnam refuses to acknowledge the Hue Massacre, and persecutes Vietnamese who speak out about it: >The Vietnamese government still does not acknowledge that a massacre took place and does not allow any public dissent from this position. War is complicated. The Vietnam War is extremely complicated. It is good that America can face up to the crimes committed in that war by its soldiers. I hope one day the Communist Party of Vietnam can do the same.
  - emptyparadise 4y ago
    Please be careful with this line of thought as it can slide into whataboutism really quickly.
  - Aloha 4y ago
    It'll take all the warriors from that war dying, that's the first step. You're right about Vietnam tho, it was a very complex war. They thought they were fighting for freedom, we thought we were fighting communism. Perhaps if South Vietnam was less corrupt.. wishful thinking. In the end - no one comes away with clean hands from war. No one.
  - sofixa 4y ago
    There were "baddies" on every side, but one side was the morally "rightest" - the ones fighting for their freedom and independence (aka North Vietnam, the communists). All the rest were colonial powers trying to force a corrupt puppet state which had nothing positive going for it other than being against the communists. So, motives-wise for war crimes, I'd take "freedom (not individual, for the country and peoples) and independence" over any of the reasons why France, the US or China were there. Still war crimes, still needed to be tried, but nobody did that anyways in that war, so all else being equal the motives "win".
  - drewcoo 4y ago
    "baddies on all sides" gets a downvote from me. At the very most favorable view of that sentiment, it's true. Completely true. In the least favorable light, this post is trying to play down something else without evidence. Thus it's some trolling lie.
    - _9xrb 4y ago
      Downplaying the conflict's moral depth without evidence is what you did, and why I posted my comment. I happen to know Vietnamese who fled to America as refugees after the war. They don't feel that Americans and South Vietnam were "the baddies", or that communists who invaded the South in the first place and violently suppress(ed) knowledge of things like the Hue Massacre are "the good guys." Many Vietnamese remain divided on these issues. It's complicated. That's the point. If you view attempts at nuance as "trolling lies," you might be a great fit for one-party government.
- mieses 4y ago
  Consider that their success in warfare may be attributed to the fact that, in their culture, subversives like yourself are dealt with. In the end, they are better fighters.
  - renewiltord 4y ago
    I have to upvote this if only for the compliment of being called subversive! FWIW I won't be complaining about America if war makes its way here.
- SergeAx 4y ago
  > I suppose no one there ever asked "Are we the baddies?" I don't see a point asking this question, given that "we" are executing unarmed women and children.
deepdriver 4y ago
Strongly recommend Ken Burns' Vietnam War documentary to all who haven't seen it, covering this and other tragic incidents: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/ https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/
- drewcoo 4y ago
  Ken Burns is very, very American. And pushes very American perspectives. Even his views of other nations are through American eyes. The US was there at first to buoy up France's colonialism, then later to push for "democracy/capitalism," the US's own post-WWII "colonialism."
  - wesleywt 4y ago
    You didn't watch a single minute of his documentary then.
  - deepdriver 4y ago
    Clearly you haven't watched the documentary. Half the interviewees are former North Vietnamese or Viet Cong combatants, including serving Vietnamese military personnel. The point is repeatedly made that it was primarily a Vietnamese civil war. The film is made for an American audience, so naturally it also focuses on the lives of American soldiers and their families. I don't know what your last statement has to do with anything.
    - hulitu 4y ago
- stefantalpalaru 4y ago
- adultSwim 4y ago
  If you like the Ken Burns series, I highly recommend WGBH's Vietnam: A Television History. There are uploads on YouTube as well being as available on DVD.
nl 4y ago
Related: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/navy-seal-pardoned-by-trump-labeled-evil-by-ex-comrades/a-51821649 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/navy-seal-pardone...
tinus_hn 4y ago
Coincidentally covering up for this atrocity was the start of the political career of future Secretary of State mr Colin Powell. A real piece of work.
- sofixa 4y ago
  When he died there were lots of extremely positive and nostalgic comments about him. Are war criminals automatically forgiven when they die? Will Bush also be remembered fondly and for his buffoonery and not the war crimes? That's bleak..
  - Gibbon1 4y ago
    You might want to stock up on booze and be prepared to disconnect from all media when Kissinger finally kicks it.
    - ReptileMan 4y ago
      Don't sweat it - he is immortal.
      - jessaustin 4y ago
        Username checks out... ...although recently Kissinger seems to have grown old enough to somewhat value human life: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/24/henry-kissinger-ukraine-russia-territory-davos/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/24/henry-kissin...
  - drewcoo 4y ago
    Well, compared with the other neocon hawks, Powell was at least not a neocon. And not terribly hawkish. We live in times when people want to turn the war criminal Jimmy Carter into a moral hero. Don't even talk to me about more recent shit being too far gone. Carter ended the age of the New Deal President. He introduced neoliberal economics, which most people finally realize we're suffering from now. Our bleak future is Carter's "Crisis of Confidence." It's our fault, according to Carter.
sofixa 4y ago
Honestly it is sickening that the supposedly mightiest military power in the last decades is incapable of holding its war criminals to account. During WWII generals (like Yamashita) were hanged for war crimes that happened in their area of responsibility (not even under their command and control), so nothing as a consequence for directly ordering a massacre or torture is simply unacceptable. Edited to add: not only is it incapable of holding its war criminals to account, it has an explicit law to allow itself to invade anyone trying to do that (Hague invasion act). It's not incapable, it's hostilely unwilling.
- drewcoo 4y ago
  After WWII, no allied commanders were hanged. What happened in Dresden, for example, was clearly a war crime, the biggest atrocity in one attack, one bombing run (not one bomb, but one attack), ever. There is no honest judgement. There is no reciprocity. There is only the victors writing the history and punishing the non-victors, except the ones they pardon for being valuable.
  - refurb 4y ago
    The countries that suffered the worst from Nazi Germany (the countries that become post-war USSR, France) also had some of the lightest touches when it came to persecuting war criminals after WW2. Why? Because the war didn’t happen in a vacuum. The decision became a practical one and there were more important things to do.
  - freemint 4y ago
    While it might have been a war crime the existing international legal mechanism were unable to deal with such war crimes. The Nürnberger Prozesse were not run by an international mechanism but by the allied forces. Similar in Japan.
  - saiya-jin 4y ago
    I think what US lacks severely is humility. That big ego acknowledging that even they can and sometimes do fuckup big time, despite all good that is done. This very effectively prevents recognizing and addressing issues like these and much needed improvement. It goes deeper - US needs allies, everybody does. But if you position yourself above everybody else and treat rest as sub-humans (which is what effectively various US laws state), people and nations will align with you only of its convenient for them, and not for 1 second more. You will receive a lot of hatred, open and hidden. Nothing healthy for long term empire.
dredmorbius 4y ago
Threaded: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550397462355009536.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550397462355009536.html
- kibwen 4y ago
  @dang, would it be possible to automatically redirect all Twitter submissions to a thread reader? I know that there are several to choose from and I don't particularly care which one, it's just that Twitter's UX is dreadful.
  - nabeards 4y ago
    Not all Twitter accounts allow this IIRC, so that wouldn’t make sense. Besides, many prefer the direct Twitter link, including me.
    - allarm 4y ago
      On the other side there are people who don’t have a twitter account and who ignore the twitter links because it’s very difficult to read.
    - dredmorbius 4y ago
      I've rarely found a notable thread that Threadreader can't access, though Jim Wright (Stonekettle Station) apparently disabled it (I'd emailed suggesting he reconsider some years back). His feed is accessible via Nitter (and via that: RSS). https://nitter.kavin.rocks/Stonekettle https://nitter.kavin.rocks/Stonekettle
  - fuzzythinker 4y ago
    Concur. Twitter is anti-web. I never open any Twitter threads.
  - dredmorbius 4y ago
    Best way to reach dang (or other HN mods) is by email at hn@ycombinator.com There are a few variants of Twitter front-ends. Threadreader is specifically aimed at presenting longer threads. Nitter removes the annoyances of viewing a specific post and discussion (it includes replies, Threadreader does not). I've suggested that given the increased dark patterns / hostile attitude that HN might run its own Nitter instance and proxy Twitter submissions through that. That suggestion might also be made of YouTube (via either Invidious or Piped), and Reddit (Teddit), and Medium (Scribe). There's also Bibliogram (for Instagram), though that site gets very few successful submissions. HN does presently rewrite all Reddit submissions (and possibly comments) to "old.reddit.com" from "www.reddit.com" to provide the old desktop interface. I increasingly view threads only through Teddit to avoid numerous Reddit annoyances --- Teddit will rewrite further links so that you're rarely if ever redirected to the broken nominal site. (I can't recall an "if ever", other workarounds such as i.reddit.com or old.reddit.com frequently land back at the new broken-by-design site.)
chadcmulligan 4y ago
Isn't this the same sort of thing Julian Assange is being hunted for now. from [1] "In April 2010, WikiLeaks released the Collateral Murder video,[4] which showed United States soldiers fatally shooting 18 civilians from a helicopter in Iraq,[85] including Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant Saeed Chmagh. ... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange
- IfOnlyYouKnew 4y ago
  Yes, with some emphasis on the “sort of”? First of all, because Assange is not “hunted” for that video specifically, as far as I know, but other leaks and the process he went about to get at them. The My Lai massacre also differed, I would say, from that killing in Iraq. In numbers, obviously, but also in motivation: My Lai was a sadistic masssacre, involving not just murder but also torture and rape. There was absolutely no doubt, not even for the most motivated reasoning, that the victims were innocent.
  - 2-718-281-828 4y ago
    Assange was _hunted_ - not "hunted" ...
    - IfOnlyYouKnew 4y ago
      Assange committed statutory rape, broke bail conditions, and made his life miserable by being a whiny asshole about it.
      - 2-718-281-828 4y ago
        > Assange committed statutory rape and that's why the investigation was suddenly dropped after he got thrown out of the Ecuadorian embassy
      - jessaustin 4y ago
        That was all bullshit, and everyone who actually looked into it has said so: https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian-assange-b252ffdcb768 https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian...
m1gu3l 4y ago
nice story but lord is Twitter awful for stuff like this.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
baisq 4y ago
Anti-American rhetoric. Old, out of context, mostly irrelevant because of volume. Just a "two minutes hate" moment.
- myko 4y ago
  As an American Army veteran I disagree. Thompson represents the values the USA should hold dear and the struggle of the nation to fulfill the promise of those values. This isn't Anti-American, this is a reminder that we should strive to do the right thing no matter the cost. "Do what's right, legally and morally."
_8j50 4y ago
This is what scares me about all the talk if "civil war" lately. How many Thompson's are out there to stop massacares and speak up. It isn't easy. I hope we never have to witness a massacare again but unfortunately it is human nature that makes it inevitable, be it at home or at a far away land.
tomohawk 4y ago
Massacres happen in war because people are involved. What keeps them to a minimum is the discipline of the military forces as well as who controls them. The North Vietnamese committed many massacres (such as at Hue), but their political leadership justified them, and they still punish people who try to talk about them. The US military studies this and other massacres so that future leaders will be better prepared to not let something like this happen. It is not illegal to talk about this and other failures in the US. The goal is to remember and to avoid any such thing in the future. Russia is currently using massacres and other terroristic practices in Ukraine and other countries. It is an intentional strategy.

156 points by mardiyah 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

If you've never looked closely at the details of this attack, or only saw some of the infamous photos, this twitter thread might not give you the full magnitude of what occurred. It makes it seem like maybe a few dozen people were killed. The number of deaths from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_Lai_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BB%B9_Lai_massacre: "347 according to the United States Army (not including Mỹ Khe killings), however others estimate that more than 500 people were killed and the number of people who were wounded is unknown; the Vietnamese government lists 504 killed in total from both Mỹ Lai and Mỹ Khe"

renewiltord 4y ago

The military covered the whole thing up even with this guy kicking up a righteous fuss. And his friends and he were treated as pariahs. Makes you wonder what happened when there was no one like this guy around. Reckon there's a bunch of villages there with no one left to tell the tale. I suppose no one there ever asked "Are we the baddies?" Pretty amazing from the people of that nation, though, to beat three world powers in the matter of a couple decades: France, the US, China. Takes quite something to do that when your enemies will do things like this. With the gloves off it's not clear that the powers can beat locals - as Russia is finding out.

_9xrb 4y ago
The people of North Vietnam beat the people of South Vietnam, with heavy American (and Chinese and Russian) intervention. There were "baddies" on every side: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Hu%E1%BA%BF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massacre_at_Hu%E1%BA%BF The communist single-party government of Vietnam refuses to acknowledge the Hue Massacre, and persecutes Vietnamese who speak out about it: >The Vietnamese government still does not acknowledge that a massacre took place and does not allow any public dissent from this position. War is complicated. The Vietnam War is extremely complicated. It is good that America can face up to the crimes committed in that war by its soldiers. I hope one day the Communist Party of Vietnam can do the same.
- emptyparadise 4y ago
  Please be careful with this line of thought as it can slide into whataboutism really quickly.
- Aloha 4y ago
  It'll take all the warriors from that war dying, that's the first step. You're right about Vietnam tho, it was a very complex war. They thought they were fighting for freedom, we thought we were fighting communism. Perhaps if South Vietnam was less corrupt.. wishful thinking. In the end - no one comes away with clean hands from war. No one.
- sofixa 4y ago
  There were "baddies" on every side, but one side was the morally "rightest" - the ones fighting for their freedom and independence (aka North Vietnam, the communists). All the rest were colonial powers trying to force a corrupt puppet state which had nothing positive going for it other than being against the communists. So, motives-wise for war crimes, I'd take "freedom (not individual, for the country and peoples) and independence" over any of the reasons why France, the US or China were there. Still war crimes, still needed to be tried, but nobody did that anyways in that war, so all else being equal the motives "win".
- drewcoo 4y ago
  "baddies on all sides" gets a downvote from me. At the very most favorable view of that sentiment, it's true. Completely true. In the least favorable light, this post is trying to play down something else without evidence. Thus it's some trolling lie.
  - _9xrb 4y ago
    Downplaying the conflict's moral depth without evidence is what you did, and why I posted my comment. I happen to know Vietnamese who fled to America as refugees after the war. They don't feel that Americans and South Vietnam were "the baddies", or that communists who invaded the South in the first place and violently suppress(ed) knowledge of things like the Hue Massacre are "the good guys." Many Vietnamese remain divided on these issues. It's complicated. That's the point. If you view attempts at nuance as "trolling lies," you might be a great fit for one-party government.
mieses 4y ago
Consider that their success in warfare may be attributed to the fact that, in their culture, subversives like yourself are dealt with. In the end, they are better fighters.
- renewiltord 4y ago
  I have to upvote this if only for the compliment of being called subversive! FWIW I won't be complaining about America if war makes its way here.
SergeAx 4y ago
> I suppose no one there ever asked "Are we the baddies?" I don't see a point asking this question, given that "we" are executing unarmed women and children.

deepdriver 4y ago

Strongly recommend Ken Burns' Vietnam War documentary to all who haven't seen it, covering this and other tragic incidents: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/ https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war/

drewcoo 4y ago
Ken Burns is very, very American. And pushes very American perspectives. Even his views of other nations are through American eyes. The US was there at first to buoy up France's colonialism, then later to push for "democracy/capitalism," the US's own post-WWII "colonialism."
- wesleywt 4y ago
  You didn't watch a single minute of his documentary then.
- deepdriver 4y ago
  Clearly you haven't watched the documentary. Half the interviewees are former North Vietnamese or Viet Cong combatants, including serving Vietnamese military personnel. The point is repeatedly made that it was primarily a Vietnamese civil war. The film is made for an American audience, so naturally it also focuses on the lives of American soldiers and their families. I don't know what your last statement has to do with anything.
  - hulitu 4y ago
stefantalpalaru 4y ago
adultSwim 4y ago
If you like the Ken Burns series, I highly recommend WGBH's Vietnam: A Television History. There are uploads on YouTube as well being as available on DVD.

nl 4y ago

Related: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/navy-seal-pardoned-by-trump-labeled-evil-by-ex-comrades/a-51821649 https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.dw.com/en/navy-seal-pardone...

tinus_hn 4y ago

Coincidentally covering up for this atrocity was the start of the political career of future Secretary of State mr Colin Powell. A real piece of work.

sofixa 4y ago
When he died there were lots of extremely positive and nostalgic comments about him. Are war criminals automatically forgiven when they die? Will Bush also be remembered fondly and for his buffoonery and not the war crimes? That's bleak..
- Gibbon1 4y ago
  You might want to stock up on booze and be prepared to disconnect from all media when Kissinger finally kicks it.
  - ReptileMan 4y ago
    Don't sweat it - he is immortal.
    - jessaustin 4y ago
      Username checks out... ...although recently Kissinger seems to have grown old enough to somewhat value human life: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/24/henry-kissinger-ukraine-russia-territory-davos/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/24/henry-kissin...
- drewcoo 4y ago
  Well, compared with the other neocon hawks, Powell was at least not a neocon. And not terribly hawkish. We live in times when people want to turn the war criminal Jimmy Carter into a moral hero. Don't even talk to me about more recent shit being too far gone. Carter ended the age of the New Deal President. He introduced neoliberal economics, which most people finally realize we're suffering from now. Our bleak future is Carter's "Crisis of Confidence." It's our fault, according to Carter.

sofixa 4y ago

Honestly it is sickening that the supposedly mightiest military power in the last decades is incapable of holding its war criminals to account. During WWII generals (like Yamashita) were hanged for war crimes that happened in their area of responsibility (not even under their command and control), so nothing as a consequence for directly ordering a massacre or torture is simply unacceptable. Edited to add: not only is it incapable of holding its war criminals to account, it has an explicit law to allow itself to invade anyone trying to do that (Hague invasion act). It's not incapable, it's hostilely unwilling.

drewcoo 4y ago
After WWII, no allied commanders were hanged. What happened in Dresden, for example, was clearly a war crime, the biggest atrocity in one attack, one bombing run (not one bomb, but one attack), ever. There is no honest judgement. There is no reciprocity. There is only the victors writing the history and punishing the non-victors, except the ones they pardon for being valuable.
- refurb 4y ago
  The countries that suffered the worst from Nazi Germany (the countries that become post-war USSR, France) also had some of the lightest touches when it came to persecuting war criminals after WW2. Why? Because the war didn’t happen in a vacuum. The decision became a practical one and there were more important things to do.
- freemint 4y ago
  While it might have been a war crime the existing international legal mechanism were unable to deal with such war crimes. The Nürnberger Prozesse were not run by an international mechanism but by the allied forces. Similar in Japan.
- saiya-jin 4y ago
  I think what US lacks severely is humility. That big ego acknowledging that even they can and sometimes do fuckup big time, despite all good that is done. This very effectively prevents recognizing and addressing issues like these and much needed improvement. It goes deeper - US needs allies, everybody does. But if you position yourself above everybody else and treat rest as sub-humans (which is what effectively various US laws state), people and nations will align with you only of its convenient for them, and not for 1 second more. You will receive a lot of hatred, open and hidden. Nothing healthy for long term empire.

dredmorbius 4y ago

Threaded: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550397462355009536.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1550397462355009536.html

kibwen 4y ago
@dang, would it be possible to automatically redirect all Twitter submissions to a thread reader? I know that there are several to choose from and I don't particularly care which one, it's just that Twitter's UX is dreadful.
- nabeards 4y ago
  Not all Twitter accounts allow this IIRC, so that wouldn’t make sense. Besides, many prefer the direct Twitter link, including me.
  - allarm 4y ago
    On the other side there are people who don’t have a twitter account and who ignore the twitter links because it’s very difficult to read.
  - dredmorbius 4y ago
    I've rarely found a notable thread that Threadreader can't access, though Jim Wright (Stonekettle Station) apparently disabled it (I'd emailed suggesting he reconsider some years back). His feed is accessible via Nitter (and via that: RSS). https://nitter.kavin.rocks/Stonekettle https://nitter.kavin.rocks/Stonekettle
- fuzzythinker 4y ago
  Concur. Twitter is anti-web. I never open any Twitter threads.
- dredmorbius 4y ago
  Best way to reach dang (or other HN mods) is by email at hn@ycombinator.com There are a few variants of Twitter front-ends. Threadreader is specifically aimed at presenting longer threads. Nitter removes the annoyances of viewing a specific post and discussion (it includes replies, Threadreader does not). I've suggested that given the increased dark patterns / hostile attitude that HN might run its own Nitter instance and proxy Twitter submissions through that. That suggestion might also be made of YouTube (via either Invidious or Piped), and Reddit (Teddit), and Medium (Scribe). There's also Bibliogram (for Instagram), though that site gets very few successful submissions. HN does presently rewrite all Reddit submissions (and possibly comments) to "old.reddit.com" from "www.reddit.com" to provide the old desktop interface. I increasingly view threads only through Teddit to avoid numerous Reddit annoyances --- Teddit will rewrite further links so that you're rarely if ever redirected to the broken nominal site. (I can't recall an "if ever", other workarounds such as i.reddit.com or old.reddit.com frequently land back at the new broken-by-design site.)

chadcmulligan 4y ago

Isn't this the same sort of thing Julian Assange is being hunted for now. from [1] "In April 2010, WikiLeaks released the Collateral Murder video,[4] which showed United States soldiers fatally shooting 18 civilians from a helicopter in Iraq,[85] including Reuters journalists Namir Noor-Eldeen and his assistant Saeed Chmagh. ... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange

IfOnlyYouKnew 4y ago
Yes, with some emphasis on the “sort of”? First of all, because Assange is not “hunted” for that video specifically, as far as I know, but other leaks and the process he went about to get at them. The My Lai massacre also differed, I would say, from that killing in Iraq. In numbers, obviously, but also in motivation: My Lai was a sadistic masssacre, involving not just murder but also torture and rape. There was absolutely no doubt, not even for the most motivated reasoning, that the victims were innocent.
- 2-718-281-828 4y ago
  Assange was _hunted_ - not "hunted" ...
  - IfOnlyYouKnew 4y ago
    Assange committed statutory rape, broke bail conditions, and made his life miserable by being a whiny asshole about it.
    - 2-718-281-828 4y ago
      > Assange committed statutory rape and that's why the investigation was suddenly dropped after he got thrown out of the Ecuadorian embassy
    - jessaustin 4y ago
      That was all bullshit, and everyone who actually looked into it has said so: https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian-assange-b252ffdcb768 https://medium.com/@njmelzer/demasking-the-torture-of-julian...

m1gu3l 4y ago

nice story but lord is Twitter awful for stuff like this.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

baisq 4y ago

Anti-American rhetoric. Old, out of context, mostly irrelevant because of volume. Just a "two minutes hate" moment.

myko 4y ago
As an American Army veteran I disagree. Thompson represents the values the USA should hold dear and the struggle of the nation to fulfill the promise of those values. This isn't Anti-American, this is a reminder that we should strive to do the right thing no matter the cost. "Do what's right, legally and morally."

_8j50 4y ago

This is what scares me about all the talk if "civil war" lately. How many Thompson's are out there to stop massacares and speak up. It isn't easy. I hope we never have to witness a massacare again but unfortunately it is human nature that makes it inevitable, be it at home or at a far away land.

tomohawk 4y ago

Massacres happen in war because people are involved. What keeps them to a minimum is the discipline of the military forces as well as who controls them. The North Vietnamese committed many massacres (such as at Hue), but their political leadership justified them, and they still punish people who try to talk about them. The US military studies this and other massacres so that future leaders will be better prepared to not let something like this happen. It is not illegal to talk about this and other failures in the US. The goal is to remember and to avoid any such thing in the future. Russia is currently using massacres and other terroristic practices in Ukraine and other countries. It is an intentional strategy.