Friday, August 21, 2009

Department of I Believe in Miracles: Calley Apologizes for My Lai Massacre

Better late than never.

No, really.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai," Calley told members of the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus on Wednesday. His voice started to break when he added, "I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry."

5 comments:

Dave said...

Clearly you’re right: Better late than never. And it’s more than a little remarkable that Calley’s apology is unqualified and absolute.

But, of course, the issue of My Lai (and the free fire zones, and all of the other abuses that occurred in Vietnam in our names) goes way beyond the actions of Lt. Calley and the other soldiers involved. This won’t be over until every last rightwing jerkoff who spent the last 41 years either (a) denying there really was a massacre; or (2) arguing that Calley’s actions were somehow “justified” gives the same sort of unambiguous, unequivocal apology for their defense of the indefensible. Of course that will never happen.

Anonymous said...

you read my mind. completely. how did you do that?

Unindicted Co-Conspirator said...

Hey, that's a quicker apology than the Pope and that business with Galileo.

Dave said...

Great minds think alike?

democommie said...

Unidicted Co-Conspirator:

There's a very simple explanation for why it took so long. As a young boy--in fact, as a Hitler Jugend--Benny Panzerfaust must have often looked to the heavens, from his guard tower overlooking the "gastarbeiters' dormitories, at Peenemunde and watched V-2's arcing towards Old Blighty. At some point, in his clever if narrow mind the bulb went on. He thought to himself, "If Great Britian, why not the moon, or even Mars.

While he may have worked as a tireless revanchist, eager to win back the moral high ground lost with the church's unilateral decision, by the "surrender monks", to end the Inquisiton, he never lost sight of his larger goal of putting the Vatican flag on everything in the known universe.

The pope wants to have a shot at sending Jeuits to Mars when the manned-expedition goes there. And when the spiritual (if not literal) descendants of Tomas de Torquemada plant that Vatican Flag in the red soil they will do so while declaring, "One small step for the son of man, One giant step for Pope Benny."