I hadn't even realized he was still alive, but William Calley has apologized. What a strange thing that is…
There is no doubt that Calley was a bad man and a weak man — he was the lieutenant who led the My Lai massacre of Vietnamese civilians in 1968 — but at the same time, he was one of the pawns in a game dictated at the highest levels of American policy. Why was he convicted of a war crime, while Nixon and Kissinger were given a free pass? How can we still be in denial that our actions in Viet Nam were a shameful stain on our honor?
We became the bad guys, the villains in black hats, in that disgraceful war, and we've done it once again in Iraq. I don't think Bush and Cheney will ever receive their just reward for that, either.
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PZ called my attention to the fact that former US Army 2nd Lieutenant William Calley has, for the first time, publicly apologized for his conduct at My Lai. Something that Paul wrote got me thinking, particularly while I was running some errands on base this morning:
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