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Soldiers are trained to kill and their commanders
psych them up by demonizing the "enemy".
It is the commanders' job to make sure that their
troops do not kill people who are not enemies. In the Wounded Knee
and the No Gun Ri massacres, the commanders failed to control their
troops.
In addition to the killing of women and children,
the book in question describes US soldiers raping South Korean
women and desecrating Korean ancestral burial items in the No Gun
Ri area prior to the killing. In the Wounded Knee Massacre, the 7th
Cav troopers engaged in gross sexual acts as well (see the links below).
The book also mentions that judges in America
given convicted criminals the option to join the Army or go to jail.
The book does not claim everyone in the 7th Cav was a criminal, but I wonder
what percent of the 7th Cav troopers were convicted
criminals.
The book mentions that Maj. Gen. Dean was the only
senior commander who refused to allow killing civilians.
ysk
James, An interesting story! How similar these stories are bet. Wounded Knee & No Gun Ri! At No Gun Ri too, there was also some allegation that US troops were shot at from the refugees. However, the victims have said that there were no fire from them and even the Army investigation did not confirm that story. How story changes depending on who tells it! In any case, I don't want to give a wrong impression that we can conclude that No Gun Ri massacre took place because of Wounded Knee history. Of course, each incident should be investigated on its own merit. All I am saying is that the distressful past history of the 7th Cav. only reinforces our impression that another massacre may have took place at No Gun Ri. BTW, I read part of the book and found that the authors did some research on the past history of 7th Cav. and they included the Wounded Knee story in their book. I am glad that this info was included in the book. John2 |