a lawless gang. Most enlistees do act with as much honor and decency their circumstances permit, but policy is to permit, even encourage, brutality as a form of intimidation in order to suppress of all forms of resistance. Domination based on fear. Nazi strategy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_LaiOn 17 March 1970, the United States Army charged 14 officers, including Major General Samuel W. Koster, the Americal Division's commanding officer, with suppressing information related to the incident. Most of those charges were later dropped. Brigade commander Colonel Oran K. Henderson was the only officer who stood trial on charges relating to the coverup; he was acquitted on December 17, 1971.<13>
After a 10-month-long trial, in which he claimed that he was following orders from his commanding officer, Captain Ernest Medina, Lieutenant William Calley was convicted, on September 10, 1971, of premeditated murder for ordering the shootings. He was initially sentenced to life in prison. Two days later, however, President Richard Nixon made the controversial decision to have Calley released from prison, pending appeal of his sentence. Calley's sentence was later adjusted, so that he would eventually serve 4½ months in a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, during which time he was allowed routine and unrestricted visits by his girlfriend. <14>
In a separate trial, Captain Medina denied giving the orders that led to the massacre, and was acquitted of all charges, effectively negating the prosecution's theory of "command responsibility", now referred to as the "Medina standard". Several months after his acquittal, however, Medina admitted that he had suppressed evidence and had lied to Colonel Henderson about the number of civilian deaths.<15>
Most of the enlisted men who were involved in the events at My Lai had already left military service, and were thus legally exempt from prosecution. In the end, of the 26 men initially charged, Lt. Calley's was the only conviction.
Some have argued that the outcome of the My Lai courts martial was a reversal of the laws of war that were set forth in the Nuremberg and Tokyo War Crimes Tribunals.<16> Those tribunals set a historic precedent, establishing the principle that no one may be excused from responsibility for war crimes because they were "following orders". Secretary of the Army Howard Callaway was quoted in the New York Times as stating that Calley's sentence was reduced because Calley honestly believed that what he did was a part of his orders — a rationale that stands in direct contradiction of the standards set in Nuremberg and Tokyo, where German and Japanese soldiers were executed for similar acts.
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