>>Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005 11:45 p.m. EST
Jane Fonda: U.S. Troops Are 'Killing Machines'
"Hanoi Jane" Fonda is claiming that ever since Vietnam, U.S. troops have been trained to commit atrocities against innocent civilians as a matter of military policy.
"Starting with the Vietnam War we began training soldiers differently," the anti-American actress says in an email to the Washington Post.
Fonda claims she learned of the policy switch in "secret meetings" she had with military psychologists "who were really worried about what was happening to our combat personnel."
One doctor, she insists, told her U.S. troops had been deliberately trained to be "killing machines."
"This began," Fonda maintained, "because the military discovered that in World War II and Korea, [U.S.] soldiers weren't killing enough."
"So they changed training procedures" to teach troops how to commit atrocities.
Still, the anti-war gadfly cautions, it's important not to blame the soldiers themselves for carrying out war crimes.
Recalling the "Winter Soldier" hearings that she and John Kerry staged in 1971, Fonda lamented: "When you put young people into an atrocity-producing situation where enemy and civilian are commingled, where the 'other side' is dehumanized, we cannot be surprised."
Anti-war vets now returning from Iraq, Fonda cautioned, should be listened to instead of being dismissed as "unpatriotic."
"We have not learned the lessons of Vietnam," she declared.<<
I gotta say, it takes a fair bit to offend me, but she's managed to pull it off.
I guess the first question is where did she get this "information?" How many boot camps did she attend? How many FIELDEX's? How many service schools?
In all of my military training and schools (and there's been a sh!tload), NEVER had we been taught/trained/encouraged to commit atrocities on ENEMY SOLDIERS, much less civilians! Furthermore, most of my instructors were from the Vietnam era (with the occasional Korean War vet), and none of THEM had anything to do with such things!
Quite the opposite, in fact. We were trained on how to AVOID civilian casualties at almost all costs, and trained on handling dead and captured enemy combatants, and "atrocities" were NEVER part of the curriculum. Rather, RESPECT (while maintaining strength) was the watchword. In many cases, this training and the subsequent obeying of procedures related to handling of enemy combatants and civilians almost got a few of us killed!
Why won't this lady just shut up and talk about something she may actually KNOW something about, like how to marry and divorce a egomaniac millionaire or how to make bad B movies...
DK |
