Enlightenment, American-Style

Last week, William Calley broke his lengthy silence: “There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” he said, adding, “I am very sorry.”

But what is enlightening is what happened in the United States in the wake of the My Lai massacre. Some Americans lost faith in their country while others waved the flag of patriotism even more wildly. The nation never was able to come to grips with looking into war crimes in Vietnam.

At first, everything about My Lai was hushed up; then just a few soldiers were accused, as if a “search and destroy” order had never been issued. Only Calley’s immediate superior officer was tried by court martial and found guilty. President Nixon changed Calley’s life sentence to house arrest the very next day. Three years later, Calley was unconditionally pardoned.

To date, no one knows what lessons Barack Obama may have learned from history. His attorney general, Eric Holder, has now announced an investigation into those allegations made by the CIA inspector general as early as 2004 in an internal report on the interrogations carried out in secret CIA prisons. Even the censored version of the 109-page report reads like a horror story. Prisoners had their circulation cut off until they lost consciousness, some were threatened with electric drills held to their heads and shots were fired in order to make prisoners believe other prisoners had been executed.

“In this case, given all of the information currently available, it is clear to me that this review is the only responsible course of action for me to take,” said Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder. He added, “As attorney general, my duty is to examine the facts and to follow the law.” It will be interesting to see where the facts presented by investigator John Durham will eventually lead Eric Holder.

This will be the first investigation of any kind into the excesses of Bush’s White House since regime change in Washington. The previews aren’t at all encouraging, since the new president has repeatedly stated he wants to look forward, not backward.

Holder himself has already said that a preliminary investigation wouldn’t necessarily lead to a comprehensive investigation and that such an investigation also wouldn’t necessarily lead to indictments. The main thrust of the inquiry is to determine whether “extreme techniques” approved by the White House were employed in the CIA interrogations. There’s a good chance, therefore, that the pattern seen in the investigations from My Lai to Abu Ghraib will be repeated: mostly lower-ranking “individuals” will be made scapegoats and the rest will be swept under the carpet.

But if John Dunham and Eric Holder really stick to the facts, it could become tense. There are indications in the CIA report that torturers sought guidance from higher headquarters as to exactly what they could do. There were videos that have since been destroyed showing that those in charge knew what was going on. Who?

Today, William Calley says, “If you ask me why I didn’t object to the orders I received, I’d have to say that I was a young lieutenant who got orders from his commanding officer and that I obeyed those orders.” We will see whether America will finally be able to break this asinine historical circle for once and for all.