March 16th: 1 Murder and 1 Massacre and Two Courageous Individuals

March 16th

1 Murder and 1 Massacre and Two Courageous Individuals

Two horrible incidents happened on March 16th separated by thirty-five (35) years. At the core of both incidents were two courageous individuals, or persons who showed great courage to help others. They are Rachel Corrie and Hugh Thompson Jr.

The murder was of Rachel Corrie on March 16th, 2003, who died at 23 attempting to stop another Zionist destruction of a Palestinian house and home as she stood down the whole Zionist Apartheid State known as Israel. And, know matter what the Apartheid State may say, Rachel Corrie was knowingly and wilfully murdered.

Rachel stood in the way of a bulldozer (JCB) attempting to demolish another Palestinian house and home of the indigenous peoples of Palestine: the Palestinians. And, there is no doubt that the bulldozer driver (who said he didn´t see Rachel) did see and had to see Rachel because she was speaking to him over a bullhorn!

I say that the Palestinian people are the indigenous people of Palestine because Abraham came from Ur in the land we now call Iraq. The United States has made Ur and the area surrounding it the ´Land of Depleted Uranium´ (DU).

Isaac and Jacob were what we would today call second and third generation immigrants to the land of Palestine.

No matter what the Zionist Apartheid State of Israel may say Rachel was murdered in cold-blood in the eyes of God who sees, hears and knows all. And on the Judgement Day there will be no denying that fact.

On that day if not before (if someone privy to the information comes forward and reveals the truth we will know if the Israeli officials had taken a decision to squash the defiance of people like Rachel Corrie who would journey to Palestine and make common cause with the victims of the ´Most Moral Army in the World´ and stand in the way of its continual ethnic cleansing. That is, to make an example.


Rachel Corrie may well have known that she might, or would die, but that did not stop her from standing tall. Rachel Corrie was a modern day David who stood up to the Zionist Goliath.

For her, what mattered was to act in the most ethical, principled and moral way.

Just as her being completely innocent, unarmed and defenceless did not stop the driver of that bulldozer from acting in the most criminal of ways, and driving right over her body...crushing the life out of her, and then backing up and riding over her a second time..

Nor did the obvious murder stop the Apartheid State of Israel from denying any culpability or wrongdoing in all its cover ups of her murder. Those cover ups themselves are a criminal act.

But, I state that the Apartheid State of Israel is a criminal regime. For any government that owes its very existence to the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous peoples, and their continual oppression, killing, and the brutal repression of the slightest signs of resistance...is not that a criminal regime, or a criminal enterprise?

It was born of a criminal conspiracy to ethnically cleanse the land of the indigenous peoples.

Robert F. Kennedy, in a speech to South African students on their Day of Affirmation Address at Cape Town University delivered 6 June 1966, Cape Town , South Africa, said “Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change the world -- which yields most painfully to change.”

Rachel Corrie had tons of moral courage in every bond, muscle, cell and fibre of her body. Her moral courage and bravery is a message to us all in a time when certain governments seek to kill at will and wage wars for world domination. It is a time to stand and be counted, and not be afraid. This is what Rachel Corrie did.

I went to Vietnam twice at 18, and though I went through and survived a place of terror I don´t think that I have half the type of courage that Rachel had. I had a gun and went into combat armed. Rachel stood up to armed oppression. She is a hero and a heroine to us all.

Rachel is an example of the best of the human race, and where we must go…to disarm completely, to make amends and atone to those we have hurt, and to treat each other as brothers and sisters and to settle conflicts peacefully.

Rachel Corrie shall never be forgotten for she lives in the heart of everyone urging us one to our highest and best self. From the beginning of her life she was truly a ´light unto this world.´

The Massacre, My Lai, Vietnam, March 16th, 1968

Hugh Thompson
Was flying his Scout helicopter low…above tree tops providing reconnaissance for the ground troops in the My Lai operation (My Lai 4). As he said his “job was to recon out in front of the friendly forces and draw fire, tell them where the enemy was, and let them take care of it.”

In his statement he said that it wasn´t too long before they (his three man crew) noticed a “large number of bodies everywhere. Everywhere we'd look, we'd see bodies. These were infants, two-, three-, four-, five-year-olds, women, very old men, no draft-age people whatsoever. That's what you look for, draft-age people.” He was trying to think of what could cause the deaths, such as stray artillery fire, but it didn´t seem to make sense…that many bodies of women, children and very old men.

Then they saw a wounded woman, and they called for help for her and marked the area near “her with smoke. A few minutes later up walks a captain, steps up to her, nudges her with his foot, steps back and blows her away.” Larry Colburn, and Glenn Andreotta (who died weeks later) were the crew members.

It was seeing Captain Medina do that; he was later cleared by a Court Martial, that left no doubt in Thompson´s mind and that of his two crew members. At one point Thompson lowered the helicopter so it was between the other American troops shooting and killing the Vietnamese peasants and got out of his craft. He told his door gunner that if they did not stop shooting the people, then to open up on their own troops.

He called in a friend to help ferry the people out. And, he said that after going over all the scenarios of how the people may have been killed….artillary fire etc…“something just sunk into me that these people were marched into that ditch and murdered. That was the only explanation that I could come up with.” And he, by his actions and with the help of his crew and the other copter stopped the killing and began ferrying people to hospitals.

Hugh told his crew members, “I'm going to go over to the bunker myself and get these people out. If they fire on these people, or fire on me while I'm doing that, shoot 'em!" He meant the American soldiers, and he did the right thing.

When he got back to the base and rumour spread about what he did he was ostracized. If he went into the club where people drank after hours, or into the mess hall everyone left, and he received death threats throughout his life, and dead or mutilated animals on his porch. Since he died on January 6th 2006, Larry Colburn his door gunner that day has received death threats.

Hugh Thompson, Jr. had this to say of My Lai “My Lai ...was no accident whatsoever. Pure, premeditated murder. ...Are we too big to apologize?”

But were it not for his actions many more would have died. He exemplified the quality of doing what is right, not what you´re told to do, and in military organizations obedience is expected, and no questioning.

The army initially reported that 20 civilians were “inadvertently killed”, and 128 of the enemy killed in combat. The truth is that over 500 mostly women, children and old men were gunned down in cold blood, or had a hand grenade thrown at them, and about 14 rapes occurred.

Haditha? Fallujah? Afghanistan? My Lai was the killing field, and not the only massacre. But, there was a man with a conscience: Hugh Thompson Jr. He is a kindred soul to Rachel Corrie. May they both rest in peace