To give some background information before I pose the question, the famous above photo was taken following the My Lai masacre during the Vietnam War in 1968. Hundreds of innocent, unarmed civilians, mostly women and children were brutally murdered. Even though over a dozen soliders particpated in the crime, only one was convicted, officer William Cally, who ordered the masacre. He initially was given a life sentence, but Nixon eventually paroled him. At the time, many protested Cally’s conviction, mostly patriotic/chauvinistic Americans, but also critics of the war and the miltary’s policies. The latter’s logic being that millions of innocent civilians had been murdered throughout the war and that this was not an isolated incident, but rather a common policy. Now, my question is should we imprision such individuals for their crimes or ignore them because others clearly do not receive the same treatment?

Chris