[boomboomsubban]

"Most" is tricky, but using things like sim card and IP tracking to approve drone strikes that end up killing scores of civilians is pretty atrocious.

Oh, or the false Gulf of Tonkin report probably led to millions of deaths.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

> Oh, or the false Gulf of Tonkin report probably led to millions of deaths.

Please cite a reputable source that supports this conspiracy theory.

[boomboomsubban]

What? We passed this resolution that led to an increased US presence in southeast Asia in response to the Gulf of Tonkin incident that later evidence has shown never happened. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Resolution

The NSA itself later admitted they lied about the report, ignoring any sigint that contradicted what they believed happened.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

> The National Security Agency (NSA) had broken North Vietnam's codes, and McNamara emphasized to Johnson that certain decrypts conveyed that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had been damaged by American destroyers, thus proving that the second incident happened. However, several intelligence analyses at the time accused McNamara of having either misinterpreted, either intentionally or by mistake, decrypts referring to the first incident of August 2 and presenting them as referring to the second alleged incident of August 4.

[boomboomsubban]

I don't understand why you think this quote is relevant, maybe you think that was the only part used so the entire thing was an honest mistake that still killed many?

Here's some others parts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident

>In the 2003 documentary The Fog of War, the former United States Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitted that an attack on the USS Maddox happened on August 2, but the August 4 attack, for which Washington authorized retaliation, never happened.

>As the evening progressed, further signals intelligence (SIGINT) did not support any such ambush, but the NSA personnel were apparently so convinced of an attack that they ignored the 90% of SIGINT that did not support that conclusion, and that was also excluded from any reports they produced for the consumption by the president.

McNamara admits of didn't happen, the NSA admits they intentionally doctored the report.

[2OEH8eoCRo0]

What is the atrocity though? This spawned a whole subthread and my only point was that the word "atrocious" was a bit extreme.

[boomboomsubban]

First, ordering the attack of homes with no regard for civilians nearby and no concrete proof that someone "bad" is inside is fairly unequivocally atrocious. I think if your loved ones died because the NSA assumed a bad guy lived next door, you'd consider it an atrocity.

Second, I consider lying to spread more warfare and all the horrors that entails atrocious.

[t-3]

The Vietnam War.