jayb, the existence of a sniper does not justify the murder of hundreds of civilians, including children. What on earth is wrong with you?

OTB, you never had a point, that was the point...

Craig Minns,

That was an unnecessary, churlish, remark.

It is extremely unlikely that any normal professional soldier or member of the police force as another example could ever commit the crimes of Bryant.

That there was ever a Mi Lai massacre was a shock to the military as well. That is why it has been the subject of so much research and soul searching.

To those impressed with Martin Bryant's mass murdering aim and My Lai apologists.

Is it not obvious that a well aimed 500kg laser-guided bomb is The solution to the politico-judicial nicities of Islamic State dual citizenship?

No-one asks questions on whether Australian Super Hornets over Iraq killing IS Australians is a nice idea!

Court Cases and Judges are like speeding tickets at the Bathurst 1,000.

OTB, I'll take "churlish" over "stupidly trying to justify the unjustifiable" any day, thanks.

What was a shock to the military in relation to My Lai was that anybody thought it was unusual enough to be concerned about. Only Calley was ever convicted and that was for just 22 of the over 500 murders.

Here are a few more "unusual" events that occurred during the Vietnam War.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Vietnam

Of course, it didn't start in Vietnam.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Gun_Ri_Massacre
That's not unique, there were several massacres of civilians by soldiers of both sides.

Perhaps you'd like something more current?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_massacres_in_Afghanistan

I'm sure you can find many others to titillate you if you look. I'm equally sure that many of those will, like My Lai, have soldiers as perpetrators. Few will have been investigated. During WW2 for example, such events were simply ignored and sometimes even condoned by senior commanders.

I'm even more sure that many of them won't and that the victims are just as dead.

Fair dinkum I'm fed up with the moral grotesquerie that is such a feature of some commentary here.

Oh, Pete, are you still here? I thought you'd be off looking at pictures of corpses blown up by laser-guided bombs. I guess the pleasure doesn't last as long any more, eh?

You are such a party pooper Craig Moons.

Obviously not treating things seriously.

Hi OTB
I don't know if Martin Bryant did it or not. But there are some very strange things that happened that day.

If anyone is curious check out the Wikipedia page about the Port Arthur Massacre and see how accurate the kill shots were at the Broad Arrow Cafe - of 20 fatal shots - 19 were of the head and neck. Think how hard that would be in a cafe with people screaming, moving to take cover, blood, body tissue on the floor. According to the official story, one of the most deadly gun massacres in recorded history was conducted by a person who was not an expert shooter, with a mental age of 11, and did this all while shooting from the hip all under 2 minutes. It is possible but surely not probable.
Scroll down to the Broad Arrow Cafe section
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Arthur_massacre_%28Australia%29

The thing is that conspiracies theories always look crazy until documentation comes to light to prove they actually happened.

See Operation Northwoods - no one would think it credible that in 1962 the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff of the USA would go so far as to put forward a plan in writing and present it to President Kennedy to hijack and shoot down airplanes and kill civilians in Washington DC in order to give the military a pretext to invade Cuba, if it weren't for the documents that prove it.
http://www.dc911truth.org/flyers/11-11-06-handouts/Operation%20Northwoods.pdf

It would be hard to believe the CIA did many things until they were uncovered by the Church Committee in 1975. Just 2 examples, believe me there are more!

Project MKUltra - the CIA's illegal mind control program
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra

Operation Mockingbird - CIA infiltrated media organisations -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird

You could ask how any of these were able to be kept secret for so long? It is hard to believe isn't it? Even when you see the documents for yourself.

Once you realize governments are capable of this it makes you look more closely at things that make you go hmmm.