6 PARALLELS:
1) Both were started over lies (Gulf of Tonkin incident, WMD)
2) Both fought in cultures we have little understanding of
3) Both justified by the same spurious reasoning (Domino theories)
4) In both, the actual state of affairs on the ground was hidden from the American public
5) In both, the civilian leadership botched the war and refused to admit mistakes
6) In both, we lost the hearts and minds of the native civilians.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
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The Major thing that is Not the same is how Our participants got involved.
During Vietnam, the cannon fodder was only Partly supplied by volunteers, and the threat of conscription provided intense motivation for opposition to the war, and more importantly, opposition BY people not legally "possessed" by the military.
Today's 'conscripts' have been duped into voluntarily signing away their rights to protest by the Promises that led them into joining their National Guard Units - - college, job training, rank and wage increases... and now they find themselves "stop-lossed" into second, third and fourth tours.
No messy protests: They Volunteered! And in so doing, gave up their citizenship, subjecting themselves instead to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
There aren't enough people with the motivation (draft-facing students) and the time to protest (students, again) to bring a halt to this endless war.
There Are, however plenty who have plenty of motivation for the war's continuance: Mercenaries making 1/4 to 1/2 a million dollars a year (chump change) and the Real profiteers: Cheney's Haliburton, KBR, Carlisle Group, etc. etc..
And does anybody know where that truck full of gold they caught at the border ended up?? Remember that one?? Or the million$ in ca$h that went missing under Bremmer's watch??
Or the million$ in ca$h that went missing under Bremmer's watch??
I think the total is $21 billion. 8.8 from U.S. taxpayers and 12.1 from Iraqi oil money.
Mostly handed out in stacks of 100s.
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