And you thought I would not say a thing?
Terry well said, but I need to point out something also.
Some of the Vietnam Vets were not drafted; they enlisted on their on accord because of their beliefs. Most of the Vets of that time all enlisted, only a few were drafted. As with the present on going war, many then reenlisted to stay in to victory. The only let down was at that time, the same thing that is now being repeated, a lack of support from the congress and the media.
Many things surrounding the issues of going to war have been twisted, like Simon has mentioned but he as with others failed to see it was not one man’s decision to go to war and that the lies and fabrications allegedly used can only be counted as a very small part of what we, the public knows about the path that led up to going to war. The congress and the president not only have to keep things secret but they all seen the same information, they all had access to other countries intelligence and they all made decisions that they all knew would be correct for the country at the time. It all matters to understand how this actually works and to leave the fantasy world of ‘one man - one decision’ behind to enter the real world that it takes many to make decisions in our system.
The sad thing is, in every war we have ever had to deal with, we had the same dissention, the same ‘they lied’ issues – even with the war between the states. In the past we have had the flag wavers and the neutrality groups who were for nothing, we always had our propaganda to bolster patriotism but reality is there is a marked difference in the society of the past and today and the people who know this the best are the same ones who are trying to destroy us today. They see the opportunities to use the media to force a gap in our country, to counter the positive things with negative things and their friends are the very people who have more to lose with any downfall of this country, the media.
Even in WW2, it was about money not facts, we went to war for money and FDR’s friends (just read the NYT of the time with the complaints about the OPM) with Vietnam, it was Johnson and the big military complex with the millions that they got and today it is about oil and Bush’s friends. All of this is not fact, especially the last example.
As for 75% of the people wanting us out, I don’t see this. I see that the polls used are setup for a specific result and most of the time does not really reflect anything except an opinion of a limited amount of people who were in some cases hand picked. I really think that if 3 quarters of the people of the United States wants to get out of Iraq, we would with no doubt be out. The fear of a backlash by the people in Congress would force the issue to be closed very quickly but the Congress knows the stakes and the reality of the situation and always have.
As for any testimony, it is all about the media, Lynch as much as I am glad to see she was alright has no reason to speak up about anything, she was rescued for a reason and should be thankful of that, not critical of the country for the effort made on her behalf that was not made for others. I am sorry if this sounds insensitive, but every country on this earth has made it a point to do something like this and to criticize the need to raise patriotism, which is their job, was completly wrong for her to do and insulting to many. Tillman's case on the other hand was not handled right and I am not too happy with things there. As I said before, sorry for the loss but if this situation receives some special treatment due to him being a former professional athlete, it is wrong and everyone else who died under similar circumstances should receive the same treatment.
The bottom line is this, if we want to see soldiers come home, we must support them their mission and their leader to get them home. The more time we spend complaining about things will be more time that we have them over there. We must not tolerate the despicable acts of few and if a group wants to counter them, support the group who support the troops.
