(and Linda Yu)
were my favorite Chicago TV news-babes back in the early 1980's.
Posted on 09/23/2007 9:09:16 AM PDT by Chi-townChief
We shouldn't once again wait too long to admit our mistake and leave
In the scheme of small protests, I suppose what I did the other day qualifies. I was in one of those little catchall stores, the kind that sells candles and clothes and cheap jewelry. It was a necklace that caught my eye. A tiny peace symbol suspended from a plain pewter chain. Oh, please, you say. How very Vietnam.
I know.
I mean, I really know.
In 1970, I was a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when the National Guard descended on the campus. Their arrival followed the massacre at Kent State University in Ohio, where four students were killed and others were injured during anti-war protests.
On our campus, protests were fueled by the presence of Dow Chemical recruiting new hires among our graduating class. The demonstrators cited the company for making napalm, a devastating chemical weapon used to scorch the skin of the North Vietnamese.
I was working my part-time job at the Geology Library when guardsmen ordered me to shut it down in the face of more demonstrations. I obeyed. Locked the doors. As I walked to my apartment across the street, another guardsman slugged me with his riot stick. Just in case I was thinking of joining the demonstration, I guess.
At the time, though not a supporter of the war, I wasn't part of the protest in the streets either. The most I'd done was argue about it with a guy I briefly dated who was heading to officer training school. A pilot, his helicopter was shot down and he was killed just months later.
In 1970, many Americans knew Vietnam was a terrible mistake, but it would take five more years, the lives of nearly 60,000 of our soldiers and as many as two million Vietnamese before we summoned the courage to leave.
Now, as then, the protest is still not loud enough, our collective will still not strong enough to stop what just about everyone believes is an ill-conceived, poorly planned disaster of an Iraq war.
Two important statements were made last week that should crystallize the debate for every American. And both came out of the mouths of Republicans.
One of the most devastating was made to New York Times columnist David Brooks, who was interviewing Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Brooks wrote, "I asked him whether invading Iraq was a good idea, knowing what we know now. He looked at me for a bit and said, 'I don't know.' "
Give Secretary Gates points for not pulling a Donald Rumsfeld. Unlike his predecessor, an architect of this morass along with madman Vice President Dick Cheney, Gates actually seems stable. Still, "I don't know"?
The second jaw-dropping declaration came from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who wrote in his new memoir, "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: The Iraq war is largely about oil."
It would have been nice if he'd said that a little earlier.
Last week, we heard student voices raised again. This time it was a sit-in at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The target was another war profiteer, Halliburton, Cheney's old company, which has gotten a bonanza out of Iraq. Halliburton was on campus recruiting just as Dow did all those years ago.
"It started with Dow and continues now!" protesters chanted. Since we don't have a Congress that can find its voice, or an electorate that can overcome its passivity on everything from lost civil liberties to the lies told to justify the Iraq invasion, or more elder statesman like Gates and Greenspan finally leveling with us, what's left?
Maybe more people in the streets, more students sitting in.
How very Vietnam.
mailto:cmarin@suntimes.com
Guess Hannah-Arendt and her observation on the banality of evil was absolutely right.
Notice how Carol edges into advocating even more genocide in Iraq.
Good Lord, how that woman hates ~
I guess if we “Cut and Run” it will be just like Vietnam won’t it? What a dipstick.
I am sure glad we didn’t listen to this type of idiot during WWII. We raise cowards today, except for our military.
(and Linda Yu)
were my favorite Chicago TV news-babes back in the early 1980's.
“I don’t buy one word of that.”I agree.Too convenient.Kinda like when a reporter cites “un-named high level sources” to add credibility to an article.Pure BS.
“I don’t buy one word of that -”
I don’t either. Pure unsubstantiated crap.
Unlike the Vietnam War, the war on Terror against the United States will not end just becuase the US leaves Iraq. All we do is give the enemy territory and Iraq’s riches to plan more devastating attacks against our way of life.
I do see at least one Vietnam lesson that has been lost in Iraq:
Do not tolerate other countries sticking their noses where they don’t belong.
The US won in Viet Nam, and it was declared a defeat.
The military victory was simply GIVEN AWAY, by a Congress that chose to defund the war.
The South Vietnamese ‘weren’t ready’ for democratic reforms, it was claimed, so no more money should be voted to prop up the non-Communist government.
And of course, the nascent government of South Viet Nam collapsed because they were constrained from using the necessary ruthlessness needed to impose civil order and domestic tranquillity.
No such constraints were placed upon the Viet Cong or the North Vietnamese military. Several hundred thousands either died or fled the stark discipline imposed by the regime that set up a satellite control center in Ho Chi Minh City, once known as Saigon.
But the more relevant question for today is, knowing what we know now, is is a good idea to just cut and run and let all our sacrifice count for nothing?
Photoshopped pictures (Mexican flags brushed out, wailing Is-Lame-ic mothers pasted in, etc etc etc), invented facts, false reports of staged events, ignoring obvious facts and never putting those facts in print are all aspects of a war of information and sentiments.
The first casualty in that war has been the remaining shreds of legitimacy for the MSM. Their believability rating for the average citizen is about equal to congresses rating - 11%.
The second casualty is about to be the Leftist dominated media organizations themselves. They don’t call it the Dinosaur Media Death Watch for nothing.
Another baby boomer contemplating her navel. I’m surprised she forgot to quote the Beatles.
I thought that Vietnam comparisons were out of fashion. I guess only Bush cannot do the comparison?
The biggest lesson from Vietnam is that you don’t allow the dems to have anything to do with strategy. The President has done a good job of ignoring them so far.
The lesson to be learned from the Vietnam war is that the American left is the greatest enemy of the Republic.
Oh Please Carol!
You should really submit your "column" for consideration of an award for the best fiction on 2007.
I take exception to this comment from the article: “napalm, a devastating chemical weapon used to scorch the skin of the North Vietnamese.”
I would like to say that napalm, when properly applied, reduced the NVA, as well as the Vietcong, to cinders. Once reduced to that state, they were unable to hold their Ak-47’s and shoot at us. Personally, I was very thankful for the liberal distribution of napalm on the enemy.
CHICAGOLAND PING
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