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Oct. 2nd, 2002 11:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7and oh, the last president of south vietnam was Theiu, not Theim. I got a letter wrong.
I still haven't got a clue what the hell was going on, and I don't think anyone else knew either. We had no business there. Nobody had any business there. But I can't really blame anybody for getting involved. Everyone thought they were doing what was best, but nobody knew what the hell was going on so really all they were doing was killing each other and undermining themselves and everybody else. And, in the end, nobody got what they wanted. So... there you have it. A mess. Americans need to realize that isolationists cannot be a world policing force. And we are isolationists. Anything that lasts longer than 4 years we of course cannot guarantee, and we're hard put to stick by something longer than two years without deceiving the public. We're just that fickle. We don't have the attention span to properly research what we're doing, and we don't have the ability to keep a consistent approach to something. Why do we keep trying? Misbegotten concepts of an outdated world. And as Dad says, we're always ready to fight the last war. In Vietnam, we were perfectly suited to winning a war in Eastern European cities. Only we were in a jungle. Hm.
And we're not so good at changing plans. Politicians hate losing face just as much as any culture-steeped Asian.
So anyhow. I'm still opposed to war in Iraq because, just like all those other times, we don't really know what we're doing.
Don't get me wrong-- Vietnam was an important lesson. We shouldn't just ignore the world and stay home, or we'll stagnate and become even more ignorant and detached than we are. Vietnam was the best thing that could have happened to the armed forces, for example. They learned a vast number of absolutely invaluable lessons from the conflict, and totally reshaped the way they do things, from recruitment and training to deployment and tactics. Today's Army would be nothing like it is now had it not been for the terrible lessons of Vietnam. And it's widely accepted today that we have the best armed forces in the world. And, as dad is quick to point out, Vietnam did a lot to avert World War III. The US, because of Vietnam, had something in the millions, I think, of experienced combat veterans. A lot of people cycled through what LBJ termed "that little pissant country", and a lot of them dealt with it very well. The Soviets had, by the time Vietnam ended, almost no combat veterans in their armies, and they knew that would be a tremendous factor should they decide to get involved in an armed conflict.
Anyhow, this is not time for an essay; i just wanted to correct my earlier error.
I still haven't got a clue what the hell was going on, and I don't think anyone else knew either. We had no business there. Nobody had any business there. But I can't really blame anybody for getting involved. Everyone thought they were doing what was best, but nobody knew what the hell was going on so really all they were doing was killing each other and undermining themselves and everybody else. And, in the end, nobody got what they wanted. So... there you have it. A mess. Americans need to realize that isolationists cannot be a world policing force. And we are isolationists. Anything that lasts longer than 4 years we of course cannot guarantee, and we're hard put to stick by something longer than two years without deceiving the public. We're just that fickle. We don't have the attention span to properly research what we're doing, and we don't have the ability to keep a consistent approach to something. Why do we keep trying? Misbegotten concepts of an outdated world. And as Dad says, we're always ready to fight the last war. In Vietnam, we were perfectly suited to winning a war in Eastern European cities. Only we were in a jungle. Hm.
And we're not so good at changing plans. Politicians hate losing face just as much as any culture-steeped Asian.
So anyhow. I'm still opposed to war in Iraq because, just like all those other times, we don't really know what we're doing.
Don't get me wrong-- Vietnam was an important lesson. We shouldn't just ignore the world and stay home, or we'll stagnate and become even more ignorant and detached than we are. Vietnam was the best thing that could have happened to the armed forces, for example. They learned a vast number of absolutely invaluable lessons from the conflict, and totally reshaped the way they do things, from recruitment and training to deployment and tactics. Today's Army would be nothing like it is now had it not been for the terrible lessons of Vietnam. And it's widely accepted today that we have the best armed forces in the world. And, as dad is quick to point out, Vietnam did a lot to avert World War III. The US, because of Vietnam, had something in the millions, I think, of experienced combat veterans. A lot of people cycled through what LBJ termed "that little pissant country", and a lot of them dealt with it very well. The Soviets had, by the time Vietnam ended, almost no combat veterans in their armies, and they knew that would be a tremendous factor should they decide to get involved in an armed conflict.
Anyhow, this is not time for an essay; i just wanted to correct my earlier error.
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no subject
Date: 2002-10-02 11:07 am (UTC)Notice the lack of really news on what is going on in the war again terrorism? Bush is realizing it won't carry him into the next election so he's trying to take care of another thing on his plate, iraq, to assist in his popularity points. In all fairness though Iraq is an issue, but not one that should be dealt with by US forces. In the state currently he would most likely be perfectly happy to mock us and thats it, but if we press him into a corner, where he realizes he most likely will lose power, he'll have nothing to prevent him from using whatever weapons he has available to him at the time.
I would find it rather amusing if Hussein goes through with full support for the weapons inspections. We find nothing, and the white house is left standing with their collective dicks hanging out saying "Damnit who are we gonna fuck over so we can get re-elected". Especially since the alternative is he supports the weapons inspections, everything is done to the full expectations of the UN and the US attacks anyways thus negating the influence of the UN in controlling world policy (i.e. if the US ignores what the UN says, what real power do they have left?)
On the Vietnam side of things, it's amazing how true the statement "We are isolationists" really is. This is especially relevant in light of 9/11 where before the average citizen gave a rats ass about terrorist activities overseas unless it affected them directly (i.e. US citizens on a bombed flight or something similiar) post 9/11 as was evident with World War II there is a sudden rallying cry to fight against terrorism since it became evident to everyone that it is danger, just took a massive act against the US itself for that to happen. This is very similiar to WWII where we would have been perfectly happen with the isolationist approach until pearl harbor where we realized that it was affecting us directly. Vietnam never really had that "Hey there is a problem there that we need to deal with", otherwise known as communism, to boil the citizen's blood into action. Instead we had the reaction that you pointed out of "Why are we there? We shouldn't be interfering"
I'm rather happy with the US policy of being a world policing force mainly because it keeps our soldiers employed and gives us practical experience in a lot of military actions. But they need to handle it better with citizens as it does go against our "Hey it's in another part of the world, I don't care about it" mindset.
On a random note as I get back to work, One of the worst statements made to my dad as he returned from vietnam had to be "Why were you even over there?" I think it hurt worse then the being spit at or anything for that matter. To be told that the friends you watched die, the soldiers left behind, and the pain he went through himself was worth nothing to the people he swore an oath to defend was like a knife wound in the stomach. That one I think hurt him all the way till the early 90s when after the gulf war there was that resurgance of pride in the US military including newfound support for the actions of soldiers from vietnam and korea.