| What Did They Learn From ‘Nam? |
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| Wednesday, 16 May 2007 | ||||
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By Grady Hawkins The U.S. occupation of Iraq staggers into its fifth bloody year, with over 3,000 American military dead and thousands wounded, countless Iraqis killed and maimed, and hundreds of ignored private contractor deaths, the specter of Viet Nam has been resurrected. The comparisons between the two conflicts are now being carefully noted, and indeed they are both chilling and compelling. Some very familiar words and phrases have come back to haunt us: quagmire; body count; war profiteering; unpopular; polarizing, wining the hearts and minds, exit strategy. As the debate goes on, many thoughtful Americans seem to believe that the United States government learned nothing from that experience. But the architects of the worst Foreign policy mistake in the history of this Republic, the invasion of Iraq, learned a great many lessons from the war in Southeast Asia. They learned what they should do and not do the next time around. Number One lesson learned from the war in Viet Nam is never fight an elective war with conscripted troops. This is perhaps the most single important lesson. Despite what George W. Bush and his propaganda ministers tell us, this is not the Second World War and he is not Winston Churchill. There are no Axis powers led by visible Hitlers, Tojos and Mussolinis. There has not been a flurry of countries declaring war on each other. As War clouds in gathered in Europe selective service was off and running and young men expected a greetings-from-the-president-pack-your-bags-your-ass-is-mine-telegram. The War Department took millions of men to war. There was little appeal and little protest. The war was popular and young men expected to do their duty. And then came Viet Nam, and thousands of young men were drafted once again, but this time with a difference. With a draft, and what became a very unpopular war, ordinary citizens suddenly did what the Elite Men in government couldn’t understand or condone. The ordinary citizen began to pay attention to what its elected officials were conducting. People began to do the unthinkable: they asked questions, and they watched the news. The military meat grinder was working over time, and no one wanted to be the last man to die in vain. Believe me, when I was a High School Senior, I knew exactly where Viet Nam was, I knew who the Viet Cong were. Most guys did. So some new thinking was needed. Therefore, in the early 1970’s the draft was ended and the brand new concept of an all-volunteer Army was made official Pentagon policy. By ending the draft, the American people were effectively cut off from the military in particular and Foreign Policy in general. With an all volunteer (read that mercenary) army, there were now no pesky draftees crying to mommy and their congressman that there drill sergeant was a bastard. No controversial college deferments to spark debate about why it’s always a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight. And now with a hired army instead of whining conscripts, the Neo-con Imperialists inside now came to the second vital lesson. Control and manipulate the press. At the very beginning of the American involvement in Vietnam, the Pentagon made a disastrous mistake: they not only courted the media, they desperately wanted to consummate the relationship. Civilian reporters were given free reign from Danang to the Delta. And many of them actually went out on combat operations. Very early on the correspondents understood the difference between what was real and what was not. The valor of the South Vietnamese soldier was mostly exaggerated, the horrific graft and corruption tolerated as the cost of doing business and the body counts coming from General William Westmoreland’s headquarters an outright lie. The reporters were not eating out of the Pentagon’s hand and this would clearly not do. President Lyndon Johnson is said to have remarked that if he had lost Walter Cronkite, he had indeed lost the American people and most likely the war itself. The press was hostile, they were asking questions without a script. Something had to be done in the next war so the military came up with the idea of ‘embedding’ reporters into smaller tactical military units. These civilian reporters would dress like soldiers, eat like soldiers, live like soldiers and be dependent on the soldiers they were covering to stay alive. They all became comrades and buddies, and buddies do not rat each other out. Back on the Home Front, Big Brother put the hammer down. Members of the mainstream press covering the administration inside the beltway were under constant surveillance by their Very own Homeland Security Patriot Police. Anyone who asked embarrassing questions or dug too deep was immediately accused and denounced as an appeaser, soft on terror, a traitor, or worst of all, French. Fox News became the prime Kangaroo Court, trashing reputations with rabid abandon. The administration even went as far as to place and pay for its own journalists to write the right stuff and ask the wrong questions. Along with controlling the media, the propaganda machine kicked into high gear. One recalls the stories about Iraqi soldiers destroying incubators in Kuwaiti maternity wards. No one bothered to check the facts or the source until long after the damage had been done. The largely invented Jessica Lynch saga and the Pat Tillman fabrication and cover-up debacle come to mind. After the 9/11 attacks, the administration even went as far as to tell people to be careful what they said. The Patriot Police were once again in full cry. And of course, the architects of this war understood that they must have the legislative branch of the government well under control. They must have a solid majority that could manipulate and frighten any dissent into political impotence. Any politician who opposed the Patriot Act or failed to surrender power to the executive Branch was doomed to defeat at the hands of a propagandized electorate. In a much- celebrated act of sophomoric nonsense, The Congress changed the name of French fries to Freedom fries. Only a handful of us were embarrassed. And now here we are, in the fifth year of this cabinet war, and the wheels have come off. Polls show that the majority of Americans are against this middle- east monstrosity. As casualties increase the civil war is escalating with no sign of the light at the end of the tunnel, even though we have likely destroyed many towns in order to save them. But the lessons the War mongers and their Neo-con masters have proved correct over time, and still in place. There is still an active patriotic Police, a compliant congress can’t seem to shake off it political cowardice, the mainstream media wrings its hands, and more American troops die. They did indeed, learn well.  Add as favourites (19) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 1669
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