So we’re going to do this all over again? Well, not if I can help
it. Not that I have much hope that I can, mind you. As the bastions of war
chime on, my voice, like so many others, will be drowned out. The military
industrial complex knows how to do propaganda, better than anyone. But I’ll
try.
Vietnam gave the US its biggest
ever defeat, both militarily and morally, and yet mere years after its deeply
humiliating withdrawal was put into action, the country was back at sending its
promising young boys and girls not to its school systems, but to far away
battle fields to be crippled, traumatized and slaughtered.
I know, I know, the UK and
France do that too, but few other places do. Russia today uses its troops to
defend its territory, China has yet to reveal its intentions. But the
intentions of the US have been known ever since WWII ended.
In 1956, president Eisenhower,
himself a longtime military man, warned the country upon taking leave of
office, of the military-industrial complex that was threatening to take over
its government. Less than 10 years later, that’s exactly what the complex did,
and it’s never looked back.
And I’m thinking: you never
learned anything at all? Not from Ike, not from Vietnam, not from the
non-existent Iraqi WMD, and not from Libya or Syria? How is that even possible?
Oh wait, I know, because the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN et al is
where you get your so-called news. That’s why. Gotcha.
Today, May 26 2019, and I’m
deeply ashamed to say it, I have two stories, one concerning a speech by VP
Mike Pence at West Point, the other from Caitlin Johnstone about a Twitter
thread initiated by the US military itself. Pence’s speech is heart breaking in
its ignorance of US history, Caitlin’s is heart wrenching in its acknowledgment
of that same history, and what it does to young Americans.
Now, I think this is not about
Trump, as many will undoubtedly claim, it’s about Trump and Pelosi and Pence
and McCain and Bolton and Hillary and Pompeo and Obama and all of the people
hanging around both administrations. Let’s see what YOU think.
Vice President Mike Pence told the graduating class of the West
Point Military Academy on Saturday that the world is “a dangerous place” and
they should expect to see combat. “Men and women of West Point, no matter where
you’re deployed, you will be the vanguard of freedom, and you know that the
“soldier does not bear the sword in vain.” The work you do has never been more
important. America will always seek peace, but peace comes through strength.
And you are now that strength. It is a virtual certainty that you will fight on
a battlefield for America at some point in your life. You will lead soldiers in
combat. It will happen.
Some of you will join the fight against radical Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some of you will join the fight on the Korean Peninsula and in the Indo-Pacific, where North Korea continues to threaten the peace, and an increasingly militarized China challenges our presence in the region. Some of you will join the fight in Europe, where an aggressive Russia seeks to redraw international boundaries by force. And some of you may even be called upon to serve in this hemisphere. And when that day comes, I know you will move to the sound of the guns and do your duty, and you will fight, and you will win. The American people expect nothing less.”
Mike Pence is a very dangerous
person. He’s planning to send American children into endless wars once again,
45-odd years after Vietnam and 20-odd years after Iraq. And there’s no-one left
to stop him, other than Trump, Not exactly a solid guarantee. The Democrats
will cheer this on, and their media will too. They always have.
Now, I’m not old enough to
remember the whole story of the US involvement in Vietnam, but I do recall this
1985 video from Paul Hardcastle, which stated that the average age of the US
soldier in Vietnam -towards the end- was 19. I have also seen Coppola’s movie
“Apocalypse Now”, and many others, and yes, I’m wondering where today’s
versions of these movies are.
Because, you know, when I read
the Twitter thread picked up by Caitlin Johnstone listing what was supposed to
be a promo thing from the army, my heart sinks and hurts and in the end is
downright defeated. It’s like reading the accounts from Vietnam, and nothing
has changed in 50+ years. How can that be? Says innocent me.
But religious nut Mike Pence
has the guts to present this as some sort of heroic thing. For young Americans
to go die in a desert for nothing at all other than Exxon’s access to oil and
the profits of Boeing and Raytheon. And of course they’ve been setting this up
for decades, that young kids -certainly blacks- who have no shot at a proper
education, can get one only if they agree to become cannon fodder.
That’s ‘Nam, guys, that’s the
1960’s, history. And just look at how terribly that failed. Well, Mike Pence
would like to repeat that failure.
After posting a video of a young recruit talking to the camera
about how service allows him to better himself “as a man and a warrior”, the US
Army tweeted, “How has serving impacted you?” As of this writing, the post has
over 5,300 responses. Most of them are heartbreaking. “My daughter was raped
while in the army,” said one responder. “They took her to the hospital where an
all male staff tried to convince her to give the guy a break because it would
ruin his life. She persisted. Wouldn’t back down. Did a tour in Iraq. Now
suffers from PTSD.”
“I’ve had the same nightmare almost every night for the past 15
years,” said another. Tweet after tweet after tweet, people used the
opportunity that the Army had inadvertently given them to describe how they or
their loved one had been chewed up and spit out by a war machine that never
cared about them. This article exists solely to document a few of the things
that have been posted in that space, partly to help spread public awareness and
partly in case the thread gets deleted in the interests of “national security”.
“my grandpa served in vietnam from when he was 18–25. he’s 70 now
and every night he still has nightmares where he stands up tugging at the
curtains or banging on the walls screaming at the top of his lungs for someone
to help him. he refuses to talk about his time and when you mention anything
about the war to him his face goes white and he has a panic attack. he cries
almost every day and night and had to spend 10 years in a psychiatric facility
for suicidal ideations from what he saw there.”
“My best friend joined the Army
straight out of high school because his family was poor & he wanted a
college education. He served his time & then some. Just as he was ready to
retire he was sent to Iraq. You guys sent him back in a box. It destroyed his
children.”
“My best friend from high
school was denied his mental health treatment and forced to return to a third
tour in Iraq, despite having such deep trauma that he could barely function. He
took a handful of sleeping pills and shot himself in the head two weeks before
deploying.”
If you got the stomach for it, guys, do read it. But I got to tell
you, I find it hard.
The US killed millions of
people and maimed ten times that in Vietnam, and that very much includes its
own young and promising American citizens, and they did it again in Iraq. Mike
Pence wants to repeat that in Iran and other theaters. Supported by Pelosi,
Pompeo, Schumer, Bolton etc. Shame for them John McCain passed.
There’s only one US
presidential candidate who’s explicitly spoken out against this mad repeat of
Vietnam, and that’s Tulsi Gabbard, who actually “served” in Iraq. So she will
be pushed aside by the DNC. Who are funded by the military industrial complex,
don’t you know. Must serve the machine. We have a long way to go.
I always thought that
Springsteen talking about Vietnam from Born In The USA is sort of like a haiku,
encompassing the essence in just a few words, even if he doesn’t catch all the
misery and bloodshed and mental anguish and broken lives and all of it (but how
could you?):
I had a brother at Khe San;
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
He had a woman he loved in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms now
I know people older than me
have many more examples of this and from the time when the ‘war’ was actually
ongoing. Eve of Destruction? Creedence? Please send suggestions.
But also, please recognize the
similarities in the madness then and now.
And let’s try and make it stop.
Let’s try and stop history from
even rhyming, let alone repeating.
Nassim Taleb likes to point out
that in olden days those who declared wars would also be first in line to fight
them. By design. The fair thing to do.
Let’s send Mike Pence and Nancy
Pelosi and Donald Trump and Chuck Schumer and Mike Pompeo and John Bolton and
all of their families into Iran first. And then we can talk.
