In the post-Vietnam era war was unthinkable. We'd all been scalded badly by that little debacle in Southeast Asia. We'd learned some painful lessons about modern warfare and the military-industrial complex. We understood that millions of innocent people had died horrible deaths for no better reason than to enrich the people who manufactured napalm, white phosphorous, and Agent Orange. We'd learned that the CIA had been involved in opium and heroin smuggling both within Vietnam and internationally. We knew that massive illegal profiteering had taken place - that billions had been made off the suffering of the Vietnamese people. We knew that torture and other terrible atrocities had been committed in our names. We knew babies and grandmothers had been burned to cinders, or shot, bayoneted, or stomped to death. We had come to understand that no ideological differences could possibly be worth the sheer brutality, horror, and shame of war.
(WARNING: Graphic images ahead...)
We no longer held any illusions that the war had made us safe, saved our democracy, or protected our freedoms. We no longer believed war was patriotic. We saw that we had nothing to gain by war, and everything to lose. We finally came to understand the futility of it all.
There is nothing easier than lopping off heads and nothing harder than developing ideas. ~ Dostoevsky
We'd all watched the war on TV for 10 years. We still had a free press back then and virtually everyone was familiar with the images of war. The military was not allowed to censor reporters or restrict their access back in those days, so we saw glimpses of the real thing every night from the comfort of our living rooms. They still did their best to spin, cover up, and just plain lie but the truth kept sneaking through. It eventually turned the tide of public opinion against the war. That and the massive demonstrations that we kids were staging all over the country (and world).
There has been a lot of revisionist history driven by the rightwing war profiteering crowd - you know, those guys currently in charge. Seems they've pushed the notion that we left Vietnam because we lost, rather than because public opinion simply turned against the war. That is patently untrue. Our tragically conservative society has swallowed a ton of that sort of crap. Virtually all Vietnam War historians agree that America was never defeated militarily in Vietnam. Even the Tet Offensive of 1968, which marked the beginning of the end, was a military defeat for the North Vietnamese and VC. It was a resounding victory for them however in how it affected American public opinion. Americans were shocked by the coordinated nationwide attacks as they had been led to believe that the war was virtually over. These factors and the massive demonstrations ended the war. Nothing else.
But over thirty years has gone by, and for thirty years the conservatives have increased their control over our media and the rightwing noise machine has pummeled our national consciousness and altered peoples perceptions. They've made our history their own, distorting the truth and passing off lies as gospel until it's practically a miracle that anyone remembers what really happened anymore. But some of us do.
For those of us who were alive and awake between 1965 and 1975, the Vietnam War was a deeply traumatic experience. In it we lost over 58,000 American brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, spouses, fathers, mothers, uncles and aunts. And those were just the Americans. The Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians lost millions. It was an object lesson on the stupidity, the futility, and the shameful, disgraceful waste that is war.
What every American should have learned from the Vietnam Experience:
- The Military Industrial Complex will start wars based on lies to enrich the connected few (the haves and have mores)
- The Defense Industry profits from war and cares more about profits than it does about morality or human life
- War is expensive and drains money from the American economy, funneling it into the pockets of the well-connected few, those who own or are invested in the Defense Industry, and the politicians they buy off
- War is a brutal, nasty, horrific, wanton, and immoral sacrilege - there is nothing so wrong in all the rest of human experience (except torture)
- In war, the slaughter of innocents is unavoidable
- In war, people we love die in vain
- Even those who survive a war are horribly damaged, most for the rest of their lives
- There are few things - almost nothing really worth fighting a war over
- Wars are instigated and driven by manipulative greedy little men who care more about
money than human life, morality, or justice - they do everything but fight them
- When you wake up in the middle of a nightmare, it's best to just end it - endless arguing about whether or not we could just up and end it cost us tens of thousands of American lives in Vietnam - to no noble purpose
- War is for barbarians and evil bastards who are always happy as hell to send other people's children off to kill and die for their personal enrichment
- Our government lies like a fucking rug
- Our government is not above attacking us when we disagree - will go so far as to kill us (see Kent State)
- Our government has a nasty habit of breaking laws and then lying about it (see Gulf of Tonkin, Watergate, etc.)
- A war is capable of damaging an entire generation - even those who didn't actually fight in it
Now come the neocons with their nefarious plans for world domination.
Conveniently, their ascendancy in government coincided with a vicious and spectacular attack on U.S. soil, the likes of which we hadn't seen since Pearl Harbor.
America `Pearl Harbored'
Fanatical Warhawks Drafted Blueprint for Bloody U.S. World Domination Years Ago
The cabal of war fanatics advising the White House secretly planned a "transformation" of defense policy years ago, calling for war against Iraq and huge increases in military spending. A "catalyzing event -- like a new Pearl Harbor"--was seen as necessary to bring this about. Source
Given the spectacular and shocking nature of the attacks and 30 years of rightwing rehabilitation of the concept of war (by the same crowd that lost the last one by the way), revenge seemed a perfectly reasonable response to most Americans. The invasion of Afghanistan enjoyed wide support. But that degenerated into a bungled attempt to capture Bin Laden, who was allowed to escape at Tora Bora.
During all of this we were told a million lies. And then we invaded Iraq. We now know that this was all carefully planned and had nothing to do with all the reasons we were given. Now we know that there are 14 `enduring' (permanent) U.S. bases being built across Iraq. We know that billions of our (taxpayer) dollars have been stolen and squandered there. We know that untold numbers of people have been tortured in our names and that we have no plan to leave.
At a press conference in March of this year Bush was asked, "Will there come a day when there will be no more American forces in Iraq?"
He answered, "That, of course, is an objective, and that will be decided by future Presidents and future governments of Iraq."
Future Presidents baby, not this one! Then they told us that this GWOT was a generational war.
But if that different future for the Middle East is to be realized, we and our allies must make a generational commitment to helping the people of the Middle East transform their region.
~ Condoleeza, August 2003 Source
Then they started calling it the long war.
Feb. 2006 - The United States is engaged in what could be a generational conflict akin to the Cold War, the kind of struggle that might last decades as allies work to root out terrorists across the globe and battle extremists who want to rule the world, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday.
Rumsfeld, who laid out broad strategies for what the military and the Bush administration are now calling the "long war," likened al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin while urging Americans not to give in on the battle of wills that could stretch for years. He said there is a tendency to underestimate the threats that terrorists pose to global security, and said liberty is at stake. Source
So not only are we going to have a war boys and girls (who can tell me what a war is?), we're going to have war from now on! Isn't that great? Yea America! We're number 1! We're number 1! See? It's just like a super exciting sports event. And we're going to win (eventually), because our liberty is at stake.
Cheney's enthusiasm for the war wasn't solely driven by philosophy. His old buddies at Halliburton were finally seeing a return on that $13.6 million (and the $1 million a year in "deferred compensation" still being paid to supplement Cheney's measly six-figure government salary). Halliburton's first quarterly earnings report at the end of the short second Gulf War saw profits double from the previous period (more than $20 million), a gain which news reports comically characterized as coming "despite" the war.
Halliburton's construction and engineering subsidiary has been paid nearly $1 billion through government contracts containing profit-guarantees, and various other contracts initiated since the company's former CEO arrived in the White House. Halliburton has built military bases in the former Soviet Union and Turkey, and it made $33 million building jail cells for terrorists at Camp X-Ray. Source
These guys never had any intention of leaving Iraq. Their plan is to dominate the Middle East and thereby the world while enriching themselves and their cronies. We got a shocking look at their intentions when they green lighted the Israeli attack on Lebanon and stalled the international outcry for a cease-fire for a whole month. We all know they hope to attack Syria and Iran as well. They're not thinking about how badly they've fucked things up. They're thinking they own the fucking world and that they'll do as they damn well please no matter who doesn't like it - especially the anti-war woosies back home. Fuck them.
Rummy tells us that there is a tendency to underestimate the threats that terrorists pose to global security. That's not
his tendency brother. Bushco wants to scare the bejeezus out of all of us. Fear mongering is all they've got left. It's been pretty effective too - up to now.
The neocons have told so many lies so effectively that most people don't know what the fuck is going on. Ignorance is the rule, not the exception.
In a climate swirling with ignorance, lies, fear, confusion, and forgotten history, few even notice the arms merchants as they hawk their deadly wares to the highest bidders.
Since 1992, the United States has exported more than $142 billion dollars worth of weaponry to states around the world. The U.S. dominates this international arms market, supplying just under half of all arms exports in 2001, roughly two and a half times more than the second and third largest suppliers. U.S. weapons sales help outfit non-democratic regimes, soldiers who commit gross human rights abuses against their citizens and citizens of other countries, and forces in unstable regions on the verge of, in the middle of, or recovering from conflict.
U.S.-origin weapons find their way into conflicts the world over. The United States supplied arms or military technology to more than 92% of the conflicts under way in 1999. The costs to the families and communities afflicted by this violence is immeasurable. But to most arms dealers, the profit accumulated outweighs the lives lost. In the period from 1998-2001, over 68% of world arms deliveries were sold or given to developing nations, where lingering conflicts or societal violence can scare away potential investors. Source
So now they want us to embrace `the long war'. Eternal war, what a concept! A perpetual cash machine for death merchants, what could be better? Multiple generations of American youth will now be privileged to march off to their deaths to protect our liberties from those who won't give up their natural resources without a fight. Bushco expects us to just let them run rampant all over the world taking what they will and killing anyone who doesn't like it. To hear them tell it, that is the `American Way'.
That is not the American way as I learned it. The real America was warned about the military-industrial complex by Eisenhower, MacArthur, and others as early as 1961. In his farewell speech to the nation after 8 years as President, Eisenhower had this to say: (I tried to edit the following down, what remains is too important to ignore.)
Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific technological elite.
It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system - ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.
Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we - you and I, and our government - must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.
Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.
Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field with a definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war - as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years - I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight. Source
45 years later I too wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight - but I can't. No one can. The problem Eisenhower warned us about is today our national nightmare. We have tragically ignored the warnings and now we are saddled with a ravenous beast of a military-industrial complex that demands of us the blood sacrifice of our children. Even if the Democrats take both houses in November and the White House in 2008, this monstrosity will remain to be dealt with.
The Growing Problem of Defense Industry Profiteering
by David Sirota
If you thought it impossible to top the image of Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) driving around a Rolls Royce and living on a yacht thanks to defense industry cash, just stop and take a look Lloyd Grove's story today in the New York Daily News. Yes, you are reading it right - a defense contractor has gotten so rich off taxpayer cash he actually held a $10 million bat mitzvah for his
daughter, featuring 50 Cent, Tom Petty and Aerosmith, among others. That's right - a $10 million. On a bat mitzvah.
SNIP
And though Rumsfeld has since backed off his efforts, the Cunningham fiasco and the fact that a defense contractor has $10 million to throw around on a bat mitzvah should remind us that the defense industry is getting hugely wealthy off of America's misguided national security policy - a policy that allows defense industry profiteering to go on with no restriction, a policy clearly pushed by this industry as a way to make more money.
Whereas in eras past, courageous leaders like Harry Truman opened up investigations into this kind of profiteering, today, lawmakers go out of their way to actually prevent scrutiny. Remember, it was the Senate last year that voted down legislation to create stiffer penalties for war profiteers, and it was Vice President Cheney who went to the Senate floor to curse off the bill's sponsors for having the nerve to even raise the issue.
Source
In the last paragraph of his farewell speech, Eisenhower spoke of disarmament. That is the only path to a future for mankind. We have to outlaw the armaments industry, relegating that function to governments; and begin the multilateral disarmament process - with both conventional and unconventional weapons. Governments should be allowed to keep just enough arms and arms-making capacity to feel safe within its own borders. But there should be no more trade in weaponry. We can no longer afford to spend all our money, effort, and genius on killing each other. We have too many real and pressing problems to solve. We need to turn our arms industry to peaceful purposes. Instead of arms we should be developing and selling technological solutions to the problems we all face, such as global warming, the imperative for clean energy alternatives, curing disease, building and rebuilding infrastructure, providing sufficient food and water for all, and finding a sustainable way to live in balance with the earth. We can only solve these problems if we can break away from our obsession with death and killing, and turn our energies to the new task of surviving. This is our challenge. If we don't manage this change, we will destroy life on earth.
Did You Know ?
The International Red Cross has estimated that one out of every two casualties of war is a civilian caught in the crossfire.
Half of the world's governments spend more on defense than health care.
The U.S. share of total world military expenditures per year has been roughly 36%, while comprising under 5% of the world's population.
The U.S. Arms Industry is the second most heavily subsidized industry after agriculture.
2001 world military expenditures topped $839 billion, while at the same time an estimated 1.3 billion people survive on less than the equivalent of U.S. $1 a day.
If you were to count by one number every second, without stopping, it would take you 11-and-a-half days to reach one million, and 32 years to reach one billion. (as reported by Earth Action)
Iceland has no military and no military expenditure.
The early 90's saw a post-cold war decline in world arms production. This decline has slowed considerably in the latter half of the 1990's, and military expenditure in Africa has been on the increase since 1997.
The United Nations estimates there to be over 300,000 child soldiers around the world, now serving as combatants in over 30 current conflicts.
The Center for International Policy estimates that around 80% of U.S. arms exports to the developing world go to non-democratic regimes.
1% of the U.S. budget is slated for International Affairs. Only 0.6% of that 1%, or $127 million, is allocated for U.S. peace-keeping operations.
There are more landmines planted in Cambodia than people. Cambodia is just one of 64 countries around the world littered with some 100 million anti-personnel landmines.
Intended primarily to maim, landmines can lie in wait years after a conflict ends, causing 500 deaths and injuries per week.
The U.S. government is training soldiers in upwards of 70 countries at any given time.
In the United States 32,000 people are killed per year by small arms, 13,000 of which are murders. Source
Let us deeply and soberly contemplate our history, let us reaffirm the hard won lessons of Vietnam, and let us think boldly and innovatively about our future. The old ways are broken and won't take us very much further. We need new ideas, new solutions, and new goals. We need a whole new path. One that is sustainable, intelligent, and benign. One that is worthy of the United States of America and its people. For the benefit of the entire world, we are going to have to do things very differently from here on out.
We must earnestly seek peace. And we must absolutely demand it of our leaders.
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
~ John F. Kennedy