What I want to see Barack Obama do, or someone in the press, or anyone, including me, is to ask John McCain if he thinks we should have stayed in Vietnam. You know he does.
You know how the Republicans have their memes... however annoying, they work, "tax burden", and "patriotism is supporting war"... well "Vietnam sucked" is one of ours. We don't like to harp on it because we are not into things that get harangued. Me too, I don't like to harp on Vietnam non-stop for decades. But we took the 90s off, and we can't be affraid to bring it up when it's important.
John McCain is a war hero from the Vietnam War. Vietfuckingnam motherfukre. Getting out was the best thing to ever happen to us in that war. And guess what, the whole world didn't fall to communism as a result. Our role, if anything, helped strengthen Chinese communism as they had to play a complementary role of Asian protector. And I repeat, leaving Vietnam did not destroy Asia for America. Asia proved very willing to work together with the West on a production and engineering basis, out of economic joint interests.
The only thing "lost" in Vietnam was a sense that America wins any war it's ever in, by definition if necessary. But you don't really win wars so much as you survive them. To "win" WWII really would have been to prevent Hitler from coming to power. How do you win something with millions of dead? millions exterminated? You survive, and ideally, are able to thrive again, but war itself is destruction, something that happens after a failure already has, proof of same.
But some people don't see the winning being in peace, judged by aftermath, the thriving allowed by sometimes, just stopping the fighting. They see only victory in the game itself. They painfully regret withdrawal from Vietnam.
Witness one John McCain. He still wants to win the War in Vietnam. But life has other plans for him, and us... in the Twighlight Zone.
What I'd Like To Hear In The Next Debate:
"Senator McCain: Do you think we should have stayed in Vietnam?"
or better (?), "Senator McCain: How Could We Have Won Vietnam?"
I don't know if you will agree or not, but if not, that's fine. In either case, thanks for reading this far. The race is really exhausting emotionally, so this diary will probably be my last. Take care and god bless you all.