I openly admit that I’m a fan of Anthony Bourdain and have watched many of his travel episodes on “No Reservations.” However one in particular gave me pause, it was his trip to Vietnam. I couldn’t help to be a bit angered by it, perhaps because I had friends who died in a senseless war that we never should have participated in to begin with.
Maybe it was because I recalled the protests around our country and at the Washington Monument in D.C., it might also have been due to my anger at recently losing a long time family friend to cancer, directly related to being exposed to “Agent Orange” during his two year tour in Nam.
I’m also increasingly concerned at how cavalier our country has become in their attitudes towards war and couldn’t have been more nauseated listing to Donald Trump spew his hateful rhetoric towards the father of a fallen soldier, Humayun Khan then try to equate his business successes as an equal sacrifice.
Donald Trump has no justification to speak, he dodged the draft and his comments only proved he has no knowledge of what it’s really like to give your all and life to your country. What’s increasingly worrisome is Trump has made it clear that he wouldn’t think twice about sending our children into another war yet again, and “nuclear” weapons shouldn’t be off the table.
Our country has made more then it’s fair share of mistakes, the world is now paying through the creation of ISIS due to our attack on Iraq. Isn’t it time we stop, learn and not continually repeat the same blunders at the expense of our children?
Read Salon article below:
America’s great mistakes: Has everyone forgotten that the Vietnam and Iraq wars were unnecessary, stupid and destructive?
“Trump's flap with the Khans over "sacrifice" misses a crucial question: Sacrifice for what?”
By DAVID MASCIOTRA
It is always equally nauseating and amusing to see America, an individualistic country, get in touch with its inner Marx and transform into a nation of collectivists whenever discussion of war rises to the level of unavoidable noise pollution. “The pursuit of happiness” mutates into “give your life for your country” with little scrutiny of the nobility or necessity of the military misadventure at hand.
Ever since Donald Trump, in an act of stupidity and indecency now becoming characteristic, spoke ill of the Khan family, whose son died in the Army during the Iraq War, the entire country has communicated a pro-military mindset that papers over the truth regarding America’s foolish and lethal wars in Vietnam and Iraq.
It is basic courtesy and kindness to express sympathy for anyone who has to bury a child, and to demonstrate respect for anyone who suffers injury or dies in war, but in an understandable and natural urge to honor the grief of the Khans, the Democratic Party, major media figures and Republicans desperately trying to distance themselves from the traveling disaster of Donald Trump have dragged out the big, rancid words “service” and “sacrifice.”
These words act as censors against honest evaluation of American foreign policy. Throughout the rush to give the Khan family the regard they deserve and that Trump could not offer, it is disturbing to see almost no acknowledgement of the reality that their son, along with 4,485 other Americans, died in a war that should have never taken place. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis also died, and many more sustained life-altering wounds and trauma, but Americans are never much for counting the casualties their country creates, rather than endures.
As much as Trump should apologize to the Khan family for his rude and thoughtless remarks, shouldn’t the architects and administrators of the war that killed Humayun Khan also apologize?
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By the Numbers:
Vietnam:
3,812,000 dead in Vietnam between 1955 and 2002. For the period of the Vietnam War the totals are 1,310,000 between 1955 and 1964, 1,700,000 between 1965 and 1974 and 81,000 in 1975. (The estimates for 1955 to 1964 are much higher than other estimates). The sum of those totals is 3,091,000 war deaths between 1955 and 1975. en.wikipedia.org/...
Iraq:
A total of 4,491 U.S. service members were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2014. A study, published in 2011, estimated that approximately 500,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the conflict since the invasion. en.wikipedia.org/...