Quite frankly, you guys of a certain age have got to stop fighting Vietnam. It's pathetic, really, how many of you on DKOS who already don't like the President because he is not covering your particular issue at this VERY MOMENT (never mind the dude is working on six impossible things before breakfast, and that does not even include being a parent) are ready to scream about escalation and betrayal.
Never mind that Obama clearly talked about this in campaign trail- that the instability in Afghanistan needs to be addressed and that escalation was part of the plan.
But this not about the stability of Afghanistan and by extension Pakistan and India. This is not about making sure there are steps so that hungry, brutally impoverished people think it's a great idea to strap a bomb on and kill themselves.
It's about fighting Vietnam all over again.
Sorry, not doing it.
Vietnam ( French IndoChina) was a huge post colonial (thanks, France) clusterfuck that was set in severely Manichean terms, with no understanding of what the politics were for Southern Asians. The USA got involved as a continutation of the war with Korea.
Many of you of a certain age were either forced to go (draft) or resisted going or lied not to go ( Cheney). And you guys are still fighting and resisting the Vietnam War, though it was over before I was a dirty glint in my father's eye.
You know what? I grew up with you guys screaming and still fighting the goddamn Vietnam war. Movies and TV shows and songs and people convinced of their moral rectitude about resisting the Vietnam War.
Of course, no one talked about the fact the majority of those who served in Vietnam were working class or poor, that up to 25% of those soldiers were poor black men, that Vietnam war was a distraction from civil rights for women and minorities,that unions were being steadily weakened, that their resisting and protesting did not include protesting these actions. Not one of you, not a one who scream about about our horrid wars reflect on what it means to have working class and poor people sining up in to be in the armed forces.
And you guys have been doing for over 40 years.
Stop it.
The USA lost.
The USA lost the Vietnam war, people. LOST. No amount of protesting will bring back your youth and the people we lost in Vietnam. It's like Confederate re-enactors- stop protesting a dead war.
This is not Vietnam. The generation of young people- some of who are my friends from college, some are my relatives, some are kids I used to tutor when they were in high school- they are not you.
We are not you, and we WILL not fight your 40+ year battles for Vietnam. To even conflate Vietnam and escalation of troops in Afghanistan is to lack discernment and to be blinded by the past. To call President Obama a corporate backed warmonger who does not understand the costs involved in war is to be utter and complete asshole. To continue to marinate and soak in your privilege while overlooking very real issues, like lack of services for veterans, PTSD, barracks conditions, and service family issues to be a classist jackass.
This is not Vietnam. I am not fighting your war.