Before history rolls over the controversy of the Swift Boat Veterans and the old Vietnam boogeyman is locked back in the closet along with the new boogeyman from the Abu Ghraib prison, I'm going to go on record saying that I think this issue is one that the American people ought to debate.
I realize the conventional wisdom in this election year is to not get mired in what many consider a "hot button" issue, presumably devised by the diabolical "master strategist," Karl Rove, as a device to deflect attention from the "real issues" (i.e., jobs, healthcare, the economy, etc.), and maybe they're right, but I think it's a mistake not to dig deeper, because it means falling into the trap of skirting the disturbing issues this administration wants us to ignore -- namely, how Vietnam, Iraq, atrocities, and war crimes, are linked by an overarching policy that is downright evil. Contrary to what the Swift Boat veterans would have us believe, My Lai wasn't an isolated incident, and neither were the tortures at Abu Ghraib. They were, as John Kerry testified against the war in Vietnam, government policies engineered by the top brass, and still are.
The underlying issue the Swift Boat Veteran controversy inadvertently brought to the for was never about the veterans, that's always been a smokescreen, it was about a Machiavellian war strategy, deeply rooted in the Pentagon and Neocon mindset, and its disastrous effects on thousands, perhaps even millions, of lives. Those policies are still operative today in another form with similar consequences, and they need to be challenged in open debate. By avoiding a "hot button" issue we forfeit the opportunity to connect the dots, recognize the patterns, and even more important, prove that a pattern actually exists. Hence, we ought to delve deeper into John Kerry's testimony against the policies in Vietnam, and into the testimonies of the Winter Soldiers, to mine the truths embedded in them, because I think they strike at the very "heart of darkness" in this administration.
The core issue that most desparately needs our attention is that the old Cold War mindset that ruled over this nation during the era of Nam, still dominates the country today; the ideologies that drew us more and more deeply into an unecessary war in Vietnam have dragged us kicking and screaming into the same quagemire in Iraq. Though the designated enemy has changed, the policies that cost thousands of lives, and turned ordinary human beings into monstrous killing machines, or torturers, poisoning their minds, marring their souls, wreaking havoc on their victims, and destroying our standing in the world, are the same now as they were then.
This is the issue we need to grapple with.
It really goes beyond party politics, doesn't it. We're up against something bigger than that. As you've said, It's the policies, stupid. It's a mindset. The sad part is, most people don't delve deeply enough to understand this, though it never hurts to remind them they should look deeper.
Posted by: supa at September 3, 2004 07:06 AMExcuse me, Diana, for taking your lead and running with it. I truly enjoyed the perspective you so beautifully expressed, that the current political quest could be the wish to settle or extend the conflicts of the recent past, and I do not argue it. So please skip ahead if this offering isn't suitable.
Recently on Charlie Rose, Maureen Dowd suggested this election is a cultural conflict between the '50s and the '60s, between the Cold War mindset and Vietnam War mindset. Some current cultural conflicts are reflective of those decades - bomb shelters vs flower children, Father Know Best vs The Love Bug. Jailing children vs permissive parents. "See the USA in your Chevrolet" vs in a decorated Volkswagen van. "We will prevail." vs "We shall overcome."
But this conflict seems to me to run much deeper than the mindset of different decades. It runs even deeper than seeking global power or economic advantage or ideological domination. If there are any roots to the current conflict which intimidates this government to such extent it manifests absolute fearful ruthlessness, such roots are found in the fight of American Indians against the presumption of Manifest Destiny. While indicators abound in later wars, even in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nothing since the theft of North America from the Indians so demonstrated both sides fighting against the terror of the other.
Today's conflict broils from similar constituencies, those believing in 'rightful' greed vs those wishing to live their lives in peace and in natural hardship and abundance. It is a conflict between global ignorance and ancient truth - whether it is right and honorable to let people live by their own precepts, led by their own spirits and of their own faith, or whether they should, generation upon generation, continue to become feckless players in the insipid constructs of Haves-and-Have-Nots.
Times and ages, I'll agree, suggest that economic prosperity plus easy provision of human needs encouraged and provided the development of high art, finer civilization and greater thought. Such promises of a better life reluctantly fade as it's realized the few whose lives offer testimony to such contrived prosperity depended upon worsening the lives of many more people.
Ideologies eventually sprung up to counter this quiet acceptance of abject human cruelty, but their constituencies collapsed in their inability to remain in power without perpetuating the oppression which their ideology opposed. One barely surviving ideology must prepare pens and detention centers to herd expected protesters of the current corpocracy.
What's left of the public face of government? Perpetuating terror in order to deter terror. Fighting the Indians all over again to justify its worth, as long as possible delaying the day people realise it is not needed.
Needing to be needed is a sad construct. It creates, allows and actually encourages problems so it can apply solutions to justify its existence. With the continued growth of terrorism across the globe, whatever body of politic claims "See how you need us" is more likely suffering a national, international or global Munchausen by Proxy.
Now, back to your local station ;)
Posted by: Doran at September 3, 2004 09:44 PM
"Excuse me, Diana, for taking your lead and running with it."
I'm pleased that you do.
"such roots are found in the fight of American Indians against the presumption of Manifest Destiny."
It's like an onion, isn't it? As you peel it you find that the causes go deeper and deeper and far ther and farther into the past, all the way to the beginning of time. But this point you make about Manifest Destiny is certainly more immediate in modern history and relevent to this day. It was an idea many explored during the 60s, and we seem to have to rehash it because it was never resolved, never fully rooted out, it just continues to fester and grow, yet as it does, there is an aggregate to the problems that are a direct result of this arcane philosophy that should have been dead centuries ago. I see Bush and his policies as the full culmination of this idea, glaringly obvious to anyone but the willfully blind who are too vested in the system to be willing to see or come to terms with its impending demise.
"Needing to be needed is a sad construct. It creates, allows and actually encourages problems so it can apply solutions to justify its existence. With the continued growth of terrorism across the globe, whatever body of politic claims "See how you need us" is more likely suffering a national, international or global Munchausen by Proxy."
That's the whole political m.o., as far as I'm concerned. They need to be needed, they need to convince a free people that they need them, so that the people will relinquish their power in order to have their needs met and feel safe.
It is a "barely surviving ideology" indeed. Its survival depends on ignorance. But now that we have the Internet to fight ignorance, the chances for survival are diminishing by the day.
The sooner these old ideologies die, the better.
Posted by: Diana at September 5, 2004 02:07 AM
Does anyone know of anyplace I could play internet poker, buy Viagra or get my penis enlarged? I've been looking all over the internet and yet all my searching has been in vain.
Posted by: Karlo at September 26, 2004 07:37 PM