http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/more.php?page=opinion&id=1381Honoring Their Sacrifice: Impeach Those Responsible for the Wars
A. Alexander, December 16th, 2006
George W. Bush likes to say we must finish the work of "the fallen," or their lives will have been lost in vain. In reality, however, everyday that the United States remains in Iraq is another act of our dishonoring their sacrifice. Indeed, not only does the continued occupation of Iraq demean the nearly 3,000 U.S. military killed there, but too, it further dishonors the loss of the more than 50,000 who were foolishly sacrificed in the jungles of Vietnam.
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The value of the lives lost in Vietnam -- the meaning of their sacrifice -- could not then, nor can they now be assessed through the prisms of victory or defeat. America's war in Vietnam and its current war in Iraq were not and are not just wars. They are the wars of aggression and conquest, of greed and arrogance, of imperialism and hegemony, and of hubris and occupation. They were, by their very nature, two wars doomed to end in failure and pain.
You see, the point is this: Every nation, society, and government is bound to make mistakes. Vietnam was a colossal error destined to end in defeat. Tens of thousands of young Americans, at their government's insistence; fought bravely and gave their lives for nothing, but the horror of waging war for the sake of waging war. The Vietnamese were fighting for their home and the right to be Vietnamese. It was their country and that fact meant that they had nothing, but forever to give to the fight against America's aggression. Sooner or later, they were going to win. They were going to win, because their defeat could only have come at the last breath of the last living Vietnamese. Put bluntly, there was never a hope for an American victory in Vietnam.
The only possible victory for America, the only thing that ever could have -- from the war's start to finish -- made the loss of those 50,000-plus lives worthwhile and made right the United States' egregious mistake; would have been for America to have learned a lesson about starting unjust wars based on lies. That the United States failed to learn that lesson has made the Vietnam War's loss of lives, meaningless. You see, when George W. Bush says we must finish the work of "the fallen," or their deaths will have been in vain - he ensures that not only will the lives lost in Iraq mean nothing, but too, he makes futile the sacrifice of those who died in Vietnam.
How then can we -- friends, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children -- who remain of those lost in Vietnam and Iraq, salvage a meaning worthy of their sacrifice? Simple! We can impeach the people who -- by invading Iraq -- have made worthless the sacrifice of those who've paid with their lives for Vietnam's mistakes. And, too, we can swear to never again allow our government to wage war based on false pretenses. By doing these things, we honor not only the nearly 3,000 lost in Iraq, but too, the 50,000-plus who died in Vietnam.
I dedicate this piece to Dale and Mike (two Vietnam Vets and regular visitors at the PDB) and to all those who died in Vietnam and, too, the young people who've given their all in Iraq.
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