On the bright side, we never have to talk about VIETNAM, ever again

[ShaneGR]

At least, I don't think we'll have to.

[theboss]

1. Wait until McCain runs again.

God help us.

[WindRavenX]

2. and watch him get elected

BECAUSE OF IT.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. ...and at this point, I'd almost celebrate over it.

:(

[prairie populist]

18. and Chuck Hagel runs against him for the nomination

There will be another smear campaign ala John Kerry, Max Cleland and McCain 2000.

Hagel, a Rep senator from Nebraska, is actually a good guy and a decorated Vietnam vet. He's one of the few Reps who followed their conscience and spoke out about the war in Iraq being such a fiasco.

Rove and his henchmen will be lying low for him, no doubt, poor guy. There was actually talk about him having a spot in a Kerry administration.

[Maiden England]

3. yeah, in 30 years time, it'll all be IRAQ!

[SoCalDem]

22. With a difference though

Iraq2 is a digital/internet(s) war. There will be very little 2nd guessing.. No grainy, 30-yr old super8 film, or faded polaroids..

The "ammo" is online, and available to EVERYONE.. The soldier of today had better watch his p's & q's if he plans to run for office.

[Kber]

4. That's true

and I saw my first "Don't blame me, I voted for Kerry" sticker today.

[Obviousman]

5. we SHOULD talk about vietnam

if Americans remembered the lessons of vietnam we wouldnt be in this mess in iraq.

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. Well said...and welcome to DU.

There are still shitloads of people dealing with the Vietnam legacy. Damn, I am a woman old enough to have protested the Vietnam war. I am having flashbacks to that time. I can only imagine what it must be like for veterans who went through that.

My guy is a Vietnam vet. Nearly 40 damn years later, he still cannot talk about it. And still has bad dreams about his time there.

[pgreenstone]

6. Iraq will keep its legacy alive

Quagmires love company.

[flygal]

15. It might get some more company....

Iran anyone?!!

[dorktv]

7. Well...unless the Republican Challenger to Dean is

a vet...

[Kber]

9. Like who?

besides McCain of course - do the Republicans have vets?

[dorktv]

12. I do not think they do actually.

I mean really who do the Republicans have to run anyway? We have Dean who has the proven ability to fundraise, inspire people and has a ground force working on rebuilding the party right now...but who do the republicans have? Not Hayworth I know although he wants a run in at least 10 years.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

17. Very few, actually see this list...

http://www.electoral-vote.com/info/military-service.html

[everythingsxen]

10. True..

Instead with the tactics we are about to use in Fallujah we can talk about Lidice and Dresden.

[dweller]

11. May it never again muddle

your beautiful mind.


dp

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

13. No that's not true

Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam. Ever seen that bumper sticker?

And there are still many many emotional wounds unhealed from that war. There was no closure and it still haunts us as a nation, behind the scenes.

Until the generation who fought it and didn't fight it is gone from the scene, we will continue to be haunted by it some way or another. It's off the immediate radar but it's always there, rattling its chains.

I can feel it and I was born in the midst of it.....you mean to tell me you can't feel it?

[blondeatlast]

14. Yeah, we're all gonna be in Gitmo.

On that cheery note, I am going to bed!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

16. Yes we will. Nothing was settled, no viewpoints changed

and the feelings are still raw.

I am afriad that my war will be with us as long as we live.

[chookie]

19. Not true, sonny boy

The Ghost of Viet Nam still lingers.

It is not irrelevant, honestly. It was a "theoretical" war -- we had to keep Chinese Communists from raping your grandma and laying waste to America, which they surely would have done if not stopped in VN.

It was a war waged by civilians. They had all kinds of cool, clever neato ways to wage it -- that they kept ordering the military to carry out. It didn't seem to matter that it was going badly, because they were SO sure they were right about their genius ideas, that they would eventually be vindicated by glorious victory. It would seem they asked soldiers to do some pretty stupid stuff, which needlessly killed Americans, as well as slaughtering innocent Indochinese. The Shifty Boasting Liars for Bush would have you think Kerry wanted them all to die at the hands of the enemy to purge liberal guilt and advance communism (an old slang word for liberalism)-- but the fact is, he was pissed off the war was being waged so fucking INCOMPETENTLY. Later, he added the observation that the war's horrors were way disproportionate to what ever benefits or strategic benefits it might achieve.

That's why many VN vets, and those of us old enough to remember what was really going on back then, have high opinions of John Kerry. He organized and positively focused the accounts of the disfunctionality of the war, and ended up achieving political results.

but you see -- the opposition he faced then, as he faced just recently, are the folk who believe that we should have had an all out nuclear confrontation with communists, and obliterated them, amen. We "lost" VN not because honest people showed what an unwinnable farce it was (after all, all other attempts to conquer these people had failed, and the "government" we supported there was hopelessly corrupt
Interesting irony that all the folk who found a way to get out of this monumental struggle of right and wrong in VN are the folk shoving Armageddon down the throats of our government, and bleeding our sons and daughters to death.

We thought the Ghost was killed the the Powell Doctrine: choose your wars carefully, go in with overwhelming force, and have an exit strategy in place. That was QUITE an achievement -- but His Chimperial Highness, answering to the Voice of God and Halliburton and Paul Wolfowitz jettisoned this prudent doctrine, because it just wasn't profitable enough.

You BET smirky has an employment plan for our kids -- SOLDIERING! While the rest of us make America the best place to do business by accepting the reality that we can only compete with Chinese prison labor and child labor in Singapore by being grateful for poor wages our wise corporate masters sffer to give us.....

[jukes]

20. sick of the subject, to be honest

but we'll have a new crop of syndromed vets, soon enough.

[jukes]

25. on the other hand

there are lessons to be learned by our brothers in black pj's & chogi hats.

[JSJ]

21. we the people haven't talked enough about that

[JI7]

23. Chuck Hagel is going to run in 2008

[tsuki]

26. I am not usually mean-spirited,

but I'd like to see John O'Neill get everything he deserves. Fascist pig.