--- In [email protected], "shempmcgurk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > The Americans spent 14 years in Vietnam fighting communism. As a > result of the anti-War American Left's efforts, the US abandoned > South Vietnam and the communists took over.
Actually, by the time the war ended, the majority of Americans opposed the war. During the 2 years > immediately following the communists' victory, up to 4 million > people of South East Asia were slaughtered by or as a result of > the Communists, a figure far exceeding those that died during the > entire 14 years of American involvement. Actually, declassified Vietnamese documents show that 5.1 million were killed during the U.S. involvement in Vietnam (4 million civilians and 1.1 million military). Most of the slaughter in Southeast Asia after the U.S. left (estimated at 3 million-plus) was committed in Cambodia by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. The Khmer Rouge was able to come to power in Cambodia largely because the wanton U.S. bombing of civilians drove Cambodians to support Pol Pot's insurgency. In 1979, after several years of genocide following the war, Pol Pot's forces received aid from the U.S. when they attacked Vietnam, and were protected by the U.S. after the Vietnamese counterattacked and took Phnom Penh. Finally, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were not actually communists, certainly not in the Marxist-Leninist sense. They had their own unique brand of brutal totalitarianism. > Current Gulf War. Almost unanimously, both houses of Congress and > practically every member of both the Democratic and Republican > Parties authorize the president to go to war. But only if diplomacy didn't work. It was never seriously tried. > Now, 4 years later, the US is again considering cutting > and running. > Gee, who will be killed this time and in what numbers? About two thirds of Iraqis want the U.S. out because they believe we're making the situation there worse. A significant majority of Americans (62%) thinks the war was a mistake, and 71% want us out of Iraq by next April.
