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Karen, The war in Viet-Nam had its seeds planted
in the misery of the peasants. In fact many (most) “communist
revolutions” are peasant revolutions of which the organized communists
take the helm and declare it to be a “communist revolution”. As
they are often better trained, they become leaders, but their armies are not
really communist in spite of heavy indoctrination. You may recall my mentioning the Mekong
Delta and how soon after American troops would clear an area, the cousins of
the landlords would arrive to collect the rent – about 9 sacks of every
10 the peasants produced. Rather bitterly, I said this is the way
the While I am sure that similar peasant
poverty conditions exist in You’ll recall the Mafia would kill not
an offender but his whole family. If I were an Iraqi family man, I would keep
my mouth shut when the Americans asked questions. At least, I would if I were
sensible. I would not expect the Iraqis to be any different from me. As Iraqi troops become more experienced
and more a part of the civilian landscape, the people will lose their fear and
become part of the anti-terrorist operation. In fact, the other day I saw a TV news
item in which civilians were saying how much they liked Iraqi patrols ‘because
they are us’. The fact that all but a handful or so of cities
and towns in We know that – even though the
apparent glee that erupts from a setback of some kind seems directed more toward
keeping one’s job (or advancing one’s politics) than providing us
with a true picture of You have perhaps forgotten the hyperbole. Remember the mass bombing of How about the press fervor over the 300
tons of munitions that were missing to be used against us – due entirely
to American stupidity. Hundreds of thousands of tons were dealt with by the
army, but that was ignored. The 300 tons story was ready to be
released by the New York Times and “60 Minutes” on Sunday –
two days before election – though they had it for more than a week before
then. (The NYT had a change of heart and released it sooner thus messing up the
60 Minute “revelation”. Or it was broken early on the Internet –
take your pick.) The thrust of that story also was
nonsense. The Lancet ‘scientific’ body
count was released on the Friday before the vote having been “fast-tracked”
to affect the election – though that objective was feebly denied by
Lancet. Reminds me of Then they found a real nasty bit that
they released the Thursday before the election. Fortunately, it was found to be
completely untrue a day or two later, so it failed to besmirch Bush’s speech, which I found was
rather boring was nevertheless the speech of a wartime leader who must be
completely optimistic as he rallies the ‘troops’. I think a lot of the optimism was
justified. Unfortunately, as I said, every setback reaches the headlines –
the advances rarely do. I rather think that the legacy of Bush will
be either as the greatest Presidential goat – or the foremost visionary
of the 21st century. Instead of doing nothing about bad things and
hoping they’ll go away, an alternative is to grab the nettle and try
positively to end them. Politicians, who have an intense desire to keep their
noses clean, try to avoid doing anything. They will view with alarm with regularity
for that doesn’t cost them much. But, actually sticking their chins out
is usually beyond them. Bush took positive action. Whether it
works or not will determine his place in history. It might offer a course of
action for the UN. Not to react to a situation that has gone terribly wrong,
but to quench it before it gets out of hand – an alternative that is far
more desirable. We’ll find out. Harry ******************************************** of 818
352-4141 ******************************************** From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Karen Watters Cole The most prominent theme from the punditry commentary
on Pres. Bush’s Tuesday night speech at Ft Bragg, which may forever be
remembered as a ill-advised TV commercial produced in campaign mode rather than
governing mode, is that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld troika is not listening: not
listening to their generals, not listening to diplomatic experts, not listening
to the public. This tone-deaf isolationism has plagued them before, but now
appears to have set in as a terminal condition, rather than a temporary
one. These two examples from tenured Hoaglund: Subtle Shift in Goals. “One of the greatest handicaps the administration still confronts
is a self-imposed refusal to listen to Iraqis about doing things the Iraqi way.
>From trying to build a new Iraqi army on Echoes of By Richard Cohen, About two years ago I sat down with a colleague
and explained why The similarity is most striking in the language
the president used. First came the vast, insulting oversimplifications. The war
in Second, just as Lyndon Johnson and others
referred to communism as if it were a worldwide monolith, so Bush talks about
terrorists. He mentioned "terrorists" 23 times, and while he also occasionally
employed the word "insurgents," his emphasis was on the wanton murders of the former and not the
political aims of the latter. He even cited the
terrorist leader and al Qaeda associate "Zarqawi" by name, saying the
Bush sounded downright Johnsonian in talking
about progress in In Vietnam, it took the United States forever to recognize
that it was fighting not international communism but a durable and vibrant
nationalist movement led by communists. Something similar may be happening in Finally, Bush descended to Vietnam-speak. This
is the language used by the Johnson and Nixon administrations to obscure the
truth by emitting a fog of numbers. Thus Bush cited the "8 million Iraqi men and women"
who voted, the "30 nations" with troops in Iraq (a total joke, and
the president knows it), the "40 countries" and "three
international organizations" that have pledged "$34 billion" in
reconstruction assistance (another joke), the "80 countries" that
recently met in Brussels to aid Iraq, and the "160,000 security forces
trained and equipped for a variety of missions" -- one of them being,
clearly, to stay out of harm's way. The war Bush declared to rid http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/29/AR2005062902585.html?nav=hcmodule |
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