I agree with Mario. I don't consider Cockburn credible. But then, I don't consider Mario very credible either. When McNamara himself states regret for the Vietnam war (in his book "In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam" by McNamara), one has to take his words far more seriously than those of Mario or Cockburn.
As far as the Khmer Rouge are concerned, it was Vietnam that ended the holocaust in Cambodia. Vietnam would have been incapable of doing so, were it under US siege. US policy at that time was to ignore the genocide in Cambodia as the Khmer Rouge were mortal enemies of Vietnam. Another example of the laws of unintended consequences - as was the case with the Mujahadeen and the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the 2nd Gulf War that made Iran the power broker in the Middle East today. These various failures show that no single political party in the US has a sole lock on stupid foreign policy. Unfortunately, some narrow minded individuals can't seem to understand this. Marlon --- On Wed, 7/8/09, Mario Goveia <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Mario Goveia <[email protected]> > Readers of Counterpunch and author Alexander Cockburn need > to know that this is a far left wing publication and > Cockburn is a vicious and mean-spirited Marxist-sympathiser > and anti-Semite, as demonstrated by this sentiment at the > death of a political opponent "May He Rest in Darkness". > > Robert McNamara's legacy was marred by the left wing and > the Democrat party in America when they cut the military > budget on the verge of a VietCong military collapse. > This is not my opinion but that of VietCong General Giap, > who mentioned in his memoires that he was shocked when the > Americans began to pull out because his forces were > virtually on their knees after their failed Tet offensive. > > After the war, the VietCong and Khmer Rouge, whom Cockburn > and his Marxist colleagues had described as benign freedom > fighters, massacred some 3 million innocent Vietnamese and > Cambodians. > > Real freedom fighters do not massacre their own people.
