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Iraq And The Ghosts Of South Vietnam

CL, I love your post ! Especially,”Not one more person. Not one more drop of blood. Not one more lie. not one more day of imperial power. We have a president who understands that civilization cannot any longer move on militarism but most advance via diplomacy and negotiations. He probably, somewhere, has the bumper sticker a friend of mine has with the Stars and Stripes and the words: “These colors don’t run…the world.”

New day. New vision. New hope. Never again.”

That is exactly how I feel, too.
Thank you for expressing my feelings better than I do myself.

» Posted By Nirek On June 26, 2014 @ 5:59 am

Think about the money we could have put into alternative energy, our infrastructure, border security, and other domestic programs, if we had not blown all those trillions of dollars on wars. Why not invest in something productive instead of destructive?

» Posted By Nirek On June 26, 2014 @ 5:23 am

CL, I am so impressed by the people you help and know. The USA has never been attacked by Vietnam here in our country. I was lied to by the Army when they told me, “we have to fight them over there so they don’t fight us here”!
That was pure bull$hit! All the Vietnamese wanted was to be one country. Even the South Vietnamese didn’t want us there. They helped the Vietcong by covering for them.

I for one, hold no ill will towards the Vietnamese people. We killed so many of them and they killed over 50,000 of us. For what?

» Posted By Nirek On June 25, 2014 @ 3:35 am

KT, not in so many words but I got the impression that you thought we need to re institute the draft.

Again my apologies if I take what you say the wrong way.

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 1:37 pm

KT, you say we should have a draft. We already have a facsimile of a draft with the reserves and the National Guard. They were taken from their one weekend a month and two weeks a year and made regular army. That means that the family members of the rich and powerful are exempt because you wont see any of them in the Guard or reserves. Guys and gals who join the NG or reserves are trying to make some extra money, for the most part.

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 7:03 am

KT, “Gramps McCain” is a sick minded man who never learned a thing from his experiences. IMHO

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 4:14 am

Miles, I agree, the “leaders shamefully mislead Americans into war”, without a care for lessons of history.

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 4:11 am

Thank you NoMan!

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 4:07 am

KT, that is correct. We could not tell the VC from South Vietnamese (I felt that they all were VC).

Remember we invaded their country. If they had invaded our country I would have fought any way possible. So why do we think the invaded will “give us their hearts and minds”? Or greet us with “flowers”? Such lies told by the former VP and the “crime family”.

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 4:00 am

Miles, the USA has not learned from its folly in Vietnam. I can only hope we don’t forget the lesson again.

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 3:53 am

Ad, Saudi Arabia is not our friend. Most of the people who flew the planes into the towers in NYC and the Pentagon and the field in Penn. were Saudis, and we attacked Afghanistan?

» Posted By Nirek On June 24, 2014 @ 3:37 am

Kes, he speaks out of both sides of his mouth. One to cover a possible mistake and the other to lie us into another unjust war !

I have zero respect for this cretin.
Thanks for the video as it shows what a liar he is.

» Posted By Nirek On June 23, 2014 @ 5:12 pm

Antmousie, I still have no idea why we invaded Vietnam, do you?

» Posted By Nirek On June 23, 2014 @ 5:06 pm

KT, my apologies for misunderstanding your post.
Peace my friend.
I didn’t mean to jump down your throat.

» Posted By Nirek On June 23, 2014 @ 5:04 pm

Ex, the problem is we (USA) don’t learn from our follies. We could have avoided both of our last two wars if we had learned from Vietnam.

» Posted By Nirek On June 23, 2014 @ 5:00 pm

KT, I don’t mean to be argumentative but the war in Vietnam was not conventional. WWII and Korea had front lines. Vietnam , on the other hand had no front lines no safe place to retreat to. The Vietnamese had tunnels that were extensive. They had built them while fighting the French. They had all kinds of stuff underground. Hospitals, quarters, ammo storage, and many other ways to get in and out. They could pop up and shoot at us and disappear underground.

Nothing conventional about the way they fought.

» Posted By Nirek On June 23, 2014 @ 2:41 pm

Excellent article, Murph!
I am not one who enjoys saying “I told you so.” But I said back when we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan that we were getting into another quagmire just like Vietnam.

Your point about not understanding them and their way of life is important for us to learn. We should have learned it from our invasion of Vietnam. Alas we repeated the same mistake.

We didn’t understand the Vietnamese way of life and we do not understand the Afghan or Iraqi way of life. They do not care about any of the things we care about. Freedom of speech, freedom for women to live equal to men, even simple things like love of family don’t seem to matter to them like they do to us. Their religion seems to go against our values. They just don’t value the same things we do.

I still have no idea why we invaded Vietnam. I do know that we were mislead by bush and company to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Oil! And a path to the ports. So greed on the part od a certain VP and his corporation.

Murph, I could go on and on about minding our own business, setting an example as to how well Democracy works and allowing others to follow that example. But I’ll leave it for further discussion.

Peace.

» Posted By Nirek On June 23, 2014 @ 8:36 am

“I Get Bergdahl- Been There.” Words From A Young Iraq/Afghan Vet

Thanks for the heads up GC, I thought it was funny that two people had the same avatar.

» Posted By Nirek On June 23, 2014 @ 3:17 am

Murph, so many who experienced war will not talk about it. They are the ones with the thousand yard stare. Those who are lucky enough to have a Dad to make them talk about it or someone else to talk with are able to overcome that stare.

Trust me when I say peace is the best thing.

» Posted By Nirek On June 22, 2014 @ 2:57 pm

Murph, I understand how you feel about the draft. After all, I was drafted. I am actually in favor of the all volunteer military. The wealthy and the powerful would find a way to keep their family members out even if we still had the draft.

It is always the rich and powerful to lead us to war and the young to die. Or even worse suffer horrendous wounds, external or internal.

Those same rich and powerful “leaders” also deny the returning military the rightful benefits. All in the name of profits!

» Posted By Nirek On June 22, 2014 @ 2:53 pm

He will come around and common sense will come through. Keep working on him , we need him.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 3:33 pm

Kes, that is a thousand yard stare. And yes when you have experience like that you do feel older than you are.

Peace, my friend.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 3:31 pm

KT, I’m glad you didn’t have to go there. Trust me, war is not fun.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 2:37 pm

SLM,too many people are damaged in service to our country. I hope your man gets all the help he needs.

Vets helping vets is a good thing.
Peace.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 1:09 pm

Greenchica, I don’t think we have met. Welcome to the Planet. Yes, Murph has a way of putting words together coherently. We are lucky to have him here.
I hope to see you here more.

Peace.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 1:04 pm

CL, on behalf of all vets, thanks. You are a Godsend for so many people who need help.
Bless you, peace.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 1:01 pm

KT, As you know I was drafted when I was 21 in 1967. Had a ton of training and spent 1969 in Vietnam. As an infantryman I saw a lot of action. My training kept me alive. But I was against the WAR before I was drafted. When I got home after my two year tour in the Army, I was anti war.

I would discourage any young person from joining. But that is me.

Peace is best.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 12:57 pm

Murph, there but for the grace of God, go I. As I have said before, my Dad saved me from being like the young man in your story. Upon my return from Vietnam I was having nightmares. One night I woke up screaming. Dad said to come downstairs and he made me talk about my experience. He knew what I had gone through. He was a career soldier. He had spent all of WWII and then a tour in the Korean War. He shared some of his experiences with me. Dads wisdom is the reason I am not suffering PTSD.

This young man should talk about what he did and was exposed to. Getting it out in the open is the best way to handle it.

Thanks , Murph. For bringing this story to us. We need to understand what these vets have been exposed to and understand how each of them can process it. Some can overcome the nightmares and some can’t. With help those who are having a hard time coping can get by.

» Posted By Nirek On June 21, 2014 @ 12:50 pm

The Weekend Music Thread-Ladies Night

How in the world did we miss Juice Newton?

» Posted By Nirek On June 22, 2014 @ 5:20 pm

» Posted By Nirek On June 22, 2014 @ 5:19 pm