From Vietnam to Iraq and Back Again?

From Vietnam to Iraq and Back Again?

News of the Month in Review

June 2014

Forty-five years ago this summer, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldine landed on the Moon. Neil Armstrong mesmerized Americans and citizens of the world when he became the first person to walk on the Moon. If anything represented American ‘exceptionalism’, it was the single-minded success of the American space program. America was by no means perfect, but it was the envy of citizens across the globe.

When John F. Kennedy launched the space program, politicians didn’t bicker about how was it going to be paid for. There were no murmurings from Republicans demanding off sets in spending. America’s middle class was thriving and growing. Wealthy people paid income taxes well above 50%. The number of millionaires was small. Billionaires were unheard of. CEO salaries were not 300 plus times the salary of average workers as it is today. Those well paid executives may have earned 50 times as much as ordinary workers back then, but they at least did not have 100 million dollar stock and severance packages lavished on them on top of their salaries. Labor unions represented upwards of 30% of the workforce, not somewhat under 7% as they represent today.

Even in the midst of the Cold War and Vietnam, Americans were optimistic. Debate and protests marked the Vietnam War era. Americans marched, protested, and some gave their lives to rein in the pernicious effects of racial discrimination and to protest the Vietnam War.

What a different world we live in today. If America is leading the way in anything, it is not something to brag about. Economic fairness and inequality in America is greater than in almost all other industrial countries. Our health care system is one of the most expensive of all industrial countries. Our politicians no longer represent the interests of their constituents. They now do the bidding for their wealthy benefactors with a blind eye for the health and welfare of the general population.

Republicans are waging a war on our environment and refuse to enact laws that attempt to regulate the behavior of corporations that pollute and denigrate the environment with impunity. Republicans offer no alternative to the Affordable Care Act, but vote incessantly to repeal it. Republicans refuse to invest in America. Both Republicans and Democrats vie to cull the favor of Wall Streets tycoons. Both Democrats and Republicans talk of reducing tax burdens on the rich at the expense of the rest of the country. The only spending that sails through Congress is for military adventurism.

June 2014, has really brought the neo cons and hawks out in droves. It is surprising that with all the money we spend on the NSA, CIA, Special Forces, Foreign Policy, and the military that the recent events in Iraq seem to have surprised those supposedly in the ‘know’.

There is a new group on the block. ISIS seems to have replaced Al Qaeda as the terrorist group du jour. Now all those who spared no lie and no deceit to invade Iraq in 2003 are back again. Of course they blame Obama for all that is wrong. They belittle Obama because he is not jumping with glee at the opportunity to launch another invasion in Iraq.

They want us to forget that they promised a quick, $60 billion ‘shock and awe’ war to bring about regime change in Iraq by ousting Sadaam. They promised the war would be paid for by money paid from Iraq’s oil production. No matter none of this occurred and the cost of that war has exceeded $1 trillion and we still do not fund the VA system with enough resources to take care of all our troops who were injured and who suffered unimaginable psychological damage from multiple deployments in a war zone.

And, as if their deception was not criminal enough, their ineptness in the execution of the Iraq war was nothing short of inexcusable. Bush’s man, Paul Bremer, dismantled the Iraqi army. Young, inexperienced bright eyed bureaucrats were sent by the Bush administration to privatize Iraq’s oil industry and remake a government. The Bush Administration’s neo cons masterminded the installation of a Shia ruler and somehow forgot then and still forget now that there is no reason to think that there could be a unity government that represented both Sunni and Shia.

Tons of cash were doled out to any faction that we could pay to quell their desire to kill American troops. No matter that some of the money and arms we gave to those Sunni tribal bosses has likely found its way into the hands of those ‘bad guys’ who now are marauding around northern Iraq. No matter that our supposed friends in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other oil rich countries have supported the Sunni causes because of their own fear of the Shiite Iran and Hezbollah. We created a mess in Iraq when we invaded it. We checked our brains at the coatroom. All we cared about was showing the world how powerful our military was and how smart we were to try to privatize Iraq’s natural resources.

Of course, we did neither. We actually have proven the obvious. Just like Russia could not win in Afghanistan, America cannot win either in Afghanistan or Iraq. Unless a country is willing to literally annihilate another and impose a Draconian dictatorship, a country has no business trying to bring about regime change by a military invasion.

So, as you hear Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Dick Cheney and the other hawks call for bombing and military forces, you might want to express your concern for their willingness to use our tools of terror so indiscriminately. We spent almost a decade trying to protect ourselves and the world from the spread of communism in Vietnam in the 1960s. We didn’t win that war. We really could not have unless we bombed North and South Vietnam off the map. America cannot win a war in the Middle East either. Isn’t it time we put a stop to our politicians in this country who wish to spend tax dollars and put in harms way our soldiers to act out their megalomaniacal fantasies. A bunch of these folks should not be mouthing off on tv. They should, instead, be in jail for lying to the American people and cheating our country.

Americans should be concerned about what is happening in Iraq, Syria, and other countries that are in reality close to being failed states. But it takes a lot more than flexing military muscle to address these very complicated political situations. Unfortunately, our government’s inability to elevate beyond partisan politics is only a prescription for failure. It is ironic that one of the paths towards resolution might be to try a new tact with Iran. The thought of such an approach drives Republicans crazy and worries too many Democrats so that may never occur. In the meantime the choice of fighting indiscriminate terror with more indiscriminate terror will do nothing to better the situation.