I missed this thread the first time around. I think it's a shame it hasn't received the attention it deserves. You're unlikely to see this, you haven't posted in a couple months, but I'm replying in the hope that this thread might become more active.
I grew up in the Vietnam era. As a kid with strongly academic interests, I and my friends all received the same college deferments and none of us went to Vietnam, but I knew kids who went to Vietnam and never returned.
Unthreatened by the draft I had no self-preservation motive driving me toward the anti-war movement. I rejected it on what I thought were its merits. My overly-logical mind refused to consider the possibility that lying on a massive scale could be successful. The government said we were in Vietnam to make the world safe for Democracy (this was part of the domino theory), and that the Vietnamese people wanted us there to ensure their freedom, and I believed them until very late in the game when I was in grad school.
But lies do not neutralize facts, and this works for both sides. Communism at the time
*was* a significant threat. Each country converted to communism was a potential Soviet or Chinese ally, and this was a very real security concern, as the presence even today of a communist Cuba off our south eastern shores makes clear. The war in Vietnam had very clear justifications along these lines, whether sufficient or not and whether the right approach or not in anyone's view.
The lesson I took from Vietnam was that big lies can be successful, and so it was obvious to me from the outset that the administration was lying to us about Iraq. There were many signs, but most significant was the reaction of our allies. For example, France would have joined us after seeing our evidence of Iraqi WMD had it been credible. Clearly WMD and terrorism were just excuses for war.
But the lies cannot change that this is yet another case of conflicting facts. Terrorism
*is* a significant threat, Saddam Hussein
*was* a ruthless dictator and a destabilizing force in the Middle East, and the war in Iraq is one of the most ill-conceived, irrational, dishonest and mistaken misadventures in the history of our nation. The Bush administration itself defies characterization, lying and dissembling not only about the war in Iraq but about science and public policy. He's an embarrassment.
I'm neither a Democrat or a Republican. I thought both Reagan and Clinton served us well as president. Whoever succeeds Bush, and I can't imagine it will be anyone but a Democrat after the disgrace Bush has brought upon his party, will face enormous challenges rebuilding American prestige and regaining foreign trust and respect.
--Percy
™ Version 4.2
