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Johnny B Critical
by adam at 09:50 PM on August 25, 2004
I've been hearing a lot of noise about John Kerry's criticism of the Vietnam War, and I have to admit that even after hitting myself repeatedly in the forehead with a mallet I don't understand what the fuss is about. Are there still people in this country who believe that the Vietnam War was a good idea? Let's make a little tally:
Number of US Troops Killed: 47,378
Number of South Vietnamese Troops Killed: 223,748
Number of Communist Troops Killed: 1.1 million
Number of Vietnamese Civilians Killed: 4 million (approx 13% of the population)
Other Countries Destabilized: 2
Number of Civilians Dead in Those Countries: unknown, estimates range from .5 million to 1 million
Number of Democracies Preserved: 0
Number of Democracies to Begin With: 0
Ok, so lots of us got killed, millions of other people, both soldiers and civilians, got killed, and we succeeded in ... what? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We supported the bad guys in a popular revolt, ignored the advice of every single one of our allies, and got our heads handed to us by a third-world country.
Why are we still arguing about this? The Vietnam War was an incredibly bad idea, perpetrated by blind old men who couldn't admit that they were wrong. John Kerry was RIGHT to criticize our participation in that mess, and if he played a part in embarassing our government enough to pull out, then bully for him. And more to the point: he wasn't some hippy talking about peace and love. He actually went there, and when he came home he wasn't talking in hypotheticals, he was bearing witness.
This is 2004, and we still don't understand one very important thing: it's the right and the duty of a citizen in a democracy to let our elected leaders know when they're doing something stupid, and to yell louder if they're not listening. You're not a traitor for objecting to idiocy, and in this country the president isn't a king who is above answering for his actions. He is first only among equals, and we have no duty to follow him to ruin.
comments (6)
Pithy Post. I am trying not to follow the political race in a country that is not my own (as you might know I'm Canadian eh), and truthfully both of your presidential candidates scare me. (Bush for obvious reasons (obvious to me anyway), Kerry because he seems so protectionist(a miuch lesser evil)).
Despite trying not to follow it I do take in the odd bit of U.S. political coverage, and can see that the U.S. commentators on the republican side would love to see Kerry's war record besmirched, since it is such a contrast to W's sorta-draft dodging National Guard "service" (quotations indicating "sorta").
I am amazed that people would be looking to discredit Kerry's purple hearts. Geez, everybody knows that purple hearts aren't the most consistent medal. A guy could get one for getting a his leg blown off, or for having a grenade go off 100 ft away that lodged some scrapnel in his ass. You got injured in a combat zone, here's your medal. The Silver star etc are much better fodder, although, again, that's a bit of contrast to the sorta service in Texas and Georgia (it was Georgia wasn't it?, well sorta), isn't it?
by chuckwoolery at August 26, 2004 1:09 AM
You and me both. I can't believe the level of debate that is going on over the swift boat ads and Kerry's service. it's like a malicious meme that Kerry bearing witness, and trying to change things gets characterized and propagated as "Kerry accusing veterans of atrocities" when he did no such thing. None of the media I've seen clarifies this. Politicians such as Bob Dole propagate the confusion. A good example of "no good deed shall go unpunished."
by chris at August 26, 2004 3:20 AM
You've touched on one of my favorite touchy subjects. Here's my take on Nam or any other war: You could always justify not going in. You could almost always justify going in. But you can never justify going in unwilling to commit the amount of resources necessary to win, at all costs. In other words, if it was necessary to slaughter every single person in N Vietnam, China and Russia to prevail (which probably wouldn't prove necessary, they'd back down eventually) then that's what you do. Otherwise 50,000 Americans die propping up a corrupt regime that promptly folds once the Viet Cong as much as blew bad breath in their faces. It's tough to imagine a worse travesty.
by anna at August 27, 2004 6:10 PM
Three Purple Hearts tells us something about Kerry...he doesn't know how to duck!
by Philville at August 28, 2004 4:12 AM
Well, I read that one of those stemmed from something the attending doctor referred to, in technical medical jargon, as a "scratch."
by anna at August 28, 2004 9:14 AM
As for as seeing a doctor for a scratch, .... well duh, it was vietnam, where american's picked up tropical diseases and infections like they were going out of style (and not just from the local whores) They had to go for treatment and antibiotic ointment or pills to keep a scratch from becoming a major infection.
It's not Kerry's fault that the U.S. military gave him a medal for being appropriately (sp?) cautious.
by chuckwoolery at August 31, 2004 5:59 PM