Showing posts with label viet nam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label viet nam. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War
This is part one of six. Conclusion: Bush and Co. are war criminals just like Lyndon B. Johnson was.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Greatest Vietnam Movie Ever
Youtube has the embedding disabled, so go have a look. Is it the greatest one or what?
Friday, December 25, 2009
Perpetual War
On Opinione there's a wonderful post and interesting discussion going on about what Il Principe calls the perpetual state of war.
These are strong words, which to me make perfect sense. The author went on to explain how this has been made possible in part by the all-volunteer military. Although one of the commenters disputed these claims, insisting with statistics and lengthy argument that the makeup of today's military is representative of society at large, I don't buy it. How could it be?
The other controversial aspect of the Prince's views was whether the Nixon decision to abolish the draft was what undermined and ended the anti-Viet-Nam-war movement or the successful result of it. All fascinating issues.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
...the lack of involvement being asked of the American people in the perpetual war by chicken hawk politicians, is one of the most immoral and offensive displays of the ever growing unequal distribution of wealth and privilege in American society.
These are strong words, which to me make perfect sense. The author went on to explain how this has been made possible in part by the all-volunteer military. Although one of the commenters disputed these claims, insisting with statistics and lengthy argument that the makeup of today's military is representative of society at large, I don't buy it. How could it be?
The other controversial aspect of the Prince's views was whether the Nixon decision to abolish the draft was what undermined and ended the anti-Viet-Nam-war movement or the successful result of it. All fascinating issues.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.
Friday, November 27, 2009
The Biggest Conspiracy and Coverup of the 20th Century
De Rosa World has been running a fantastic month-long series of posts about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The latest episode is about the bullets or about the "magic bullet" I should say.
Lee Harvey Oswald's murder and Jack Ruby's death and the subsequent Warren Report which determined no other shooters where involved besides Oswald, was probably the beginning of my life-long cynicism and distrust of the government. I had always thought these attitudes in me had begun during Viet Nam, but Daisy helped me trace it back to the Kennedy assassination when I was 10 years old.
What's your opinion? Do you think conspiracy theories are the stuff of liberals or conservatives? Or do they perhaps cross over into both camps? Do you agree that the government did a con job on the American people back in the 1960s? How does it compare to the more blatant conning Bush and Cheney did in 2001, associating Saddam Hussein with 9/11?
Please leave a comment.
Inasmuch as no complete bullet of any size could be located in the brain area and likewise no bullet could be located in the back or any other area of the body as determined by total body X-Rays and inspection revealing there was no point of exit, the individuals performing the autopsy were at a loss to explain why they could find no bullets.
Lee Harvey Oswald's murder and Jack Ruby's death and the subsequent Warren Report which determined no other shooters where involved besides Oswald, was probably the beginning of my life-long cynicism and distrust of the government. I had always thought these attitudes in me had begun during Viet Nam, but Daisy helped me trace it back to the Kennedy assassination when I was 10 years old.
What's your opinion? Do you think conspiracy theories are the stuff of liberals or conservatives? Or do they perhaps cross over into both camps? Do you agree that the government did a con job on the American people back in the 1960s? How does it compare to the more blatant conning Bush and Cheney did in 2001, associating Saddam Hussein with 9/11?
Please leave a comment.
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Suicides among Army Recruiters
CNN reports on the grim story of a disproportionate number of Houston based army recruiters committing suicide. There have been four in the last three years.
"The United States Army Recruiting Command is deeply concerned by the instances of suicide within the Houston Recruiting Battalion," said a statement released by the Recruiting Command. "The board's objective will be to prevent future suicides, increase suicide awareness, analyze trends and highlight additional tools and resources to combat suicide within the Recruiting Command."
The Army's examination comes after a sergeant first class, a member of the Houston Recruiting Battalion and an Iraq combat veteran, killed himself at his home earlier this month.
It seems strange to me that recruiters would be particularly hit. Their work doesn't seem to be especially stressful. It begs a larger question: what is the suicide rate at large among service men and women and veterans of recent wars.
Due to the recurring deployments that have proven necessary to sustain operations in the Middle East, it is likely that a large majority of our recruiters are also veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The recruiter suicides come at a time when the total number of suicides in the Army's ranks has been growing, Army officials said. Through August there had been 93 active duty suicides in the Army.
Last year there were 115 active duty suicides, the highest for the Army since the Vietnam War, according to Army statistics.
Why do you think this would be happening? My first thought is that, not unlike Viet Nam, these engagements have become extremely unpopular. Perhaps that awareness has filtered through and has infected the troops themselves, like it did forty years ago. On the other hand, that may be too complicated a theory.
A simpler theory is this: the stresses associated with war are perhaps heightened by a number of factors. The continual fear of suicide bombers, although this did exist during Viet Nam, in recent years it's become a major concern. I guess we can thank the Israeli / Palestinian conflict for that. Another interesting thing I read is the number of battlefield casualties who live is at an all time high. This is due to improved medevac equipment and procedures. The result is a higher number of damaged individuals returning to society. I'll bet they make up a good percentage of the suicides.
What do you think? Part of my solution is to get out of Iraq, a war we never should have been involved in in the first place. I'd get our foreign combat activity down to a bare minimum. Isolationism might be preferable to the breath-taking costs of sustaining these wars.
"The United States Army Recruiting Command is deeply concerned by the instances of suicide within the Houston Recruiting Battalion," said a statement released by the Recruiting Command. "The board's objective will be to prevent future suicides, increase suicide awareness, analyze trends and highlight additional tools and resources to combat suicide within the Recruiting Command."
The Army's examination comes after a sergeant first class, a member of the Houston Recruiting Battalion and an Iraq combat veteran, killed himself at his home earlier this month.
It seems strange to me that recruiters would be particularly hit. Their work doesn't seem to be especially stressful. It begs a larger question: what is the suicide rate at large among service men and women and veterans of recent wars.
Due to the recurring deployments that have proven necessary to sustain operations in the Middle East, it is likely that a large majority of our recruiters are also veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The recruiter suicides come at a time when the total number of suicides in the Army's ranks has been growing, Army officials said. Through August there had been 93 active duty suicides in the Army.
Last year there were 115 active duty suicides, the highest for the Army since the Vietnam War, according to Army statistics.
Why do you think this would be happening? My first thought is that, not unlike Viet Nam, these engagements have become extremely unpopular. Perhaps that awareness has filtered through and has infected the troops themselves, like it did forty years ago. On the other hand, that may be too complicated a theory.
A simpler theory is this: the stresses associated with war are perhaps heightened by a number of factors. The continual fear of suicide bombers, although this did exist during Viet Nam, in recent years it's become a major concern. I guess we can thank the Israeli / Palestinian conflict for that. Another interesting thing I read is the number of battlefield casualties who live is at an all time high. This is due to improved medevac equipment and procedures. The result is a higher number of damaged individuals returning to society. I'll bet they make up a good percentage of the suicides.
What do you think? Part of my solution is to get out of Iraq, a war we never should have been involved in in the first place. I'd get our foreign combat activity down to a bare minimum. Isolationism might be preferable to the breath-taking costs of sustaining these wars.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)