Vietnam, Iraq, and the M Word

[SeveneightyWhoa]

Vietnam, Iraq, and the M Word

December 1 2006
Counterbias.com
by Mickey Z.


Jimmy Carter was the latest to use the M Word. The former president said he believes the “occupancy of Iraq and all the consequences of it are a big mistake.” This echoes John Kerry’s infamous 1971 question: "How do you ask a man to die for a mistake?" Hmm…perhaps recalling a few details about the Vietnam “mistake” might shine some light on the Iraq “blunder.”

In 1954, Vice President Richard Nixon explained the need for U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia: "The Vietnamese lack the ability to conduct a war or govern themselves." Over the next two decades, the U.S. (by mistake?) dropped the equivalent of one 500-pound bomb for every person living in Vietnam. (Those bomber doors really needed better latches.) In 1966, David Lawrence, editor of U.S. News & World Report, wrote: "What the United States is doing in Vietnam is the most significant example of philanthropy extended by one people to another that we have witnessed in our times." When challenged with stories of American atrocities in Vietnam, Lawrence corrected his little gaffe, "Primitive peoples with savagery in their hearts have to be helped to understand the true basis of a civilized existence." When at war with savages, you can rationalize dumping 400,000 tons of napalm on them.

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