In playing the Chinese game of GO (Wei Chi) it's very important in achieving victory to always hold in one's mind the entire board, and never to make a move without considering the whole. Proceeding rashly, without due consideration of the total picture can lead into often bewilderingly complex situations where one secures a limited victory in a small part of the board only to find oneself surrounded in the larger game.
In their strategy of playing almost exclusively to their base, the Bush Rove team has offered endorsements and political favors to homophobic christians, snowmobilers and loggers, BIG corporations of all types, military contractors, and paranoid religious fanatics of all stripes. I was somewhat surprised therefore when I heard that King George had actually come out to denounce the Swift Boat Veteran ads - well, sort of - actually not - he just denounced ads by 'outside' groups in general. Still, it was the sort of step he is not known for.
Then it hit me that he had just come out of a meeting with the principals in the Iraq War situation - Cheney, Rumsfield, Wolfowitz, Rice, and the Generals on the scene via conference call. I can imagine what went down:
General: "Cheeez...we are in a bad situation over here...maybe even a NO WIN situation...and the worst possible thing to put in front of people's minds at this point is the Vietnam War!"
Cheney: "But we've taken away about six percent of Kerry's veterans!"
Rove: "We've just got to convince people that we're winning!"
Rice: "But what if we're not....' (hard stare from the Prez)
General: "We're almost to that magic 1,000 casualty mark and we can't even keep an oil pipeline flowing."
Powell: "Maybe we need more people over there."
Rumsfield: "This pessimism is useless. Everything is going as we planned. We've just got to train a few thousand more Iraqi police."
Rice: "Oh shit, this IS sounding like Vietnam. We need to change the subject."
Dubya: "But I was havin' so much fun watching them Domocrats squirm.'
The foremost reason that Democrats nominated Kerry was that George Bush, with his rather dismal military history, wouldn't be able to play the Dukakis card and portray their candidate as being a sissy. Democrats, or their surrogates, were actually the first in this election cycle to make the candidate's war record a part of the debate. It was the anti-war movement that first brought up the inevitable parallel between Iraq and our misadventures in Vietnam - this even before the invasion - a comparison growing in relevance as the occupation continues to deteriorate.
John Kerry was confident enough in his own record to taunt the Bushites into attacking it, with his "Bring It On" statements and his military rhetoric at the convention. With all of the attention on the Swift Boat ads over the past week and a half there has been all kinds of frantic gesturing that Kerry should respond aggressively with a counter attack. Could it be however that he is the candidate who has laid the trap?
Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq - Vietnam - Iraq
The whole thing has ignited a fierce flashback on the part of all of those who lived through the Vietnam era, and events all around it contribute to the ambience. I'm not the only one who senses we are replaying events and sentiments that echo 1968. The nation was similarly divided on issues of war, race and culture and one could hardly avoid the sense that we were heading toward some level of severe confrontation. These days the government has once again taken to infiltrating the anti-war movement and is trying to frighten and intimidate dissenters with questionable tactics while stirring up its constituents with fear. Like Chicago in 1968 the Mayor is trying to force a lid on things by not issuing permits. Like Chicago in 1968 this can only escalate the potential for confrontation. Like Chicago in 1968 the whole world Is watching.
As for the election and the War in Iraq, the revisionist faction trying to stay in power would like to rewrite history to erase the stain of our humiliating defeat in Vietnam. They would like to pillory those who chose not to fight or to protest the fighting, branding them as unpatriotic and declaring acts by veterans like Kerry to be treasonous. In their vision of things it was the anti-war movement that caused America to loose the war, and not the fact that it was the wrong war in the wrong place for the wrong reasons. It was a time when America was vilified internationally as an imperial power while its soldiers were accused of war crimes and our domestic policies were being bogged down by all of the growing contention. The difference is that the government that led us into that war was led by Democrats. Miraculously, Republicans have managed to recreate the same situation in almost all of its particulars.
I didn't fight on foreign shores in that long ago war. I fought against it with all of my soul, and I am proud that I did. I would, and will, do it again. To those veterans still bitter at the opposition they received and the fear and loathing they witnessed I can only comment upon their betrayal, not by those who sought to bring them home, but by those who sent them. For the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and others who choose out of misplaced loyalty to further the agenda of the criminals in power, I have little sympathy. Those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are forced to repeat them. I guess the time has come for a refresher.
In the end this nation overwhelmingly sought to end the war in Vietnam, resulting in the defeat of a president and a political party, and the disgrace and resignation of another. From that time until this the people's trust in its leaders has deteriorated while the people's will to be the cops of the world can't be said to have grown. Our nation is polarized more than ever, and the path toward war will only polarize it more. Can the Bush machine actually believe they will win an election by reliving the mistakes of the past in the unfavorable light of the present?
8:43:49 PM 
|
