Friday, May 21, 2004

Hell no, I won't go We now have the first publicized story of a soldier who, having served in combat in Iraq, has refused orders to return.  In a piece, today, by Bob Herbert of the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/opinion/21HERB.html the story of Sgt. Camillo Mejia of the Florida National Guard who has refused orders  to return to Iraq after an initial 6 month  in  which “he led an infantry squad and saw plenty of action”.  The details are available via the link. I don’t wish to celebrate American reverses.  In retrospect, the debacle in Vietnam almost seems an abstraction.  Was it or was it not an essential battle in the larger cold war?  The cold war was won even though we lost in Vietnam. Yes, there was plenty of pain in our divisions, but the survival of our nation was not in doubt. Now, having attempted to conquer Iraq,  the stakes are far too high to fail…and yet we are.  If we do, the terrorists will come at us harder, more frequently ever deadlier. So, if this is the beginning of a new American peace movement, the pain is going to be much more difficult to bear than that from Vietnam. We must rid ourselves of George Bush. Mel 8:51:25 PM    comment []

On our common knowledge of history I spoke with a young woman, recently returned from service in Kuwait. She was commenting on a conversation she had with some high school students. She exclaimed, “They didn’t know what Normandy was, the invasion of Normandy and they’d never hear of it”.  A long time history buff, I added my chagrin that most people  seem to care so little for history. But then I got a more serious example. I was watching Fox news. They were discussing an upcoming film where Tom Selleck played Dwight Eisenhauer.  One of the commentators remarked that the character’s leadership reminded him of George bush.  I was shocked. This is an example of propaganda which could only succeed if viewers don’t know of the incredible leadership of the armies of different nations by Dwight Eisenhauer. A specific failure of Bush is that he can not work with other nations.   If we don’t have a common reference of history we are doomed to the manipulation of agenda driven politicians and their media flacks. Mel 8:44:25 AM    comment []