--Hanoi Hillary?"Is that a Chevy '69?"
How bizarre, How bizarre
--How Bizarre, OMC
- For my military knowledge,
- though I'm plucky and adventury,
- Has only been brought down to the beginning of the century;
- But still, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral,
- I am the very model of a modern Major-General
- --The Major-General's Song, Pirates of Penzance
- --How'd you sleep?
- --I don't know. Had dreams.
- --Well you got time for 'em now.
- Anythin' interesting?
- --They always is to the party concerned.
- --No Country for Old Men (1987)
- ____________________
How much more bizarre does a nightmare get? Fonda was called a dupe and a traitor for supporting the Viet Cong's right to overthrow the Saigon puppet regime, yet McCain has now supplanted her in supporting his heroes, who happen to be the equivalent of his former enemy, Victor Charlie (Sen. John McCain says rebels fighting Gadhafi troops are his heroes during visit to east Libya).
The Libyan rebels and the VC are the same critter: They lack legitimacy, are not in accordance with the laws of their respective governments and are in open rebellion. Does McCain see the high irony of opposing the rebels in Vietnam War yet heralding their moral equivalent as heroes in Libya?
Neither McCain, Clinton nor O-bomb-a can clearly explain why it is incorrect for Moammer Qaddafi's troops and loyalists to attack and kill rebels, while at the same time supporting the "rebels" for doing likewise to Qaddafi & Co. Where is the sense, especially when a cash-strapped America must get the operational funds to do so at a Chinese Title & Pawn Shop?
In a word, McCain has once again pulled a flip-flop. McCain was bombing the folks of North Vietnam because they were supporting the rebels of South Vietnam. Now, he has done an about-face.
As for Clinton, it is equally difficult to understand her warmonger stance as a former Flower Child of the 60's. Clinton was the picture of a liberal intellectual, so how did she end up taking Jane's seat supporting the rebels?
Ranger wonders why Ms. Fonda keeps her mouth shut these days. Where is her outrage at the U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan? Where is any outrage for that matter?
I believe that Ms. Fonda did (and does) speak out against the Iraq war. However, I think she, like many of us, is moving rather slower these days.
ReplyDeleteJust two thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. The VC actually DID have a point; Ho's people won the post-colonial plebiscite and the French turned around and divided the nation because they were French and a bunch of piss-poor sore losers. And
2. As one of the most famous rebels in history said, rebellion against your lawful overlord has only one justification; victory.
Hillary Fonda??? You can do better than that Jim, how about Hillary Tripoli??? And besides I think you got the wrong woman. Try Maggie Woodward, CG of 17th Air Force the air arm of AfriCOM who is commanding the American portion of the air campaign over Libya.
ReplyDeletehttp://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/22/the_new_face_of_war_a_female_general_commands_the_us_air_campaign?sms_ss=twitter&at_xt=4d88d331950603f9,0
I do agree with you that the dollars we are getting for this lash-up are coming from IOUs issued by Peking. That is a not good for our children and grandchildren. But I personally care less about Gadaffi's bombed up butchers. The rebels in Libya are certainly not analogous to the VC or the NVA. They have not yet that I know of murdered opposition village teachers, doctors, nurses, or hamlet chiefs like the VC did. And they have not yet massacred thousands like was done in Hue City to local RVN officials, catholics, intellectuals, prominent businessmen, and other running dogs of imperialism. Give those Libyan rebels some time though. If they capture a few Gaddafi-towns, they might yet outdo the blood red hands of Uncle Ho.
Chief,
ReplyDeleteI believe that the rebels in VN had as much legitimacy as the gov't. History bears this out.
Mike,
I stand behind my cmt that the Libyan rebels and the VC are the same critters. Look at the winners in AFGH and IRQ and they are as bad as what we replaced, except they're bad for freedom. Purchased with phony elections and gitmo style justice.
As you say, wait until they get their hands on some loyalists. It won't be pretty.
As for the level of violence that you describe in VN we must ask what responsibility we bear for upping the ante with US troops etc.Look at it from their side which is what a SF dude is taught to do.What was our answer-The Phoenix Program and PRU's. How do you spell murder? How were we any better?! We bombed civilian targets in NVN, and IRQ also. Then say Hue.
Doesn't AFRICOM have a real ring to it?
jim
Jim -
ReplyDeleteAnd we also bombed civilian targets in Japan, deliberately. Probably the same in Germany. But the death of civilians in the bombings of NVN and IRQ were collateral damage to my knowledge and not intentional. Supporting rebels is not always bad and not always good. Where would we have been without Continental European support back 230 odd years ago?
Phoenix never bothered me like it did some here. For the following reasons which I think you are already aware of:
Number 1 was Phoenix didn't really get started until after TET of 68.
Number 2, the people they went after were hard-core, usually armed, VC cadre.
Number 3, their goals were Arrest or Convert, and Shoot as a last resort if the arrest attempt was met with violence or flight.
Number 4, many years before the Phoenix program started, the VC were assassinating South Vietnamese teachers, doctors, nurses, and anyone else associated with the local government. The guy who told us that was not Nixon and not LBJ nor McNamara, it was JFK in a speech he made in the early 60s. Assassination was a deliberate policy of terror endorsed at the highest level of the National Liberation Front in order to keep government out of the countryside.
Now I understand that there were abuses of the Phoenix program. Innocent people were sometimes informed on by personal enemies with a grudge or for their own enrichment - duhhh, just like in Afghanistan. And often the PRUs or District militia would resort to shoot first and let God sort out the VC from the innocent later. Those abuses were never a deliberate policy of the US or of the CIA or of the GVN.
BTW, from the NYTimes, it looks like the Dragon Lady finally passed away. The last of the pack. My favorite quote of hers was: "With the Americans as allies, you don't need enemies." One of her brother-in-laws was buried alive by the Viet Minh.