"It seems that many of our legislators and journalists and commentators are terrible historians. They don’t remember what happened in Vietnam. We lost that war, but we didn’t lose it over there. We lost it in Washington D.C., and in the media. The Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese knew what was going on here with the protests and the bad press. Because of this, all they had to do was wait us out. And that is what they did.
Now we see the same thing in Iraq. So many members of Congress are wanting us out, and the media is providing as much bad press as possible. The insurgents know that this is going on here, meaning in Washington and in the media. This encourages them to continue fighting. They, too, figure all they have to do is keep the pressure on and wait us out.
I just love how fucking jerks who haven’t donned a uniform since Cub Scouts have all the answers; ascertained from their Barcaloungers in front of their Plasma screen power-suckers tuned perpetually to Faux News.Sooner or later, those in Washington will lose their willpower, and we will put our tails between our legs and run. Shades of Nam."
David Napoli
Kansas City
Where to start? How about with History, since he so thoughtfully brought it up? The history of Viet Nam predates 1954 when Eisenhower sent the first advisors, by the way, you useless worm. One of those advisors was my father, who did three tours in Viet Nam, so I got some game here. Sure you want to go round with me on this one? I’ll think more of you if you slink away quietly now. Fair warning – My dad taught me things he learned from Charlie and I do not fight fair. If you persist, I will smear your blood on my face and dance gleefully over your eviscerated corpse.
The United States didn’t learn anything from history before they got involved in Viet Nam. You think this tribe o’ morons is any better versed? If so, see Nurse Ratched for your medications immediately! Remember the French fiasco in southeast asia? The only reason we got involved in the first place was because of American hubris and sanctimony, which set the stage to sell a false fear of a “Domino Theory” of communism during cold-war hysteria. Didn’t quite work the way the think-tanks told us it would. (Things usually don't go the way the think-tanks assure us they will.) Well, here we are in 2006 and it turns out Australia isn’t a communist country after all, even though we did lose Viet Nam.
But lets take him down point by point, rather than ranting at random.
We lost that war, but we didn’t lose it over there. We lost it in Washington D.C., and in the media. Back then we had a word for a press that only told it’s readers what the government sanctioned the citizens hearing. It was called propaganda and it was - is – a dirty word. Still. TASS and PRAVDA were the two big examples of propaganda tools and they were held up to Americans as examples of what happens when the government controls the press and tells the people what they want them to hear. I went to military schools. A free press was a big deal and preservation of a free press was one of the things worth dying for.
By Mr. Napoli’s "logic" (isn’t that a fascist name, by the way?) we could have won that ill-advised pissing contest if the press had just been silenced. Of course it would have taken a lot more than 58,000 dead Americans to silence the press. Moron point number one, dealt with.
Because of this, all they had to do was wait us out. And that is what they did.
Oy mother fucking vey. Occupiers are always waited out by the occupied. Read history much? Oh yeah, we already dispensed with that - the answer is a resounding "NO." You brought up history, so choke on this bit of historical fact: The Brits went into Iraq in 1917, selling the war to the British populace as a humanitarian effort – the troops would be greeted with flowers and as liberators. It would take weeks, tops. Didn’t quite happen that way. Forty fucking years later they limped out of Iraq, the Royal Army broken and the royal treasury broke. Moron point number two: Dismissed.
Now we see the same thing in Iraq. So many members of Congress are wanting us out, and the media is providing as much bad press as possible. The insurgents know that this is going on here, meaning in Washington and in the media. This encourages them to continue fighting. They, too, figure all they have to do is keep the pressure on and wait us out.
Members of congress have access to intel that you don’t, and neither do Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carleson, you blooming idiot. They know the folly and the futility. And lets get back to propaganda. Is that what you want? A nation that was led to war by lies kept in perpetual war by more lies, perpetrated by a “patriotic press” willing to propagate any lie to further the government’s specious cause? Faux News is doing a good job of catapulting that propaganda. But it isn't news. Moron point number three: Hardly worth acknowledging.
Sooner or later, those in Washington will lose their willpower, and we will put our tails between our legs and run. Shades of Nam.
Here there is only one think to say…Fuck You! Put your own ass on the line, or get some skin in the game – send your kids, it’s such a glorious fight to be participating in. Or just shut the fuck up. Whichever. I could not possibly care less, so long as you do one or the other.
As a member of a family that comprises that professional Warrior class you and your ilk so easily take for granted and dismiss as cannon-fodder, but which allows you to sleep soundly at night, I can say without a bit of regret, you are a fucking asshole with nothing on the line and your opinion means less than zero to me and others who do have a stake in the fight. You are a fool, a warmonger, a chickenhawk and a feckless waste of humanity. You, I can hate with little effort, and that you stir that emotion in me makes me even angrier, because I do not wish to hate anyone, even ignorant jackasses. I would much rather pity your ignorance, or even be amused at your expense, but some people are just too stupid and wrong to be amusing or pitied. You are one of them.
Your best possible service to humanity is as an organ donor, and the sooner the better. Take up extreme sports immediately, and forgo the protective gear. Do it for the good of humanity.
Meantime, David Napoli, while we await that fatal skull fracture, you need to shag your ignorant ass back to whatever middle-school let you leave and demand that you receive the eighth-grade social studies education that you deserved to receive when you were a student; that eighth grade social studies curriculum that would all by itself keep you from looking like such a monumental jackass on the editorial page of a major daily newspaper.
