Here is a link to a columnist’s point of view about our recent wars, one that some of you may disagree with. Nevertheless, it’s worth reading and thinking about.
https://www.alternet.org/cost-war-end-empire
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Here is a link to a columnist’s point of view about our recent wars, one that some of you may disagree with. Nevertheless, it’s worth reading and thinking about.
https://www.alternet.org/cost-war-end-empire
Saw the stare in your faces as we assisted you across a god forsaken bridge from Khe Sanh with your neckless of ears and the labor in your eyes. Mac 101st Airborne1968, living in Michigan, way up north
Well, I never was anywhere near Khe Sahn, and sure as hell never wore necklaces of ears.
Phil: Boy it has been a long time–like 42 years. I wrote you long ago about spending several hours with Adam Simpson a few days before his platoon was destroyed. I tried to give him the benefit of my over 2 months in the field and told him to be very, very careful. I wish I could find the long letter you wrote back to me; it has been a couple of decades since I last read it. It will show up one of these days.
Like you I returned from Vietnam very opposed to the war.
S/F Lt. Col. Jack Swallows USMC TBS 2-65
The greatest threats we face as a nation are not hostile foreign countries, they are the indifference and entitlement of our own. In spite of perpetual war, no one is required to be aware of anything beyond their own backyard.
There are few things that aggravate me more than the fact that all we ask of people is to pay attention and vote yet, that is too much. Imagine the changes that could result from an informed, participatory population. Certainly one could not have full knowledge of our continuous state of war and not demand and work towards an end.
I know my views may be unpopular but I am a veteran and an educator. It pains me to see how easily people can live in denial while our elected officials and the heads of big business manipulate our country.
My older brother was in Vietnam in 1966.He told me that he was in “THE IRON TRIANGLE” fighting. He came home a very different person than when he left. He was my big brother and protector. He never talked much about what happened. In 2011 we lost our family farm to a wildfire and he and a younger lost everything they had. Our folks had passed in early 2000’s. Since that time he has talked to a little about Vietnam and it has got me interested in what he went thru. I have since wanted to try to understand a little about what he went thru. I read your book “A Rumor of War” and am reading “The Iron Triangle” by Joe Rhinehart. I now think I can understand why he is different after reading such horror knowing he lived thru it. I love my big brother so much and pray for him every night.
Your comments were very moving.The experience of battle can radically change one’s personality, as you have discovered. I can only express my sadness over your and your brother’s misfortunes, and wish that you gather the strength to overcome them. Your brother is very lucky to have a sibling who loves him as much as you do.
My brother and I were together 8 years before the other 2 siblings came along. Things were not always easy for us so we were very close then. After the war he went his own way and I missed so many years with him. Our mother was partly the cause of that. Since our parents deaths we have gotten close again and I will not let anything come between us again.
Phil, I had the honor and pleasure of meeting you at M.O. Club in Tucson where you and your chrarming wife were dinner guests of my father, Neel. Back in the day I , like many others, had my dog eared copy of Rumors of War on my college book shelf.. One of the first of many books I have read over the decades about the Nam and still one of my favourites..That the military madness continues today seems sadly to have become the norm.. There is no anti-war movement and as much as some may have been critical of Ken Burns I strongly disagree that he underplayed it in his very moving series ..Oh that young people today had that fire in their bellies…We can only hope that the madman Trump rouses them from their slumbers… make it so…
Sorry but we are the last great hope for the world. China is building islands, stealing oil and patents and is a major danger. Russia is poor and small but determined to get hegemony form Ukraine thru Turkey and Syria and Iran. Both are evil and must be confronted.
Iran is the most evil because unlike Stalin , Mao , Putin, and the crazy Kim Jong Un are all atheists, who in the final analysis did not want nuclear war, because as an atheist, death is a real bad option.
Iran on the other hand, blinded by radical. Version of Islam, believe the Mahdi has returned to earth and the final war and destruction of Israel is not only inevitable but the most desired state.
Europe is collapsing, Japan and South Korea useless, Canada is run by simpleton child and Australia is our
only real ally.
We are by necessity, as always the last real hope for the world. We must confront evil.
As my first boss said to me when I complained about my co workers lack of follow up…if not You, who, if not now, when.
I did not vote for any of the 4 bad choices for president.
That said, as crazy and narcissistic a Trump is, at least we have a foreign policy not based on apology, weakness of military and a horrible Iran policy and deal.
If not us, who and when..
It means a lot to have you, Phil, of all people, posit this Jeremiad. Very many more people than you might hope are coming awake to these things, and smart people are finding words, and attention, and following, that can lead to action, if action follows courage.
Lavada and I hope you and Leslie continue to flourish and prosper.