Commentary By Ron Beasley
Hootsbuddy and I are the only Hoggers old enough to really remember the war and Vietnam and what it did to this country. The Wall Street Journal had a piece today on the West Point class of 1976. Mostly fluff but this paragraph jumped right out at me.
West Point�s class of 1976 was the first modern generation of military officers to enter the army without serving in Vietnam. They succeed retired generals like Colin Powell and other senior commanders who all had Vietnam experience and spent decades trying to keep the military out of conflicts like Iraq, which they saw as a potential repeat of Vietnam. Gens. Odierno and McChrystal believe that the military will be involved in open-ended, low-intensity conflicts for decades to come and are devoting their careers to making sure that the Army is prepared to fight and win them.
When the Generals don't remember the Vietnam cluster fuck we are in deep shit. We just lost one American who remembered Vietnam very well, Walter Cronkite. As Greg Mitchell reminds us he remembered Vietnam so well Cronkite opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq. I have watched with amazement as FOX news and other conservatives outlets have heaped praise on Walter - they hated his guts because of Vietnam, Watergate and more recently his opposition to the Iraq war.
So how many more wars will we have to suffer through until the West Point class of 2005 or 2006 or 2007 get to the top and remember Iraq and yes Afghanistan? And as for the press - there will be no more Walter Cronkites, only millionaire talking heads who say exactly what their corporate masters want them to say.
Ron, your headline says it all, "when will they ever learn?" I saw that piece yesterday and had basically the same reaction. I wanted to put a post about it but figured it would be like pissing in the ocean. And as you say, the same people today, especially journalists, basking in the afterglow of the late Walter Cronkite, strike me as deeply dishonest in their transparent hypocrisy. They roll over for the military and the country's ongoing obscene expenses on behalf of the military industrial complex (that even Ike warned about) while carping about "expenses" and "increased taxes" associated with universal health care.
ReplyDeleteHell, yes, if you open the now-rationed health care delivery system to the sixth of the population now excluded it WILL cost more. Hello! Is anyone paying attention? Does any rational person think it can be done for nothing? And those trying to advanced the idea go along with the same crazy meme and try to change the subject. I can't make sense of it all myself. Seems like both sides of the argument are competing for a "stuck on stupid" prize.
The last forty years has seen the advent of a self-absorbed, over-indulged generation that has no idea how bad life can be for others not in their closed circles. One of our occasional new commenters, Deron S, is a young man from that generation whom I have come to know via blogging. His take on health care is essentially non-political. He is part of the delivery system in some capacity, but has a passion for exercise, diet, nutrition and encouraging everyone to make smart personal decisions about their health.
Yesterday he put up a post aimed at the out of control obesity problem in America, asking for input. It being Saturday afternoon I had lots of time on my hands and allowed myself a stream of consciousness that took three comments to complete. Those with time on their hands this weekend can go read, but my main thesis was that the intervening decades since Vietnam correspond with a shift in social values from what I call a "thrift" mentality to one of "value." These two terms, though similar, are different in a fundamental way that has poisoned our understanding of ourselves and the world.
At some level that change of values puzzles together in a tragic way with this "new" crop of military commanders, journalists and politicos. In the end I think it has to do with an almost juvenile quality, short on risk assessment and delayed gratification but quite long on selfishness.
How exactly does one win an open-ended conflict?
ReplyDelete