US and Viet Nam strike trade deal. Tell me again why the loss of 58K

lives was worth being able to deal with a still communist state? We could have done this and still can do it anytime we want to. In fact, we could have dealt with the USSR anytime we wanted to. It's a damn lie that communism is bad and capitalism is good. Mutual interests is what is good. We lost all those lives and still live in a society of military goons whose every action is a response to the embarrassment that was Viet Nam. It's damn pitiful that war is our first answer to everything and that we will fight anything and anyone that is not just like us for no good reasons.

At one time Iraq was our ally but most people have been brainwashed to think of Iraq only as a villinous state and Saddam as the epitome of evil when for decades he and they were on our side. Now we have lost over 2400 young men and women and countless innocent Iraqis for the same superiority complex that cost us 58K lives in Viet Nam. And today we are able to deal with Viet Nam and China without so much as a flinch, while sanctioning Cuba to death with an assinine policy against "socialism and communism." WAKE THE FUCK UP, AMERICA!!!

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D86700F2-7B9B-4F34-A797-34A6ED99F00B.htm

bought and used up. That meant contracts and jobs. War is good for the economy don't you know! (Though as Orwell indicated in 1984 you could just as easily buy the hardware and go dump in the sea somewhere and skip the casualties.)

...in 1948, before the advent of hi-tech media.

If you dump all the potent, sexy, exciting military hardware in the sea, what on earth will we have to watch on our 95" HD plasma TVs with Dolby 15.1 surround sound? The military/industrial complex aren't the only ones profiting mightily from the mayhem and carnage. TV networks, home entertainment and consumer electronics companies, Hollywood, toy manufacturers, Videogame producers; all of them suck at the teat of war.

If our military didn't regularly go out and use the weapons our tax dollars make for them, half of the American economy simply wouldn't exist. War is biiiig business and one of the few growth industries left.

58k Americans were killed outright in Vietnam.

Roughly an equal number were permanently crippled, died later of related causes, or committed suicide due to war-related mental damage.


And 4.4 million, yes, million Vietnamese, both north and south, more than 1/2 civilians, were killed during the war.

Chinese, Cambodians, Laos, Montgards and Thai peoples.

At one time Iraq was our ally but most people have been brainwashed to think of Iraq only as a villinous state and Saddam as the epitome of evil when for decades he and they were on our side.

When Iraq was our ally they were a villainous state and Saddam was the epitome of evil... but they were our villains and he was our evil leader.

They were at one time among the most secular and educated people in the region. Their feelings of Saddam as protector may have legitimate basis because of the unprovoked attack by Israel and the many attacks by Iran and the stealing of their oil resources by Kuwait.

and what it cost viet nam in the post war period.

if we had accepted this for the internal struggle it was -- we'd all be light years ahead.

...the civilian leadership makes that decision. The military prepares for war but hopes like hell it will never have to fight one. The civilian leadership never has to be on the front lines...and they don't care where they send someone else's sons and daughters.

And as far as the "military goons" are concerned that fought in Vietnam, the vast majority of those officers were dead set against going into Iraq. It's the latest generation of officers that entered the military after Vietnam that seem confused about what their real role of the military should be.

Now, if you want to talk about the civilian leadership that lied about the reasons for attacking Vietnam, and then turned around and lied about the reasons for attacking Iraq, then you'll have a good discussion.