US Person is truly disgusted with Washington politicans bashing the principled opposition to the Vietnam War by an entire generation of young Americans. Forty-four did it again on this Veterans Day, addressing the people gathered at Arlington National Cemetery for the traditional wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown. Denigrating millions of Americans who stood up to their government to end a war that was immoral and unjustified has itself become tradition:"If we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that there have been times where we as a nation have betrayed that sacred trust," "Our Vietnam veterans served with great honor. They often came home greeted not with gratitude or support, but with condemnation and neglect. That's something that will never happen again."
Many Americans at the time of Vietnam were emotionally opposed to the continuation of bloodshed. They were ashamed of their country killing millions of Vietnamese. If some took their frustrations out on individual returning soldiers, that was wrong, but entirely understandable. They saw their patriotic duty as convincing their leaders to end the war. To their everlasting credit they succeeded. The American anti-war movement did not loose a war by betraying servicemen*. To think that is to dismiss the extreme sacrifice of the Vietnamese who wanted an end to colonialism whether under France or as a client state of the U.S. fighting the Cold War.
Incredibly less than fifty years later, The United States is having a deja vu moment again with Forty-four playing the role of LBJ. He is about to send more young Americans to pay in blood for the mistaken notion that to do otherwise would fail "to do right by them". Accusing anti-war Americans of treason by implication to garner support for continuing the confused war in Afghanistan is a reprehensible political maneuver. Afghanistan is probably more of a quagmire than Vietnam. At least there was a South Vietnamese army that on occasion fought well with American support. The history of Afghanistan's impoverished tribal struggle against foreign powers goes back centuries. They are just as motivated as the communists were to push the foreign invader out. It may be just possible that they do not want a western style democracy imposed on them. And once again the American people are saying no more war. Will it take another Kent State for the authorities to represent the desires of the people who elected them? Their mind set is as hard as the stone monuments for the dead to which they pay so much tribute. The living can go die in a faraway desert land.
*Repugnant Senator Tom Coburn (OK) has put a hold on a major veterans' benefit bill, drawing the ire of 13 military and veteran groups