You could pay half of Antiwar.com’s quarterly needs. The going price of a six-mile ride from central Baghdad to Baghdad International Airport: $35,000. That’s up from six grand in November.
Uh, just to be clear, cab fare is NOT included in this wager.
“We weren’t on the wrong side. We were the wrong side.” – Daniel Ellsberg
With the 30th anniversary of the end of the US attack on Vietnam, the event which is usually referred to as the “defense of South Vietnam” or the Vietnam War in mind, I was able to see the notorious documentary Hearts and Minds, by Peter Davis, which won the 1974 Academy Award for Best Documentary, and was promptly denounced by Frank Sinatra (who presented the next award).
The film is far from perfect. It is too heavy-handed; it tells us how to interpret many of the things it simply needs to show us. There’s also a distracting attempt to explain American cultural militarism by drawing a parallel with American Football, which strikes me as too easy. The movie doesn’t need to try to supply easy answers to difficult questions.
The largest portion of the film features interviews with Americans involved in the war from two perspectives; Ex-soldiers explaining their role, and ex-bigshots explaining theirs. One such soldier, a flag-waving ex-POW nitwit named George Coker, explains that Vietnam would be a great place if not for the “backwards” and “primitive” natives. Then there’s Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who provides an explanation for why the US government felt it was acceptable to murder 3.4 million Vietnamese, “The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does the Westerner. Life is cheap in the Orient.”. Davis managed to secure an interview with the quintessential Cold Warrior – Walt Rostow, whose belief at that point that the attack was “worth it” is recorded for posterity. Rostow’s combative attitude and myopic view of the situation is quease-inducing, but its also somewhat amusing to see him ranting and raving about his own wrong-headedness. Continue reading “Hearts and Minds”
Via Timothy Noah, this alumnus chatter from the Yale Daily News:
Now I don’t believe that anyone – even a bloodthirsty cretin – owes his life to the state. But Bolton’s got some ‘splaining to do. First off, John Bolton (b. 1948) was enlistment age in 1966. Did he think the war was “already lost” in ’66? If so, then far from being a hawk, he was in the vanguard of the doves. When did young Bolton have this epiphany? After Dien Bien Phu?
Second, the National Guard route seems out of character for a man of such legendary testicular girth. If he thought the war was already lost, why didn’t he stand up on the bar, fire his pistol in the air to get everybody’s attention, and say so – you know, like tough guys do? I’m not saying he had to become some kinda antiwar pinko or nothin’. He coulda just said, “Well, fellas, this here war in Viet NAM is a helluva good thing, and we’ve killed a bunch of reds and little gooks who woulda grown up to be reds, and if it were up to ME, Hanoi – hell, Moscow‘d be glowin’ by now, but them damned lily-livered queers in Washington ain’t gonna let us, so… Might as well end this thing ‘fore any more of our boys come back D.O.A. or missin’ extremities.”
Seems to me that’s what a real tough guy would’ve done. But I’ll yield to the judgment of other tough guys.
I haven’t done this in some time, so here’s a mini-blog tour:
An interesting post on the use of napalm in Iraq by lenin. Added bonus: proof once again that Ann Clwyd is a pathetic tool of the state.
Special Police Commandos militia=Death Squads? swopa thinks so. Helena Cobban sees the same similarities.
And Riverbend explains how in “liberated Iraq” carrots can save a life.
Amelia Field of Human Rights First sends along this short flash film about torture at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. A good introduction for friends who may not know how little has been done to address the problem. A form letter to your senators and representatives is also available.
Aw shucks, Michelle. Thanks for the link. And for lumping us in your demonology with, um, Silvio Berlusconi (who we now learn doesn’t “care a whit about our soldiers’ safety.”) Oh well, love ’em and leave ’em.
UPDATE: Malkin links at the bottom to some people questioning the authenticity of the infamous Sgrena PDF. Even stopped clocks are right twice a day. Unless they’re digital. Check it out for yourself.
