I am old enough to remember the marches that we had in the sixties and early seventies to bring a halt to the Viet Nam war….I am reminded of those days as I watch Egyptians demonstrate for their cause…..A lot of individual men, women and youngsters….just sick of it!
I remember how terribly we treated returning veterans….and later many of us were ashamed…..we had gotten caught up in our moment and behaved badly……But after the march on Washington D.C. almost everyone had a sense that we were in it….we were throwing good lives (on both sides) and money after bad and we believed that we had the ability to put the brakes on. I think that is what the Egyptians are doing right now…
We had to learn, as will they, that big ships take a long time to change course or stop.
Fast forward to September 11, 2001. The bombing of the World Trade Center was an egregious atrocity…without a doubt…..So was Pearl Harbor…..Now as then we demonized an ethnic group that was not understood and actually put them in pens…took all of their property, stashed them – as we did the Native Americans before them on pieces of real estate that were hostile, unproductive and vulgar…..
We didn’t pay the survivors of Pear Harbor unbelievable sums in compensation although a valid argument could and can be made that the U.S. Government was asleep at the switch which is why the attack was so successful…I don’t think any such claim can be made this time…. water under the bridge.
As I see that mass of Egyptians trying to assert their grievances to their government….I recall my life as a Peace-nik….Committee for Non Violent Action West….and other groups that I was drawn to and drifted away from….just one young man….who had served his time in the Armed Forces and so knew that the boots on the ground were not the problem. The problem originated much higher up….in the Pentagon, the Congress, the board rooms of the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower tried to warn us of…..
It was in those venues that we the people were manipulated into believing that this was good, just and necessary war. That the war in South East Asia would keep it from South East Oakland, Los Angeles, Boston, Memphis et.al.
This time the silver tongued suits kept fresh the lessons of that earlier time and figured out how to manipulate the media; how to control the flow of information….how to squeeze the very last drop of blood and guts from our military – active and reserve.
Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Chaney trivialized the men who were sent to serve - and their families…They got away with it and are still getting away with it because they eliminated the draft…. the mandatory service…. the great leveler…AND even more clever than that,
that cabal of treachery conspired to hide the monetary cost from the tax paying public…. and we the sheep of this great land took it on faith that to question or object was to be traitorous…. disloyal…. Not to be a part of the team.
I have wondered where those young men and women with whom I marched in the Viet Nam war days had gone….what had happened to those draft dodgers who we helped hide until they could book to safety….Those giants of peace, and love….Well, I don’t know for sure but they sure are missing in action….one of the things that made us as effective as we were is that many of the leadership was educated…had read something besides Facebook…they had a personal, vital reason to turn out and lead us….their necks were at risk…where are they now? How many of them were in on the corporate/wall street debacle of the last few years…have they put that intelligence to good use making multi-millions every year for themselves, but never producing anything more substantial but magic, cotton candy, fantasy….
Now we all know that our budgets are messed up at a national, regional and personal level….and that some adjustments are not only in order but way past due….where do the pencil pushers and bean counters think would be a good place to cut….the rehabilitation, reconciliation and re-socialization of our military soldiers - and the families that they left when they went to serve…..The next time some arrogant, self absorbed, person suggests that they (the vets) don’t have anything coming because they signed up of their own free will….put that ignoramus in check, please.
