SCN: Lesson for anti-war

[sharma at blarg.net]

I have not bothered to look for the
original citation, but I have seen
Horowitz on TV under other circumstances
and this certainly sounds like him. He
was a leftie who became disillusioned
with the left, joined the right, and has
been making a good living attacking the
left since. Who knows if he was really
as important in the left as he says he
was. While some of the stuff he says in
other venues makes sense, and is at
least open to debate, this is pure
garbage. 

As one of those demonstrators I can say
with certainty that we did not have the
power to cause US failure in Vietnam,
our gov failed on its own. Like so many
righties, he is terminally cranky, and
while he also admits that we have
complex problems, he finds that he
prefers simple, or is that simplistic,
solutions. And above all, wave the flag
and agree with the gov.

Like the current war on drugs, the
lament that "if only we got serious and
had the full support of the public, we
could win this war" was used regarding
Vietnam and is used to ignore and pesky
little facts that keep popping up about
the impossibility of winning then and in
our current drug war. Even when Russia
was a complete police state, people used
drugs. Even in China, where people can
be put to death (or slave labor for
years) people use drugs. And nothing can
stop people from fighting for their
homes, except total genocide, even in
Vietnam.

Like Fox News (fair and balanced
reporting they keep saying), when in
doubt the right attacks the left, or the
middle since they cannot tell the
difference. Keep in mind that these
people considered Clinton a screaming
leftist!

One newletter I read recently pointed
out that the 100 million bucks the right
got spent in trying to castrate Clinton
could have been spent on paying
attention to terrorism. And maybe even
paying attention to all sorts of other
important stuff happening to the
country.

Thanks for your quote from Tuchman, she
says it so well....

-sharma


Malcolm Taran wrote:
> 
> (Thread of TuanMD and J Johnson)
> 
> --> Is this satire or a hoax?
> --> A 700 Club feature?
> --> In what medium did the original appear?  References?
> 
> On Fri, 5 Oct 2001, 13:48:05, TuanMD wrote:
> > Anti-War Demonstrators Should Think Twice
> >                                   Wednesday, October 03, 2001
> > By David Horowitz from FOX News
> >
> >                            I am a former anti-war activist who helped
> > to organize the first campus demonstration against the war in Vietnam
> > at the University of California, Berkeley in 1962. I appeal to all
> > those young people who participated in "anti-war" demonstrations on
> > 150 college campuses this week, to think again and not to join an
> > "anti-war" effort against America's coming battle with international
> > terrorism.
> > [snip]
> 
> A most succinct evaluation re. the above is chapter five
> in Barbara Tuchman's
> _The March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam_, NY: Knopf, '84
> (SPL 909.08 T79M),
> as well as providing context with the continuity of the book.
> (Tuchman is the author of _The Guns of August_.)
> 
> "Ignorance was not a factor in the American endeavor in Vietnam
> pursued through five successive presidencies, altough it was to
> become an excuse.  Ignorance of country and culture there may
> have been, but not ignorance of the contra-indications, even the
> barriers, to achieving the objective of American policy.  All the
> conditions and reasons precluding a successful outcome were
> recognized or foreseen at one time or another during the thirty
> years of our involvement.  American intervention was not a
> progress sucked step by step into an unsuspected quagmire.  At no
> time were policy-makers unaware of the hazards, obstacles and
> negative developments.  American intelligence was adequate,
> informed observation flowed steadily from the field to the
> capital, special investigative missions were repeatedly sent out,
> independent reportage to balance professional optimism--when that
> prevailed--was never lacking.  The folly consisted not in pursuit
> of a goal in ignorance of the obstacles but in persistence in the
> pursuit despite accumulating evidence that the goal was
> unattainable, and the effect disproportionate to the American
> interest and eventually damaging to American society, reputation
> and disposable power in the world."  (Tuchman, '84. p.234.)
> 
> _The Pentagon Papers_ need only be mentioned.
>
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