> Why are we hoping for "another Vietnam"? Are we
> expecting a shift in opinion about such and such a war
> only if young American soldiers die? Shouldn't we
> know by now to go another route to get people to stop
> supporting the US war machine?
>
>
> =====
> Kevin Dean
Well, I am not HOPING for another Vietnam. Unfortunately, it appears to be the case that the majority of the public only questions the war machine when its costs are brought home in the form of dead and wounded sons and daughters. Otherwise, most people seem inclined to cheer the war machine on when it looks like some kind of video game on CNN, and the only casualties are volunteer professional soldiers, and few of them. You will recall that Bush I boasted at the time of the Gulf War that the US had gotten beyond the "Vietnam syndrome." The "Vietnam syndrome," meaning popular unwillingness to accept conscription and the ensuing deaths and injuries of draftees, was a significant constraint on the war machine's freedom of action. That is why they have gone to all-volunteer armed forces, and why so much money has been poured into developing high tech weaponry. The US elite may have deluded themselves into thinking that they have licked the "Vietnam syndrome" once and for all, which may now impel them to overreach in the case of Iraq. The region is much more volatile now than it was at the time of the Gulf War, however. If war breaks out in Iraq, unrest and fighting may spread beyond the borders of that country, leading to a steady escalation on the part of the US. Iraq itself may prove to be a tougher nut to crack than they suppose, and may require vastly greater forces than currently projected. If either of these things happen, then the task of the left opposition within the US will be to bring back the "Vietnam syndrome." I am hoping not for "another Vietnam," but, in case of war, for the rebirth domestically of the "Vietnam syndrome."
Jacob Conrad