This brings me to Vietnam and the propaganda machine they had going. Vietnam, I admit, is very similar to what is going on in Iraq. First, however, let's get the differences out of the way; Vietnam was never a threat to us, nor did they have 16 UN resolution slapped upon them, nor was there intelligence indicating they may give bio or chemical weapons to proxy agents, nor did they bribe the UN and other not so United Nations i.e. France, Russia, Germany etc., nor did the Vietcong plan to reconstitute a nuclear program after sanctions were lifted due to the bribing of said countries. What is very similar, aside from the fact that the USA lost not a single military battle in either theater, is that we lost and are losing the information war. They say the pen is mightier than the sword, and in that vein, perception and the not-so-invisible hand of public opinion is mightier than the A-Bomb.
The Vietcong reveled at the site of dead Vietnamese civilians for its propaganda value, whether caused by the USA or not, much like al-Qaeda gloats when it can cause as much havoc as possible. The formula is simple, the more chaos created that will be pinned on the Superpower the better; the side with the big guns, regardless of the fact that the US military practically jumps through its own rear end to avoid civilian casualties, will always look like the bully. A lot of these peace protesters, hard as it is to imagine, want the US to lose. Yes, I will say it again: A lot of peace protesters want the US to lose. This is the same attitude the prevailed during the Vietnam era, and it worked. What is more chilling, is the fact that the same communist utopian ideological groups whose agenda it was to see the US raise the white flag, bowing to Soviet interests, are of the same cloth as those funding anti-war rallies today, see below. Just think about this: If the same media we have today were embedded with US troops during World War II, we probably would be living in very different, German speaking if you will, world. Scary isn't it?
One can debate the merits for why the US intervened in the later wars. That is another topic for another day, but the fact remains that when the media starts playing politics and foreign media picks up our news and broadcasts thousands of people pontificating in the streets of DC calling Bush a war criminal and the US government filthy liars, it does nothing but embolden those who wish to do us harm. And as far as I am concerned, I would rather keep my moral compass away from those who are trying to kill me.
Here are some Wikipedia.org blurbs dealing with the main groups funding today's "peace" rallies:
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP, USA), known originally as the
Revolutionary Union, is a Maoist-oriented communist party formed in 1975 in the
United States.
United for Peace and Justice
Ms. Cagan was a founder of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, a spin-off group of the Communist Party in America.
Workers World Party (WWP) is a communist party in the United States founded in 1959 by Sam Marcy. During the Civil Rights Movement the WWP had a youth movement, "Youth Against War and Fascism", which opposed the Vietnam War. Workers World and YAWF were also notable for their consistent defense of the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground along with Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Other groups affiliated, albeit more clandestinely, with communist agendas:
http://www.answercoalition.org/
International Action Center
Not In Our Name
All People's Congress
And here some more blurbs from Wikipedia.org:
Both ANSWER and the International Action Center are closely allied with a small
but energetic Marxist-Leninist organization known as the Workers World Party,
which in its turbulent history has supported the Soviet interventions in Hungary
and Czechoslovakia, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the Chinese
government's crackdown in Tiananmen Square. Today, the WWP devotes much of its energy to supporting the regimes in Iraq and North Korea.
1 comment:
I like your use of the term "Redux". I will make it my word of the day tomorrow and attempt to use it in a sentence. As for the media, its been misguided for a long, long time now...the most news-worthy thing I have seen recently was a piece on 60 mins. about the disappearance of the Bee's (there's some potential for global impact...food shortage anyone?) As for the other crap the "news" reports on...mainly I could give a rat's A$$. It's a ratings game, and unfortunately the networks and public at large have started to believe their own B.S and turned into a self-licking Ice Cream cone. I bet if Al-qaieda cut the heads off a few more western journalists the media would change its tune. Hey...does anyone remember all the newspapers and quality journalism that Afghani reporters put out during the Taliban regime? Ah..the good old days
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