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War On Terrorism: Viet Nam Redux?
by bobby jennings
While watching the HBO
produced "Path To War", a docudrama about how the US and
President Lyndon Johnson were pulled into the Viet Nam War, I could not help but
make comparisons to the current war on terrorism. In Viet Nam we were slowly and
methodically pulled into the war by questionable global concepts and egos. But,
if one thing can be discerned from our experience in Viet Nam, it is that it was
a war that should not have been fought and could not be won. And in the end it
left 50,000 Americans and 3 to 4 million Vietnamese and Cambodians dead. Any
sane person can only reflect in disbelief.
As in Viet Nam, America again is slowly and methodically being pulled into
war. The war on terrorism should be merely a necessary police action to round up
criminals, an action that is always required in a lawful society.
Make no mistake, I am for rounding up global criminals and for increased
vigilance by law enforcement authorities. But, I don't for a minute think they
can stop all criminal activity and I don't even pretend that I think they can.
Thus, I am not in favor of locking down our borders, suspending citizen's
rights, or restricting any other rights we and our ancestors have worked for,
suffered for, and died for, in a mythical quest for security from a bloated
government that can't seem to get out of its own way. But I think there is more
going on here than is immediately apparent and it's here our foreign policy
fails us and misrepresents the true meaning of America as it has so often done
in the past.
Like the Roman Empire, our Government is scattering our legions across our
"oil" empire. This is not left wing or liberal jibber jabber or
conspiracy theory as some may characterize, but straight out of Business Week.
(The Next Oil Frontier: America carves out a sphere of influence on Russia's
borders, May 27, 2002. Subscribers to Business Week can find it here
online.)
Oil is the lifeblood of America, you say, and our oil interests must be
protected. Then, I must argue that, if we just spent 10% of our 400
billion-dollar annual defense budget for 10 years on renewable energy sources
and conservation measures, we would have no need to protect foreign oil
interests. And there would be many other benefits to our society besides
removing foreign oil dependency.
Mind you, I have no problem with American companies making investments in
foreign countries, oil or otherwise. But I draw the line at stationing American
troops in countries like Georgia, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan
to protect those same private oil interests and then pretend it is linked to
terrorism. Frankly our governmental involvement in the Caspian Oil fields looks
more like Western Imperialism in China during the 1800's. See Opium
Wars and The
Boxer Rebellion.
This comparison to China is not just historical but weighs heavily on current
affairs. One can only be concerned that the Carlyle Asian Group's publicly
stated interest is China. And that George H.W. Bush is Carlyle's Asian advisor.
And that our current President and many of his administration were or are
connected directly or indirectly to the Carlyle Group. (See The Nation.com "Crony
Capitalism Goes Global".) At best, these connections give the
appearance of impropriety. I am also disturbed that plans to attack the Taliban
were in place prior to 9-11 (NBC) and I suspect so were plans to attack Iraq.
Coupled with the almost immediate stationing of troops in Caspian Sea area
after 9-11 and preplanning attacks of Afghanistan and maybe Iraq may suggest
something else is at play besides retaliation against Osama bin Laden. It is an
easy guess that he who controls the flow of oil from the Middle East -- Caspian
oil fields, pipe lines, and tankers -- to the emerging industrial giant China,
will think they hold the upper hand. Instead of Opium Wars will it be Oil Wars?
As Yogi Berra would say: It's deja vu all over again.
General Westmoreland, the commanding general in Viet Nam had it right. The
secret to winning the Viet Nam War was "winning the hearts and minds "
of the Vietnamese. However, someone forgot to point out that you can't win
hearts and minds with bombs and that people have long memories of atrocities.
While serving in Germany in the late 60's, I found the German people to be very
hospitable, but the firebombing of Dresden was brought to my attention more than
once in discussing the purity of the American War effort. See: The
Truth about the 1945 Bombing of Dresden and The
Fire-bombing of Dresden: An eye-witness account. Hitler himself
proved that bombing would only strengthen the resolve of the British people
during World War II.
Like Viet Nam, the current War On Terrorism is based on questionable global
concepts, should not be fought, and can not be won by military means. Terrorism
and other criminal activities can only be limited by truly winning the hearts
and minds of the people of the world and by just enforcement of laws at home.
 RECOMMENDED
BOOK: "Perpetual
War for Perpetual Peace", ©2002, by Gore Vidal. Published by
Nation Books. http://www.nationbooks.org
Info/Order
this book.
About The
Author
 bobby
jennings is co-publisher of InnerSelf
Publications and webmaster of InnerSelf.com. Originally a Democrat for
many years, he moved to the Republican party in the mid 1980's. He
now supports common sense initiatives from all parties, but is a registered
Green Party member. He is an ex-Army officer and retired small business owner. He was born,
raised, and educated in the "Old South" in Northern Florida.
More articles by this author.
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