In a way it’s the same old, same old on this fifth anniversary of our invasion of a largely defenseless nation for no reason other than lies concocted by the Bush regime. Dick Cheney (who dodged the draft during Vietnam, explaining he had “other priorities“) was in Iraq repeating the same old lies about 9/11 having something to do with our regime’s attack on Saddam Hussein’s regime. John McCain, one of the few neocon leaders who was not a draft or combat evader, was in Jordan, where he claimed Iran was training Al-Qaeda — and most networks (not all: MSNBC deserves a little applause) studiously downplayed his awful ignorance — the sort of stupidity that should resolve the question about whether he’s qualified to get the “3 a.m. phone call” (answer: no). And, of course, George Bush (who most certainly did go AWOL from his Air National Guard playboy squadron, a gig his dad’s friends engineered for him so he wouldn’t risk facing combat in Vietnam while John Kerry was most certainly deservedly earning medals for valor in the conflict), was claiming the war was really swell. Even our own neocon toady, Saxby Chambliss (who dodged the draft claiming bad knees, although that didn’t seem to deter him from playing football) was blustering that he’d be glad to face Democrat Jim Martin (who served as an Army lieutenant during Vietnam) in a debate on the war.
But at least there were some new voices — although the media went to great lengths to ignore them. Last month, I spoke to a group of veterans in Buckhead — Vets for Peace, Vietnam Vets Against the War, Iraq Veterans Against the War. The event was to promote the Iraq Winter Soldier hearings this week. My co-speaker was Doug Ament, from this generation of veterans that, as I and my fellow veterans did 40 years ago, learned imperial wars benefit no one except the powerful profiteers. Ament was an aide to the top U.S. political people in Baghdad — and was so horrified by what he saw that he resigned his officer’s commission and went back as a civilian to try to rebuild what he had helped destroy. He’s now a grad student at Emory.
The first Winter Soldier hearings were in 1971 and dispelled any illusions about the nobility of the Vietnam conflict. The second Winter Soldier event took place earlier this month. Nope, don’t bother looking for stories in the AJC. But you can find reports here and here.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
After Iran’s nascent green revolution was forced from America’s collective consciousness by Gov. Mark Sanford’s public loss of virginity, Michael Jackson beating it, and Sarah Palin quitting to prove she’s no quitter, many of my friends were dismayed. Quite a few of them complained about how titillating news is always pushing important news out of the limelight.
