Hi Micro,
Thanks for speaking up. I apologize to anyone here who served, in Vietnam or elsewhere, I even apologize for those who may have worked honorably in the Federal government. I can get way too grandiose (emotional) when I am writing—particularly about this, my country. That is a lot of the reason I edit, and re-edit, and re-edit, again, so many of my posts.
I wasn't making a comment about the caliber of soldiers; the Vietnam debacle killed too many of the best young Americans -- senselessly.
I think the problems with our military, and our endless warring, are mostly POST Vietnam. And I think they are mostly, at root, problems with Military LEADERSHIP, corruption in the purchasing of weapons systems, politicization of the decisions of where we CHOOSE to launch a war, and too much of a belief in 'tech' and American invincibility and faith in those high-tech weapons.
The best soldiers with the best weapons can't win without the best leadership. And the best leaders DON'T KILL PEOPLE FOR OIL AND CORPORATE INTERESTS.
In particular, it is a colossal mistake to get involved in war when the United States, itself, has not been attacked or does not have deep, morally defensible reasons to start killing people.
World War 2 was the last war I can think of when the United States had such moral certitude that a fight-to-the-death was absolutely necessary.
It takes a particular profound blindness to not recognize that virtually every real "war" the United States has engaged in since WW2 has NOT been morally justified. The killing could have been avoided. In most cases, the US had nothing essential, nothing morally-defensible to gain by engaging in the warring. Indeed, nearly ALL our recent wars, since Vietnam, have been part of an "oil grab".
Our soldiers are hobbled from the beginning when they are charged with fighting a non-moral, non-necessary, war, with weapons which were sold for maximum profit, with politicized leaders and "narratives".
The Vietnamese were fighting for their homeland and their families. The Americans were fighting for their corporations, their politicians, the political "narrative"....
Most of the subsequent wars have been fought by US soldiers on even LESS compelling grounds.
Anyway, I get too carried away when writing about something as dear to my heart as the US Constitution. I apologize, again, to those I have carelessly insulted. There is a significant amount of generalization and guessing when I try to write about a lot of things.
We need to give up the empire bit. We aren't good at it -- and it has a corrupting influence and moral hazard.
| 
