Five links between US actions in Vietnam and in Afghanistan
opening a political office in Qatar. The idea is that the US and the Taliban can have peace talks.
This made me think of similarities between how the US once dealt with the Viet Cong and how it is dealing with the Taliban today.
1: The USA always screws its allies
In the Vietnam War, the US was allied to South Vietnam against the North. The US had private, back-door talks with the North, excluding the South. It then sold out its allies in the South.
Today, the US is allied to Karzai’s phoney Government against the Taliban. The US is about to have private, back-door talks with the Taliban, excluding Karzai. Karzai is demanding to be part of the talks so he won’t get cut out. No one is listening to him…
The point is that individualism and the ‘me, me, me, what’s in it for me? it’s mine, what you looking at? ’ attitude is not simply intended for each citizen; it defines their civilisation.
2: The Americans are the real terrorists
The US reign of terror in Vietnam is well known. Countless massacres of civilians, torture followed by mutilation of the murdered, whole villages bombed or burned to the ground, systematic raping and sodomizing of Vietnamese girls, water wells poisoned and the use of chemical and biological agents like napalm on civilian populations were among the atrocities committed by the strongest military power in the world against one of the weakest. It resulted in two million direct Vietnamese deaths (with more as a result of Agent Orange - which contained dioxin, a poison that causes foetal death, congenital defects and cancer).
The objective was to terrorise. The US Army believed they could do as they wished against an enemy they had demonised. They committed massacres like at My Lai when 504 civilians were butchered in 3 hours (including a pause for lunch). US soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. There were no men of fighting age in the village at the time. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets. People were rounded up into ditches and machine-gunned. They lay five feet deep in the ditches; any survivors trying to escape were immediately shot. When Lt. William Calley, the commander of the platoon, spotted a baby crawling away from a ditch, he grabbed her, threw her back into the ditch, and opened fire. Some of the bodies were mutilated by having “C Company” carved into their chests; some were disembowelled.
In Afghanistan today we hear of massacres of civilians, torture followed by mutilation of the murdered, whole villages bombed…
3: The USA has only one tactic and it doesn’t work
The USA usually relies on a three stage tactic of sending in covert Special Forces (spies), using incredible aerial firepower before finally sending in huge numbers on the ground to make sure.
To defeat the Viet Cong, the USA initially sent in 2,000 ‘military advisors’, a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. In 1965, they escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam (with huge ‘collateral damage’) and committing ground forces (also with huge ‘collateral damage’), which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The US eventually dropped more bombs on Vietnam than fell on Europe during World War II. It didn’t work.
To defeat the Taliban, the US has used a three stage tactic…
4 Body count matters
The Vietnam War cost the United States 58,000 lives and 350,000 casualties. The public grew restless. The US had to fudge the numbers and lie to keep the death count low otherwise people would demand an end to the war.
In Afghanistan, the USA is up to its old tricks again.
5 The USA lost.
Finally, the USA failed to defeat a well-organised insurgency of people fighting for the homeland with the support of their people and knowledge of their terrain.
Can you see a similarity between US actions in Vietnam and in Afghanistan?
Five links between US actions in Vietnam and in Afghanistan
opening a political office in Qatar. The idea is that the US and the Taliban can have peace talks.
This made me think of similarities between how the US once dealt with the Viet Cong and how it is dealing with the Taliban today.
1: The USA always screws its allies
In the Vietnam War, the US was allied to South Vietnam against the North. The US had private, back-door talks with the North, excluding the South. It then sold out its allies in the South.
Today, the US is allied to Karzai’s phoney Government against the Taliban. The US is about to have private, back-door talks with the Taliban, excluding Karzai. Karzai is demanding to be part of the talks so he won’t get cut out. No one is listening to him…
The point is that individualism and the ‘me, me, me, what’s in it for me? it’s mine, what you looking at? ’ attitude is not simply intended for each citizen; it defines their civilisation.
2: The Americans are the real terrorists
The US reign of terror in Vietnam is well known. Countless massacres of civilians, torture followed by mutilation of the murdered, whole villages bombed or burned to the ground, systematic raping and sodomizing of Vietnamese girls, water wells poisoned and the use of chemical and biological agents like napalm on civilian populations were among the atrocities committed by the strongest military power in the world against one of the weakest. It resulted in two million direct Vietnamese deaths (with more as a result of Agent Orange - which contained dioxin, a poison that causes foetal death, congenital defects and cancer).
The objective was to terrorise. The US Army believed they could do as they wished against an enemy they had demonised. They committed massacres like at My Lai when 504 civilians were butchered in 3 hours (including a pause for lunch). US soldiers went berserk, gunning down unarmed men, women, children and babies. There were no men of fighting age in the village at the time. Families which huddled together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy. Those who emerged with hands held high were murdered. Women were gang raped; Vietnamese who had bowed to greet the Americans were beaten with fists and tortured, clubbed with rifle butts and stabbed with bayonets. People were rounded up into ditches and machine-gunned. They lay five feet deep in the ditches; any survivors trying to escape were immediately shot. When Lt. William Calley, the commander of the platoon, spotted a baby crawling away from a ditch, he grabbed her, threw her back into the ditch, and opened fire. Some of the bodies were mutilated by having “C Company” carved into their chests; some were disembowelled.
In Afghanistan today we hear of massacres of civilians, torture followed by mutilation of the murdered, whole villages bombed…
3: The USA has only one tactic and it doesn’t work
The USA usually relies on a three stage tactic of sending in covert Special Forces (spies), using incredible aerial firepower before finally sending in huge numbers on the ground to make sure.
To defeat the Viet Cong, the USA initially sent in 2,000 ‘military advisors’, a number that grew to 16,300 in 1963. In 1965, they escalated the war, commencing air strikes on North Vietnam (with huge ‘collateral damage’) and committing ground forces (also with huge ‘collateral damage’), which numbered 536,000 in 1968. The US eventually dropped more bombs on Vietnam than fell on Europe during World War II. It didn’t work.
To defeat the Taliban, the US has used a three stage tactic…
4 Body count matters
The Vietnam War cost the United States 58,000 lives and 350,000 casualties. The public grew restless. The US had to fudge the numbers and lie to keep the death count low otherwise people would demand an end to the war.
In Afghanistan, the USA is up to its old tricks again.
5 The USA lost.
Finally, the USA failed to defeat a well-organised insurgency of people fighting for the homeland with the support of their people and knowledge of their terrain.
Can you see a similarity between US actions in Vietnam and in Afghanistan?
