Operation Flailing Nation

I almost only ever post on American foreign policy and their perpetual wars. Nothing of that has a "pro" in my opinion. It's all bad.

Other than that, I have little interest in American domestic politics.

However, I was strongly opposed to that awful Clinton woman becoming president. But for the same reasons as above. She would've been a vile and bloody war leader.

I have also commented on some of the false flag events in the US (albeit not on this forum as I recall). But again because these impact on foreign policy and the perpetual wars the US engage in.

The bottom line is that there is a lot to like about America, and over my life I have liked it. But the new US political rampage of war and foreign bullying the US has undertaken since the end of the Soviet Union is truly horrendous and dangerous for the entire world.

The US does not have the wisdom to be the exceptional nation and the only world power.

 

Perhaps winning WWII was because the fight was against a truly evil ideology.

Perhaps losing in Southeast Asia was because it was exporting a truly evil ideology --- sending the greatest and most advanced fighting force in the world to wage war on the other side of the planet against a backward agrarian people who still used hand-held hoes to weed their fields.

As the old saying goes: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

The prevailing sentiment was that Communism was the evil ideology......and it was. If you think it was not just check the direction of flow of refugees in any of the wars you refer to as American aggression.

There were people in the WW2 era that viewed our role there just as you view our role around the world today. They were as wrong then as you are today.

 

Wish I could like this comment twice

 

We did not lose the Vietnam war. The mission was to stop the spread of communism. We did just that.

 

We did? Please tell me what is the present name of what used to be the city of Saigon? Where does the present government of South Vietnam have it's Capital and where does it's government reside?

 

Wow, history doesn't suit you, does it?

It wasn't just about Vietnam. It was about the SPREAD of communism. That was the actual mission. To stop it from spreading around the world. Vietnam was the hotspot outsource!!!

 

What happened to the USSR?

 

You're saying that the USSR somehow fell 10 years later because we lost Vietnam in 1975? Truly the rooster is taking credit for the sunrise.

 

Yes, it was a prevailing sentiment, I agree. But that didn't make invading and trying to bomb Vietnam back into the StoneAge right. That campaign had all the aspects of an bigger, older bully beating on a smaller kid at school - because he could. Imo, this became a feature of US military foreign adventures since WWII.

You could do worse then read Fletcher Prouty's book JFK, the CIA and the Plot to Assassinate John F Kennedy. Not because of the JFK angle, which I have little interest in, but because of how he revealed the war in Vietnam (and Korea) was set up by the US at the end of WWII. Prouty knew of what he spoke. He was a USAF Colonel and the Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. If you ever saw Oliver Stone's film, JFK, then you'll probably remember Donald Sutherland playing the role of "Mr. X" --- which was based on Prouty.

 

No and no.

Your view is a clear case of falling for the propaganda. It's a very prevalent condition. Things are never, ever that simple or clear cut.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/4/20/kennan-blasts-involvement-in-vietnam-pfollowing/

Also see HERE.

 

And even one of the prime architects of the Vietnam war tried to get it stopped when he realised it was all going seriously pear-shaped . . . then resigned because he was ignored

"McNamara grew increasingly skeptical of the efficacy of committing U.S. soldiers to Vietnam. In 1968, McNamara resigned as Secretary of Defense"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McNamara

 

Even as far back as the Vietnam war, the US war party had captured US foreign and war policy, for the purposes of US hegemony.

 

Remember the domino theory? You play them one at a time and Russia expended a lot of capital in Vietnam and around the world in that era as well as the US. Difference was our recovery was better. Afghanistan finished the old USSR off but it really bled to death trying to be somebody.

 

Reagan, StarWars and the Grain Embargo killed Russia. Afghanistan was a costly mistake for them but it just stimulated their Arms industry in the end

 

Stimulated them right the hell out of business. They were broke and the threat of Star Wars caused them to throw in the towel.

 

The prevailing sentiment? As in when the prevailing sentiment was that the earth was flat and the center of the universe? LOL

When everybody is thinking the same, nobody is thinking.

 

Falling for propaganda? Ask someone how they feel week 3 (red phase) of basic training.

 

What does that have to do with anything that was previously said? I'm really not quite sure what you mean to be honest?

Or are you suggesting that basic training inculcates a group mind that - perish the thought - makes soldiers subject to zombie type beliefs?

 

You were preaching about propaganda. About week 3 of phase 1 (red) is when a soldier is broken and begins to build up. That's when our loyalty (you call propaganda or brainwashing) begins.

Now we're ready to rock and roll

 

Okay. Not having done that I didn't understand the inference. Thanks for the explanation.

Btw, it's more a case of group-think then brain-washing imo. The later is far more intrusive and individually honed. The former is reasonably easy to inculcate in most people simply because humans need and desire to be part of a group, club, culture etc. Very few people are actually built to be lone wolves.

My two cents worth anyway.

 

I see, you mean like Democrats.

 

No, I mean the general population, the long-time target of US propaganda, bipartisan.

 

Your source was written back in 1967.

Your source, George F. Kennan was one of the war hawk Democrats who got us into a shooting war in Southeast Asia and when like most of these "young and brightest" realized they weren't so bright and got it wrong, became leftist peacenick doves.

Thailand, Indonesia didn't fall under communism and Cambodia is no longer a communist state.

 

Yes, I know who he was, Apacherat. That's why I chose to quote him, and I thought his changed perspective was quite telling.

Sadly, we still see far too many influential people full of the same type of piss and vinegar talking up war again. Now, as then, it's always the same people/corporations who walk chortling to the bank to count their growing balances.