Re: [sixties-l] Vietnam War Memorials

From: Joe McDonald (joe@countryjoe.com)
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 20:56:09 CUT

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    William Mandel wrote:

    > Joe: Please explain something to me. Anyone who went to fight in
    > Vietnam went to a country incapable of hurting the United States:
    > no air force, no fleet. The simplest kid with any kind of
    > morality whatever -- religious, you name it -- was capable of
    > understanding that. So he was an invader, a killer of people who
    > couldn't do anything to his country. Why should I memorialize
    > such people?
    > In all sincerity,
    > Bill Mandel

    Bill if you don't want to you should not memorialize such people. Isn't that the
    great thing about living in a democratic non fascist country like America as you
    yourself pointed out a few posts back. But really very few of us have the courage
    needed to resist the draft or refuse to fight once inducted or processed into the
    military, any military for that matter. Once again: blaming soldiers for war is
    like blaming fire fighters for fire.

    A reading of BATTLE CRIES AND LULLABIES, WOMEN IN WAR FROM PREHISTORY TO THE
    PRESENT by Linda Grant De Pauw, 1998 Univ. of Oklahoma Press: Norman will show
    that all wars have been unjust and horrible. Ms De Pauw does not have the
    standing of John Keegan. But Mr. Keegan's A HISTORY OF WARFARE, which is one of
    the many patriarchal bibles on warfare out there, does not give women any play at
    all. I am not suggesting what Alan Lomax loves, a statue of a soldier on a horse
    with a sword, but simple acknowledgment of individual human sacrifice to foreign
    policy adventurism.

    Bill are you a military veteran? i ask because i feel it is important to
    understand the 24/7 conditions military personnel live under that acts as the
    grease that keeps the wheels of war turning. i wonder how many shows of virtual
    hands there would be on the list if i ask: how many on the list are military
    veterans or now active duty military? cheers, country joe mcdonald

    -- "Ira Furor Brevis Est " - Anger is a brief madness

    country joe Home Pg <http://www.countryjoe.com>
    country joe's tribute to Florence Nightingale
    <http://www.countryjoe.com/nightingale>
    Berkeley Vietnam Veterans Memorial <http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Links/Comm/vvm>
    Rag Baby Online Magazine <http://www.ragbaby.com/magazine>



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