[Col. Writ. 4/30/05] Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
It has been over 30 long, distant years since U.S.
helicopters were ditched into the tropical waters of
the South China Sea, as their sister-birds whirled
over the last American colonial outpost of Saigon,
fleeing the city as Communist tanks roared down
the city's main street.
Much has been said about the ephemeral
'lessons of Vietnam' in the corporate media, but
one wonders: which lessons?
In those 30 years, we have seen the expansion
of empire, and the intentional ignorance of Vietnam,
as this government seeks to wash it from
collective memory.
Have we learned about the impossibility
of imposing puppets on other people?
In Vietnam, President Johnson gave his personal
commitment to Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and
General Nguyen Van Thieu, that the U.S.
would support their military regime, and staged
an election to give it democratic trappings.
The *New York Times* of Sept. 4, 1967
reported U.S. "surprise" at how well the
recent elections went:
United States officials were surprised and
heartened today at the size of turnout in
South Vietnam's presidential election
despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to
disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83%
of the 5.85 million registered voters
cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them
risked reprisals threatened by the
Vietcong. (*NYT*, 9/4/1967)
How surprisingly similar these words, from 38
years ago, sound to us today!
Change Vietnam into Iraq, and Vietcong into
Islamists, and it could've been written yesterday --
literally.
If that is so, what is the lesson from Vietnam?
We are but an echo of what came before, with
recycled lies used over and over again, to pull the
young into service of the Empire, in defense of
mass murder and government-industrial
corruption.
Has the media learned that it cannot blindly
follow the dictates of military and government
officials when it comes to matters of war and
peace?
Has that nation's cultural leaders learned
that it's important to not bend their will to
the winds of the national mood?
Has the judiciary learned that war is ever
the enemy of liberty, and it is wrong to unleash
the police power against whole ethnic and
religious communities?
Have politicians learned that wars cannot
be built on the tissue of lies?
What have 'we' learned? Not a damn thing!
And as we've learned nothing, so we continue
to stumble and fall, into the traps of the past;
into the eternal trap of empire, when some
people believe they are divinely meant to rule
over others.
Gore Vidal, one American who can rightly be
called a national sage, speaks darkly of the
present hour, and what it portends. In a recent
interview with the Minneapolis *City Pages*,
Vidal commented:
Well, let us say that the old American
republic is well and truly dead. The
institutions that we thought were eternal
proved not to be. And that goes for
the three departments of government,
and it also goes for the Bill of Rights.
So we're in uncharted territory. We're
governed by public relations. Very
little information gets to the people,
thanks to the corruption and/or
ineptitude of the media. Just look at
this bankruptcy thing that went
through -- everybody in debt to credit
cards, which is apparently 90 percent
of the country, is in deep trouble. So
the people are uninformed about what's
being done in their name.
On the Iraq War, Vidal was equally acerbic:
Iraq is a symptom, not a cause. It's a
symptom of the passion we have for oil,
which is a declining resource in the world.
Alternatives can be found, but they will
not be found as long as there's one drop of
oil or natural gas to be extracted from
other nations, preferably by force by the
current junta in charge of our affairs.
*Iraq will end with our defeat*. [From:
*City Pages* (Minn., Minnesota);
3/23/05, p. 17]
Vidal, who has written a slew of historic novels,
several plays, and an uncounted number of essays,
has always been a voice that spoke unpopular
truths before their time.
He still does so, after some 80 winters in the
world.
Technorati Tags: War Vietnam Mumia Abu-Jamal
--
Posted by Violette to Mumia's Columns at 5/22/2005 05:37:01 PM
It has been over 30 long, distant years since U.S.
helicopters were ditched into the tropical waters of
the South China Sea, as their sister-birds whirled
over the last American colonial outpost of Saigon,
fleeing the city as Communist tanks roared down
the city's main street.
Much has been said about the ephemeral
'lessons of Vietnam' in the corporate media, but
one wonders: which lessons?
In those 30 years, we have seen the expansion
of empire, and the intentional ignorance of Vietnam,
as this government seeks to wash it from
collective memory.
Have we learned about the impossibility
of imposing puppets on other people?
In Vietnam, President Johnson gave his personal
commitment to Premier Nguyen Cao Ky and
General Nguyen Van Thieu, that the U.S.
would support their military regime, and staged
an election to give it democratic trappings.
The *New York Times* of Sept. 4, 1967
reported U.S. "surprise" at how well the
recent elections went:
United States officials were surprised and
heartened today at the size of turnout in
South Vietnam's presidential election
despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to
disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83%
of the 5.85 million registered voters
cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them
risked reprisals threatened by the
Vietcong. (*NYT*, 9/4/1967)
How surprisingly similar these words, from 38
years ago, sound to us today!
Change Vietnam into Iraq, and Vietcong into
Islamists, and it could've been written yesterday --
literally.
If that is so, what is the lesson from Vietnam?
We are but an echo of what came before, with
recycled lies used over and over again, to pull the
young into service of the Empire, in defense of
mass murder and government-industrial
corruption.
Has the media learned that it cannot blindly
follow the dictates of military and government
officials when it comes to matters of war and
peace?
Has that nation's cultural leaders learned
that it's important to not bend their will to
the winds of the national mood?
Has the judiciary learned that war is ever
the enemy of liberty, and it is wrong to unleash
the police power against whole ethnic and
religious communities?
Have politicians learned that wars cannot
be built on the tissue of lies?
What have 'we' learned? Not a damn thing!
And as we've learned nothing, so we continue
to stumble and fall, into the traps of the past;
into the eternal trap of empire, when some
people believe they are divinely meant to rule
over others.
Gore Vidal, one American who can rightly be
called a national sage, speaks darkly of the
present hour, and what it portends. In a recent
interview with the Minneapolis *City Pages*,
Vidal commented:
Well, let us say that the old American
republic is well and truly dead. The
institutions that we thought were eternal
proved not to be. And that goes for
the three departments of government,
and it also goes for the Bill of Rights.
So we're in uncharted territory. We're
governed by public relations. Very
little information gets to the people,
thanks to the corruption and/or
ineptitude of the media. Just look at
this bankruptcy thing that went
through -- everybody in debt to credit
cards, which is apparently 90 percent
of the country, is in deep trouble. So
the people are uninformed about what's
being done in their name.
On the Iraq War, Vidal was equally acerbic:
Iraq is a symptom, not a cause. It's a
symptom of the passion we have for oil,
which is a declining resource in the world.
Alternatives can be found, but they will
not be found as long as there's one drop of
oil or natural gas to be extracted from
other nations, preferably by force by the
current junta in charge of our affairs.
*Iraq will end with our defeat*. [From:
*City Pages* (Minn., Minnesota);
3/23/05, p. 17]
Vidal, who has written a slew of historic novels,
several plays, and an uncounted number of essays,
has always been a voice that spoke unpopular
truths before their time.
He still does so, after some 80 winters in the
world.
Technorati Tags: War Vietnam Mumia Abu-Jamal
--
Posted by Violette to Mumia's Columns at 5/22/2005 05:37:01 PM
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