Santayana's Curse
"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana, Reason in Common Sense.
"They had long brooded about Vietnam's effect on America's global security obligations. For two years, Johnson had been fighting a costly war without harnessing the United States to its imperatives. And, because he had refused to call up the reserves, army units in Europe and elsewhere, their officers and noncoms sent to Vietnam, were skeletal. The only combat-ready division defending the United States, the 82nd Airborne, had been stripped to one third its strength to provide troops for the war. The marine corps could not attract enough recruits. Draftees could be conscripted to replenish the ranks, but they lacked the experience to serve as leaders and technicians - and enlisting them in large numbers also posed domestic political problems. Ironically, Wheeler and the joint chiefs essentially concurred in General Giap's assessment: the conflict was bleeding America."
- Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, Penguin Books 1983, pp. 550-551.
Change the names and locations, and you have what is essentially the face of the American military right now. Back then, of course, we had the draft, but the massive call-up and concomitant protests were still a year or so in the future at the point cited above (1968, shortly after Tet). And recall Osama bin Laden's threat - that he didn't have to defeat America, just to bleed it until its economy could no longer sustain its hegemony.
Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur - change the name, and the story is about you.
"They had long brooded about Vietnam's effect on America's global security obligations. For two years, Johnson had been fighting a costly war without harnessing the United States to its imperatives. And, because he had refused to call up the reserves, army units in Europe and elsewhere, their officers and noncoms sent to Vietnam, were skeletal. The only combat-ready division defending the United States, the 82nd Airborne, had been stripped to one third its strength to provide troops for the war. The marine corps could not attract enough recruits. Draftees could be conscripted to replenish the ranks, but they lacked the experience to serve as leaders and technicians - and enlisting them in large numbers also posed domestic political problems. Ironically, Wheeler and the joint chiefs essentially concurred in General Giap's assessment: the conflict was bleeding America."
- Stanley Karnow, Vietnam: A History, Penguin Books 1983, pp. 550-551.
Change the names and locations, and you have what is essentially the face of the American military right now. Back then, of course, we had the draft, but the massive call-up and concomitant protests were still a year or so in the future at the point cited above (1968, shortly after Tet). And recall Osama bin Laden's threat - that he didn't have to defeat America, just to bleed it until its economy could no longer sustain its hegemony.
Mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur - change the name, and the story is about you.
posted by Walt at 12:10 PM
1 Comments:
And today, according to an article at Raw Story, Cheney is getting his info about Iran from the same source that he got his info about Iraq. Picking and chosing which data can best be used to convince people of a reason to go into Iran. Jesus, I hope this is not true for about a gazillion reasons.
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