7 Friedman Units later, Friedman’s patience has run out

Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat and New York Times columnist, has finally decided that the perpetual six month waiting period has finally expired in Iraq, after a measly 7 FUs. Friedman called for a deadline on The Colbert Report.

Sadly, Friedman hasn’t been the only one to invoke the FU, which in practice sounds very much like a child attempting to stay up past his bedtime (“C’mon Mom. Just five more minutes. I’m almost done.”).

Cases of PTSD on the rise for Vietnam vets since Iraq War started

I heard this on my way to work this morning, and thought it was very interesting.

The number of Vietnam veterans seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder has been steadily rising since the 1990s, and the rate has spiked since the United States prepared to invade Iraq in 2003.

…

For Jim Hale, a Vietnam veteran who ran electrical generators on Phu Quoc Island for the U.S. military, the Iraq war is almost like “watching a rerun” of the Vietnam War.

Apparently, watching this “rerun” of Vietnam is the tipping point for those on the edge of having PTSD, which is a testament to not only the similarities between these wars, but also the lasting damage it can have on our own soldiers, fighting an unwinnable war in an incredible hostile environment, where friend and foe minglle interchangeably.  The article concludes with a horror story from the Vietnam War, as told by Hale, which should be a reminder why these wars are so terrible for everyone.

Hale remembered what they thought was enemy fire. He remembered firing his M-16 into the jungle. And he remembered finding out it was civilians — not Viet Cong soldiers — he and his buddies had shot.

…

“I couldn’t look,” Hale said. “I told myself I’m here to guard, I’m not here to watch this happen. I’m going to turn around the face the dark. I don’t have to see it.”

My first and last post about the MoveOn ad

I’ve been trying to stay away from all commentary about the MoveOn betray-us ad, mainly because I thought it was a stupid ad to begin with that just served to lower the discourse about Iraq for a long time, but also because of the over-hyped, unbelievably typical conservative response.

But anyway, I think that David Shuster sums everything up very nicely when talking with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

Shuster: “But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody?

He also challenged the Congresswoman  to name the last soldier from her district who was killed in Iraq, to which she drew a blank, which is utterly disgraceful.  I mean the least you can do after continually voting to keep our soldiers in harms way is to know the names of those who were sacrificed.

Pitiful.

A Call to Action

History repeats itself. It’s one of those aphorisms that many do not give much thought. History repeats itself. It’s a shame. It’s a shame that we cannot learn from our past mistakes. This war has incredible parallels to a previous conflict that borderline on the unbelievable. Of course, that previous conflict was Vietnam.

Now, many have already compared the current conflict in Iraq with Vietnam. In fact, the comparisons were being discussed even before this war started. But, the devil, as it turns out, is in the details.

Let’s start with the beginning. After the French moved out of Vietnam in 1954, the US chose Ngo Dinh Diem to take over in South Vietnam, in an attempt to thwart the communist North. Diem proved to be a ruthless dictator with a very poor human rights record, and he rigged elections to remain in power. The parallel here is our open assistance of the Hussein regime in Iraq in the 1980’s, in an effort to thwart the Khomeini regime in Iran.

After some time, it became clear that the Diem regime was becoming more of problem than it was worth, so the United States arranged for his assassination. The coup was poorly organized, and the transition between governments proved to be disastrous. Several unstable governments followed the Diem regime. The North took advantage of the situation and began escalating military operations in the South. The war began.

The Iraq conflict followed similar lines. The Hussein regime was overthrown after he became undesirable. The transition was poorly planned, again, and the civil war began.

The circumstances for American involvement are also strikingly familiar. Shoddy intelligence in 1964, involving an attack on the USS Maddox, led to the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, a carte blanch for the war in Vietnam. We all know the story of WMDs and the AUMF in 2002.

And most recently, the Bush administration has provided the latest parallel in these two conflicts. The new talking point as of late has been “the terrorists will follow us home.” This, too, was a very real concern for the Eisenhower administration. The “domino theory” argued that if Vietnam fell to communism, the all of Southeast Asia would fall, eventually spreading all the way to Hawaii if left unchecked. They argued that it was better to fight them in Southeast Asia then on American soil. The similarities are eerie.

So what’s missing here? What is the one thing that makes these two conflicts dissimilar? Protest. Protest on college campuses. Protest is what grabbed the national attention. Protest is what got us out of that war. Where are the protests now? Why are our campuses silent?

Mass protests began to happen after the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1969. This is marked as the turning point of the war. Last Thursday, the Iraqi Parliament, well within the Green Zone, fell victim to a suicide bombing. Three members of the Iraqi parliament died. Make this be our Tet. Make this be the turning point.

Let this be your call to action. Now is the time to stand up and be heard. This war is no longer acceptable to the American people. This war cannot be won. Our troops must be brought home immediately.

It’s our turn to frame the debate.

Join me and others as we protest every Friday. Every single Friday, until the troops come home. This administration has proven to unbelievably stubborn. Let’s show them how stubborn we can be.