Dialogue: Iraq and Vietnam—Analogous Wars?
Schultz: I get my hair cut by a Vietnamese lady. She's entertaining, cheap, and the haircut doesn't matter much—it’s hard to badly cut
really great hair!
I arrived early the other day and she was running late. To accommodate early birds she has a couch, a wooden folding chair, and an old cabinet-style TV gathering dust in an adjoining room. When I entered there was a Vietnamese gentleman about my age watching the nightly news on CNN. I joined him. Some idle chat (what I could understand of it) followed the newscast, which focused on the war in Iraq. Parallels were drawn. I asked about the emotions one has when a foreign military occupies one's country. He sloughed my question off. Answered by saying he fought for the South. Without the North’s backing by China and Russia coinciding with the weak will of the US Government, that war wouldn’t have been lost.
I pressed him on what reason we had to be in SE Asia or Iraq. Did
oil have anything to do with the current conflict? He said the war is about terrorism. But again he called US politicians weak willed, stating we had Osama b-l and never took him out. We are being too easy on the religious fanatics that comprise Iraq. The deaths we suffer are small compared to those lost each week on the highways. He then asked a question, "Are you Republican or Democrat?” I didn't answer, didn't get a chance to, don't think it mattered. "Republican" he said. Not a guess, a command. "Democrats too weak."
My haircut ended his oration. What was once brown snowed down my shoulders, tumbled gently across the black vinyl apron, and fell softly to the floor. The snow of fifty years floated from the mountaintop. Yet nothing was clearer.
Paul: I liked your story. As to what your Vietnamese acquaintance purports, well, I want you to know I'm not anti-immigrant: I voted against that bloc trying to take over the Sierra Club; after the genocide of the native people and exploitation of what the founders considered chattel—black slaves, women, children—our country grew to be the lone hegemonic super-sucker it is on the backs of immigrant working people. Many of whom will tell you love this country unquestionably or get the f**k out!
Having said that, I worry about folks becoming "American" without much idea of our history, or experience of even limited political democracy. Is all we're about simply the freedom to make a buck? With post-WWII relative American prosperity, liberation struggles increased the democratic space for many people. Post 9/11 and its amazing mythic manipulation by cynical elites, that democratic space is rapidly ebbing. It will require more than occasionally casting hanging-chad ballots or touching a Diebold software screen to preserve the freedoms we grew up with.
The spark for the ongoing tragedy in Fallujah was the torture of American contractors. While few doubt our ability to more than redress that violence (the latest one-upmanship in a endless cycle), perhaps the more telling implication is how much of our war machine (like everything else) has been privatized. If war is fast becoming outsourced, our people are losing any semblance of control or notion of responsibility for it. I'm about ready to say
Bring back the draft. Without the threat of casualties affecting the children of the elite, lacking a countervailing superpower threat we may look forward to war without end (and a future as that paradox, a "totalitarian democracy").
As to our specific involvement in Vietnam, I'd refer you to such films as
The Quiet American and
The Fog of War, which should be available soon as inexpensive video rentals. [Thanks to Dale Schultheis for permission to use his anecdote.]
posted by Paul at 9:05 AM
