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NoSocialism.com · #16 (**permalink**) 04-14-2008, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fear-And-Loathing

I've been studying this quite alot recently and I have come to the conclusion that the Vietnam war signified the beginning of another 'power' bloc within the US that is, one that equals if not surpasses the power of government. I would argue that the new 'Pillar' which arose from Vietnam and continues to dominate American life is of course, the Media.

During the Vietnam war, because many news companies did not approve and wanted to gain ratings they LIED about what was actually happening. This painted a very gloomy picture of what was happening on the ground which turned public opinion against the war and forced our withdrawal. However, when looking at the evidence in key battles such as Khe Sanh, Hue and many others the Media deliberately lied about what was happening and missed out news which would've increased support for the war, such as the massacres at Hue and the resounding failure on the Viet Congs part during the Tet offensive.

This hangover from Vietnam, that is the Media's control over the American population is incredible. The power of the Media is so strong now that our leaders have to lie to us about the real reasons for going to war. This is the legacy of Vietnam.

While all true, keep in mind that the U.S. didn't really "Commit' to the task at hand, kind of like the current war, tryint to run it on "The Cheap" is never a good policy.

During WWII we committed over a MIllion men on the ground, while in Vietnam the most we EVER had over there was about a half Million, while at the time we had over 1.2 million troops total that we COULD have deployed. The same thing is happening now in Iraq and Afganistan. When we were attacked the U.S. should have IMMEDIATELY started a draft to put a million men on the ground. When we went into Afganistan and later Iraq, the first thing we should have done was deployed a mssive force on the borders of these countries to keep others from getting involved. Did the Administration REALLY think that Al Quada who had operatives in Jordan, Syria, Palistine and Saudi Arabia were going to sit this one out? With our main professional soldiers now free to fight without interference we could have had this thing wrapped up in 6 months. Sure we'd still be there rebuilding, but more so like we were in Japan or Germany after WWII. Once everything would have been stabalized we could have suspended the draft, return troop levels back to normal and have a much stronger AND MORE RESPECTED country to boot.