Fighting Viet-Bush [Opinion-Editorial] By Matt Kapko News Editor The Lumberjack January 21, 2004 It is amazing to me how similar the war in Vietnam (Laos and Cambodia) is to this war. I say this war because I’m still not sure what to call it. The “war on terrorism” jingle seems an awful lot like the “war on drugs” spiel—something that can never be accomplished. And I am much too interested and aware of history to ignore the countless times our government has so systematically used its crafty slogans to mislead the public. It has always been done under the pretense of protecting Americans and “our way of life,” but in fact it is our life and the lives of many others that they put at risk. Everyone can support a war against terrorism. Of course, all sane human beings would love nothing more than to live without terror. If only it were that simple. We’ve been told we’re at war against terrorism. But, are we really reducing terror by perpetuating it? It reminds me of a sticker that has always caused a moment of reflection for me. It reads: “Why do we kill people who kill people to show killing people is wrong?” To capture a group or individual that has murdered innocent lives is at the top of my list. But to unleash indiscriminate violence against an entire country as retribution, well that is just the lowest of lows; in fact it’s just sick. We must never forget the lives that have been cut short by such deception and lies. Governments lie, and to justify their lies through other rationale requires an absolute negligence of humanity. When a president tells his country that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, has plans to use them and has direct links with al-Qaeda, it is fair enough to assume (on the surface) that he has credible information—in other words, intelligence. Just as when a president tells his country that North Vietnam has attacked two U.S. destroyers in international waters, one could imagine that their source of information is accurate; But no. The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a complete fabrication invented by President Lyndon Johnson and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Not only were those two ships of war never fired upon by the North Vietnamese, they were on an illegal spying mission under direct supervision of the CIA. Johnson and his government were desperate. And to gain the congressional resolution that was needed to take “legal” military action, a lie was generated and eventually repeated so often that it became truth. Soon, 200,000 American soldiers were sent to South Vietnam while the U.S. Air Force began dropping bombs on North Vietnam at a rate never yet seen in history. For the next decade, the lies continued to unravel along with the lives of millions. It has never been a great idea to believe governments entirely. Worse yet is it to give political leaders the power to convince us so blindly that their goals and needs are our own. Let us not forget the reasons given for this war. Iraq, like Vietnam, was established as a target long before an actual “war” began. It has been exactly a year since President Bush gave that eloquent State of the Union address, which laid out his reasons for going to war with Iraq. Within weeks, the evidence his speechwriters relied on was found to be completely untrue. Iraq had no links with al-Qaeda and was, without a doubt, incapable of producing weapons of mass destruction. Later, Bush and his cabinet even outed a CIA operative in revenge for her husband’s discovery that Iraq had no WMDs. To those who say, “Something had to be done,” I beg you to search for the alternatives. I find it hard to swallow that people would just as soon direct their anger elsewhere, taking with that thousands of lives. Osama bin Laden and his crew are the ones something had to be done about. I, for one, will never forget that. Home