Good morning fellow bloggers! While it is chilly here in the Midwest I detect a thaw in the political climent reporting at this blog. The right wing, Conservative, veteran and grandpa has struck common ground with Elizabeth, a somewhat left leaning, Liberal (?) from New York, New York. We agree the news media is mostly spin. Wonderful. Anyone wishing to comment needs to be nice. This is not a time for bashing one side or the other.
Exactly how we determine what is fact and how much is spin is an excellent question. I like my way of doing it the best. By virtue of my experience in the ARMY, I search for underlying meanings and patterns to the news reports. Secondly I just plain get on the web and start searching for other opinions. Apply the "fudge factor" FOX is right, MSNBC is left and go from there. Not very scientific but it does provide some sense of balance.
Sometimes little things mean a lot. For instance Elizabeth's use of the word regime, as in the "Bush regime". I have always associated the word "regime" with Socialism, Communism, Dictatorship and the like. After looking it up on Dictionary . Com I have learned it merely means an administration, a form of government. It has nothing to do with the type of government although I usually associate it with the aforementioned types of government.
To be quite frank Elizabeth, I do not believe you have quite enough information to diagnose whether I was traumatized by my friends death during the Vietnam War. We can discuss that at a later time if you wish. I put myself somewhere between Neandrathal and Cro Magnon. My wife of 31 years says I am "her" Alpha Male, whatever that means.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and knowing how the world is now does not reflect how the world was at the time of the war. It was called the "domino theory" in which one county would fall to the, at then world threat, Communism, and then the next and so on. That was the threat at that time.
Quite similar to the current war in Iraq now. (Oh boy here opens a can of worms!) The military had opportunities to take control of the situation, however the politicians would not allow it. Something I fear we continue to have today and will have in the future. Although we trade with Vietnam today it is not an anomaly as we trade with Japan, Germany and even Cuba, but no good Cuban cigars I am afraid.
I would ask you to re-think, is it the "same Communist Party" of today. I don't believe so. No more than the Republican and Democratic Party are the same parties they were 40 years ago. We also must take into consideration the 500,000 South-East Asians who were murdered after the fall of Saigon. You cannot judge yesterday's decisions by today's standards. Would you agree with that statement?
Thank you for coming back to Conservative Outrage. My invitation to do a guest blog still stands. I invite you to go to this blog and read some of the posts. theonepercenters.blogspot.com/
7 comments:
Sorry, I did not mean to diagnose you, I only meant that you were affected by your friend's death.
Of course, hindsight is 20/20 but many people back in the 60s knew the Vietnam war was a mistake. Of course the Vietnamese Communists back then were brutal, but most of the world is brutal and we weren't there to stop brutality, we were there because of some vague fear of a growing Communist bloc. It was simplistic thinking, believing that all these different Communist parties in different cultures with different histories were the same and represented a united bloc when that was not the case. We now see the same simplistic thinking regarding "Muslims" "terrorists" etc. The average Member of Congress, never mind the average American, doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Shiite Islam or why Al Qaeda is a threat to the US whereas Hezbollah is not, or why much of the Arab and Muslim world is mad at us and what we should do about it.
I'm mystified at how anyone could think I don't know anyone in the military. Don't most people know people who've served in the military? Aside from relatives who've served at various times, of course I have had patients who came in for counseling because of their military service. Not to mention the various people I meet on the internet who've been to Iraq. Many Iraq vets are very unhappy about being lied to and being mistreated by their government, and they have a lot to say about it. As for your suggestion about doing pro bono work, I did think about it, but I already have low fee patients and I can't afford to do pro bono work. There are therapists who do pro bono work with veterans and I always offer a reduced fee to anyone who has limited funds. The real question is why would a veteran have to pay out of pocket for mental health treatment? Why cant' our government cover this? Instead, we offer tax breaks to rich people and bail out businesses after their CEOs ruined their companies while collecting tens of millions of dollars in salaries.
It would be wonderful if the world were a nice place. Unfortunately, humanity will never allow for that.
I would think war and death would affect anyone and the person who was not affected would be the one in need of therapy.
As to deciding on what is true in the news, I personally read very little US news outlets. They are full of Paris Hilton, athletes and pop junk for the most part.
I try and read the world news form several international outlets and in more than one language. Often times, one can deduce more form what is NOT said than what is.
As to Hezbollah not being a threat to the US, I must disagree. Hezbollah is making major head roads here in South America. Major. I can not express how concerned we should be. This includes mining rights in uranium fields, terror training camps in Venezuela. Direct flights Tehran/Caracas which are not inspected.(loaded with flights of material flown in from the jungle)
I a lived and worked for 20 years in a sensitive area and all Americans were removed by the Chavez regime so as not be able to report on all that was happening there.
Bad guys don't play 'nice'. They do not even understand 'nice'. We can not change their nature and they are bent on destroying us and our way of life.
Sorry, but some things are worth fighting for. Somethings are worth dying for, somethings are worth raising sons with enough courage to protect our country for, even when many well meaning people do not acknowledge that need. We will know that those same people are able to express their dissent because we were there holding the line.
It's called duty.
I'm with JM, well said!
oh, and Elizabeth, the invitation still stands......
What invitation?
Labeling people "good guys" and "bad guys" is the thinking of a small child. Looking at the chain of historical events, cause and effect, political and economic agendas, is adult thinking.
Elizabeth, It is 'childish' to think evil does not exist and that by ignoring it,it will go away.
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