Just a change in the scenery and fast forward forty+ years and we almost have an identical situation in the Persian Gulf. I refer to The Gulf of Tonkin Incident wherein supposed attacks were carried out by gunboats of North Vietnam against two American destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy in August of 1964. This fiction by the US Navy, the CIA and White House planners gave LBJ the excuse he needed to get Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution. This became the legal foundation for the direct involvement of the United States in Viet Nam for nearly a decade, ultimately costing 50,000 American lives and several million Vietnamese.
How analogous are events that occurred in the Straits of Hormuz last weekend between Iranian gunboats and the US Navy? Could it become the recurring nightmare of the Gulf of Tonkin all over again for the US? The elements are not a lot different and merit comparison. We have a congress that was duped in ’64 as we do today with Bush and Cheney’s war in Iraq. There is the similar element of oil in both. Standard Oil was very interested in the geology of the Mekong River Delta and the South China Sea for the exploration and placement of oil platforms. John McCain was involved with the air attacks in Viet Nam and spent horrific days and nights as a guest of the NVA at the Hanoi Hilton and now wants to be the new commander of America.
We have two highly motivated groups who resent us and hate us for our presence in either theater. Jihadist Muslims and terrorists have replaced the Viet Cong as the fodder for Hollywood movies but both utilize terror and suicide bombs to thwart our military and our efforts at occupation. In both situations we had egomaniac/techie secretaries of defense in Robert McNamera and Donald Rumsfield. Both believed that with our superior technology coupled with our democratic ideals we could win the hardware war easily and then the minds and hearts of the indigents.
We also have a similar situation in that we have an equally stubborn belligerent country in the neighborhood of our conflict. For Viet Nam we had to deal with the PRC (China). Now Iran is the source of comfort for the Jihadists and supplies the terrorists in this Bush and Cheney War.
Lastly, it seems the ongoing other similarity between the present situation and the war of forty years ago, are the body bags. They are adding up and when enough of middle America have had it the war will end in Iraq and Afghanistan. God forbid that John McCain, and his like, will dictate our future where we could be in Iraq for another decade or two or three or four.
It is time for a 'Change we can believe in' and vote for someone who does not support or was not duped by Bush, Cheney and the NeoCon cabal.
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