The difference between Iraq and Vietnam

The internets' franco-tubes have been abuzz the last couple of days with mockery of the the Straight Talk Express's stop in Baghdad, and who can blame them. The photos of Sen. McCain all Dukakised up in his flack jacket as he and his Army company of bodyguards and helicopter escorts buy falafels are just too good to resist. It's no wonder he's gone from maverick to laughingstock in such a short time.

But his detractors fail to see the real message of McCain's market mission--Despite what the war-haters might say, Iraq is nothing like Vietnam.

In 1968, a soldier stationed in say, Saigon, could unwind after a hard week of defending McNamara's ego by sharing a couple of Tiger beers at a Vietnamese bar with a buddy or some nice local girl. Although we didn't realize it then, such informal fraternization with our allies was very counter productive--it made us look weak. One, two, or even five soldiers in a bar, armed with only sidearms if at all, just aren't that intimidating--it was like we were asking for disrespect.

Thankfully, we aren't making the same mistake in Iraq. As McCain's little shopping expedition demonstrated, we don't even think about going into an indigenous market unless we're accompanied by 100 soldiers, three Blackhawk choppers, and a pair of Apache gunships. That has to impress the locals.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/04/1343231

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007
Beyond Vietnam: 40th Anniversary of King's Landmark Antiwar Speech

Forty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King gave the speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” It was April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was murdered. He was speaking at the Riverside Church here in New York. King billed the speech as a declaration of independence from the war and called the United States “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” Time magazine called the speech “demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi.” And the Washington Post declared that King had “diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., excerpt of his "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church in New York on April 4, 1967.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: If we do not stop our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy and deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war and set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement.

Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under the new regime, which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done. We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in this country, if necessary. Meanwhile, we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task: while we urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment, we must continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every creative method of protest possible.

These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

Now, there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., giving his "Beyond Vietnam" speech at Riverside Church. It was April 4, 1967, forty years ago today. A year later, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.