Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for June 04, 2010

Time to quote Walt Kelly?

Anybody remember Vietnam? Cambodia? Laos?

@Hugh B. Hayve: Hey, I was in elementary school when that party started.

Doesn’t Cambodia well for us, does it, Hugh?

Domino theory was right. We left, they fell, then Nike moved in and bought everything. Wait, that wasn’t part of it, was it?

Which word is he gong to spread?

I failed the physical. (The only one who did that day; caused a ruckus!)

“Son, the Army doesn’t want your kind”

If the CIA really had stations in Pakiland, more #3 AQ men would be dead.

It wasn’t until my enlistment was up in ‘67 that I found out that the stygmatism in both my eyes were beyond Army regulations even with glasses. It’s nice to know they let me know after I served. I got back at the government though. 100% service connected disabled for something else for many years. Made more money off the government so far then I could have made in civilian life. Mostly because I’m lazy and don’t like to work any way. They were nice enough not to send me to Nam. Of course with my eye sight they would still have not looked favoritely at me for shooting all my officers. Oh yah, if you haven’t guessed by now I am a nut case.

fungus

My latest offering - submit your text to me prior to posting, and for the low price of $1 US, I will spell-check it for you! Avoid painful embarrassment! Don’t let your secret out! Don’t worry, all the best writers do it. Start today!

Larry, the first one is free - it’s “astigmatism”, “favorably”, “eyesight” (one word). “Yah” we will excuse as slang.

Hope to see you soon and often! I accept Paypal.

packratjohn: I can tell you’re not a real spammer, because you spelled it “Paypal” and not “Pyapal”!

Hugh B. Hayve: yeah, I remember Vietnam. I was born exactly six days too late to be in the last draft pool. I remember Nixon winning the election in ‘68 on the claim that he had a secret plan to end the war in six months. Six years was more like it. Reminds me of a more recent occupant of the White House who promised during the campaign to end an unpopular war, but once in office decided to escalate it instead (no names, please…)

Larry, It is a shame that they gave you 100% dis for the cla/.

I want to thank you all for your heartfelt sympathy. At least it didn’t fall off.

@puddleglum1066: If you’re referring to Obama, I think you’re off the mark.

Obama pledged to draw down the troops in Iraq, which is nearly complete – we turned over control of the ‘Green Zone’ to Iraqi troops earlier this week. And from the earliest days of his campaign he said we should have been focused on Afghanistan, and that he would increase our presence there.

Vietnam should have taught more lessons than it did. It’s just astounding that Bush took the country into Iraq. What an enormous mistake.

I agree that Obama did not deceive about his intentions, and in general I believe he means well, but I think it’s a mistake to stay in Afghanistan. This is not a winnable war, with a military solution. Lives are being lost for no good reason. And the government the US is supporting is not worth the support. Obama should be looking for ways to end this mess, as well.

Hey, I was in the USMC during the time just before the Vietnam war and through the escalation. I knew the day that President Johnson and the Democrats made the “Gulf of Tonkin” resolution that they were lying just to escalate a small war into a big one.

Bush is a piker, compared to Johnson and the Democrats who cost us over 50,000 young American lives with their lying schemes. There might still come a time when Afghanistan will cost us that many and more when Nuclear weapons are available to the Terrorist Organizations.

Hmmm, jrholden1943, I too am a member of the club. Two and 1/2 years in that Green Hell. You are absolutely right we were done wrong by those vermin in DC. Especially BobbyMac since he knew going in we were not going to prevail. The saddest part of the whole thing is we really did not know about the Tonkin lies until some time after the war ended and I would like to have you put forward the documentation you have showing the actual genesis of the incident. If such exists or actually did exist at the time there would have been no war. Navy officers went to their graves swearing the incident happened the way they said it did. Only modern computer aided technology was able to evaluate the tapes, radar recordings, and other evidence that seemed other than it was made the truth come out.

Another strong force in our involvement was the rethugnican hatched plan via the company to assasinate a leading candidate before the election in ‘56 that would have reunited the country had the Uncle Ho’s man won and he was popular enough to win. Call off the promised election, increase the pressure, voila’ WAR.

Shrub and his pack knew going in they were lying. They just figured most real Americans would support them because they were not slick Willie. I even remember watching the idiot former general on a Sunday afternoon showing the UN Security Council the “photos” of the WMD vans and bunkers proving to all but the dullest the existence of same.

No, shrub and his pack of vermin are far, far worse and the truth continues to come out about the evil they perpetrated. In fact, thanks to the strutting little pimp the effort against what has been determined to be the actual folks who did 9-11 to us was made far more difficult than ever. And the battle casualties in Iraq were a complete and utter waste.

Shrub was no piker, unless by piker you mean someone who set out to utterly destroy the best of America and nearly did it.

I remember Vietnam very well even though I was in elementary school (1st grade when my bro was there) at the time. My oldest brother was over there so we were all scared to death that he might not come home. (He did.) Besides, you don’t have to be living at the time to know about the history of something. I wasn’t alive during the French Revolution but I know that it happened. So, you want to say that all of the folks who died in Vietnam were due to JFK and LBJ? I am afraid that is a bit of a revision. Nixon definitely played a part. Nixon was elected in 1968 and left office in 1974. It took quite some time before the “secret plan” seemed to kick in. Bush didn’t cause as many deaths probably only because warfare has changed a lot since the Vietnam War. I am concerned about Afghanistan but at least we can justify that conflict.

^^ The left journalist I. F. Stone realized almost immediately that the Tonkin Gulf incident was phony and he wrote a good expose of it in his little paper, “I. F. Stone’s Weekly”. We all knew in the peace movement. It just took the mainstream press a few decades to catch up.

Hugh, I remember a little party in a garden spot named Laos.

I can’t believe what I just read. The Army needs to clarify it’s dud policy.

Was Jane Fonda really Hanoi Jane? Or just telling it the way it was? We might know about the truth of the Afghan/Pakistan “Conflict” around 2040 or so. Anyone coming forth with the Truth near the time it is happening will not be listened to, or worse…

larry,

they must not be watching your out going mail - but people here will.

maybe it’s not a good idea to be posting here, someone could find you via your email…

It was always my understanding that the Kennedy administration opposed going to war in Nam – and it was only because the assassination scared the h*ll out of Johnson, that he did what they wanted and went to war.

Freeholder re: Domino Theory. THATS IT! You got it in one.