Re: Question to American Citizens
A big difference between the Vietnam War and the so-called War on Terrorism, is that thousands of American citizens were getting killed. I remember growing up watching the evening news every night, and the tally of the US soldiers who died that day was given every night. There are very few American soldiers dying now in both the Iraqi and the Afghan & Pakistani “theatres”. (I really hate that use of the word theatre – as though it is just play-acting.) The military doesn’t even allow the returning caskets to be shown on TV (out of respect to the families, or to minimize the impact of American casualties?) Anyway, young men were being conscripted by the thousands, and that made it impossible to ignore or gloss over.
And in fact, the hostile treatment of returning Vietnam War soldiers unfortunately has created a situation now where if you say you are against the current wars, you are against the soldiers. Which makes one always have to be on the defensive, with caveats about how you aren’t against the “poor” soldier grunts, but only against the war itself. You are told that you are being ungrateful and disrespectful (even unto treasonous) to the young people who are “laying their lives on the line” for your “freedom”.