@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Date: Mon, 22 Jan 1996 Sender: •••@••.••• (Joe Ferguson) Subject: Re: cj#425> Valis on Vietnam The other day I realized I came "this close" to not being able to live with myself for the rest of my life. When I was sixteen, I wanted to be an Air Force fighter pilot. Thank God my eyesight is so bad I could not qualify for such a position. I drew a 12 in the draft lottery in 1972, but fortunately after four years of growth from the time I had those misguided dreams, I had learned enough to understand I needed to flunk that physical! I'm a guy who still feels bad about not giving more love to a sick kitten I had adopted, before it died in my apartment in the night sixteen years ago. I'm a guy who will do anything to comfort my daughters if they are upset or hurt in any way. What kind of shape would I be in now if I had napalmed Vietnamese villages? This question leads me to acknowledgement of twin responsibilities: 1) I must try to do something to help my contemporaries - who were not as fortunate as I was in escaping the Vietnam War draft - to appreciate they were victims, not criminals. I guess all of America could and can do better to help these men and women heal. I guess we can only hope that late is still better than never. 2) I must try to do something to oppose the next "Vietnam War." Valis' post was a jolt. My God, there it is, Chiapas and Guatemala! We have been waging covert war in Guatemala for at least half a century, and we have been arming the Mexican military for God knows how long ... doing a real good job of it in the last decade or so. Are we going to sit around, and let our sons, daughters, nephews, nieces and neighbor kids get sent there to commit realtime genocide? Or are we just going to make big paychecks supplying the hardware? Will we still be debating how to balance the budget while taxes leaking through the cracks help fund the genocide of two Central American indigenous populations? Thanks for that post, Valis. Please tell William that all America shares the guilt for what we did in Vietnam, equally no doubt in most cases, with most of the soldiers; more of it no doubt, in the case of the civilian barons of the weapons industries and the demagogues who championed war. Please also thank him for that excerpt from the letter to Bundy. The comparisons between the Craspers and the McNamaras is extremely instructive. One universal truth emerges: We're fools to do their dirty work! @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Richard K. Moore (•••@••.•••) Wexford, Ireland •••@••.••• | Cyberlib=http://www.internet-eireann.ie/cyberlib Materials may be reposted in their entirety for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~--~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~
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