Their Finest Hour

RE: Defeat's Killing Fields

To The Editor--

The author's of this article make many vague, grandiose statements that I think are a misguided attempt at a Roosevelt- or Kennedy-esque statement of vision and leadership. While I respect the courage in even professing to have an unambiguous vision in this time of wiffle-waffle sieve-like philosophical and ethical moorings, I find the lack of substance or adherence to anything resembling reality in their statement to be both tiresome and dangerous.

Some key points: What is meant by American defeat and victory? Is victory an indefinite occupation of a foreign land, or more South Korean like, an indefinite unliked but tolerated occupation? It is clear that regardless of the consequences, the American people have no stomach for the long-term occupation (10-20 year minimum seems to be the going rate) that creating a more civilized police state would require. Speaking of an Iraqi democracy is pure hubris at this stage in the game as the Iraqi parliament has largely left the building for the summer.

And in their discussion of the Vietnam war, they never address the plain and simple fact was that the reason we lost is the same reason the British lost when the American people decided they no longer wished to be subservient to the crown: we wanted to be free more than they wanted to suppress the rebellion. Victory then in the case of Vietnam or in the case of Iraq means imposing a reality the native people don't want, and "father knows best" doesn't work on the scale of nations -- especially nations whose boundaries were so capriciously drawn up by the British in the wake of WWI.

Such a shallow simplistic attitude is what got us into this mess -- well that and no lack of greed and avarice on the part of Mr. Dick Cheney -- and it certainly isn't going to get us out anytime soon. Who knows what would have happened in Southeast Asia if we hadn't gone in, but what's done is done, and what we've done in Iraq is unpardonable and irreconcilable, and it's time for these dreamers to wake up and realize that the only dignified thing to do is get out of the Empire game of conquest, go home with our tail between our legs, and let them figure it out for themselves.

And if America and her people are truly at war, then we will starve the beasts that foment the armies of destruction: we shall all, as one, in the most Churchillian manner, cease to have anything to do whatsoever with the black gold that finances the whole nefarious operation. We must stop buying oil from Iran and Saudi Arabia immediately. We must lead with bold vision in action, and not just foist our hopes on our volunteer army while the rest of us continue to shop on the web and kill ourselves slowly in an orgy of corn syrup and discount children's clothing from China. Shame on the American people for not having the vision or courage to truly do what is right, which is to give up our Imperial way of life that our Military might makes possible, and that costs so much in economic and human terms.