I began a week-long Caribbean cruise the same day that the Epstein Distraction War (some are calling it the Iran War) began and spent my first day on a beach where husky young American men, fresh off their yachts and catamarans, stood in the surf with their teeny-bikini girlfriends, drinking Painkillers and laughing heartily. War? What war? We then cruised through an anchorage where our guide told us that on New Year’s Eve, 300 yachts crowded this same harbor, blocking out the horizon. I’m sure the only hardship this war will cause their owners is costing more to fuel up their vessels.
Contemplating the unnecessary waste and utter folly of this current conflict, it dawned on me that my entire lifetime has been signposted by wars by we Americans that never should have happened. In writing this, in no way do I disrespect the men and women serving in our armed forces. The common soldier does not initiate wars, neither do the generals. It’s the suits sitting in a richly furnished office who plan and give the orders. The tragedy is that the rest follow without question.
The Korean War began a few months after my birth and gave rise to the euphemism “Police Action”; war reduced to being no different than raiding an illegal gambling den. The vicious communist dictatorship of North Korea invaded the then-vicious dictatorship of South Korea’s Syngman Rhee, a crook who tortured and murdered his own people. Rhee set a precedent followed by every tin-pot dictator in Asia, Central and South America. If you want to swindle billions out of the American government, just call yourself an “anti-communist.” You can then transfer most of the funds to your Swiss or Cayman Islands bank account while keeping your own army starved and ill-equipped. For our part, General Douglas MacArthur, whose ego was nearly as large as Trump’s, seized defeat from the jaws of victory by drawing Red China (as it was then called) into the war which resulted in a stalemate that continues to this day but with a nuclear-armed Pyongyang.
In reading the decisions leading up to the Vietnam War, I’m always tempted to bang my head against the wall in frustration. It could have been avoided had anyone in the State Department freed themselves from Cold War paranoia and brittle ideology. After World War II, where he had been an American ally, Ho Chi Mihn begged the United States for protection and recognition. Instead, we helped the French try to reclaim their colonial empire and paid 80% of their war expenditures. Afterwards, we installed Ngo Dinh Diem as president, another crook despised by most of his own people. While fear of communist Chinese expansion motivated our involvement, the best and the brightest in Washington never realized that Vietnam and China had been bitter traditional enemies for millennia. With a degree of foresight, Ho could have been an Asian version of Marshall Tito in then-Yugoslavia, an independent communist leader who posed no threat to the West. Instead, America followed a fatal course that destroyed our faith in government and bitterly divided our nation.
Despite some minor “police actions,” we were at peace until 1989 when our former good buddy, Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait. By threatening our oil supply, Saddam overnight became “That Monster! That Madman!” but curiously was allowed to remain in power. Partially to atone for our shameful treatment of returning Vietnam vets, the parades for the Gulf War troops exceeded in hysterical enthusiasm their World War II counterparts. The servile news media even coined a word “Euphoria” which we were programmed to feel. I felt only disgust that Americans bought Bush Senior’s big lie that we were fighting for “human rights.”
The Afghanistan War began immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attack. The goal was to capture Osama Bin Laden but he was being protected by our other good buddy, Pakistan. After spending billions to train the Afghan Army, it collapsed within a week. Joe Biden had the bad luck to be left holding the bag created by Bush, Jr., Obama and Trump.
The Iraq War was the big lie on steroids. Those weapons of mass destruction never existed. Iraq oil revenue never paid for the war which cost 4,000 American lives and $3,000,000,000,000 while the mission was never accomplished.
So here we are back again. Another unnecessary war based on a big lie, the repercussions of which are only beginning to be felt. So futile and so costly. When will we ever learn?
Daniel A. Brown lived in Franklin County for 44 years and has written a monthly My Turn column for over two decades. He lives outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico with his wife, Lisa and dog, Cody.