The morality of war

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

I knew quite a few guys coming home from Vietnam saying what the fuck was that about. I did my tour, my national duty, and nothing changed. Nothing good, nothing bad, nothing but more dead people. For what?

Answer is in Nixon's tapes. Kissinger (then National Security Advisor) and Nixon discussed that Nam could not be won. So why were most casualties on Nixon's watch? Because Nixon was quite clear about his objective. He did not want that war lost on his watch. So he spun his objective: peace with honor. Soldier lives were irrelevant. Most American casualties occurred because of Nixon. Pres Ford took the defeat. Nixon got what he wanted.

One would think we learned from that mistake. The military intentionally placed key assets in the Reserves and Guard so that future wars would have consequences. And still George Jr massacred more American soldiers in Mission Accomplished for similar self serving reasons.

Colin Powell acknowledges that the strategy failed. Moving assets out of active duty units did not avert another foolish crusade. Now we have the decades legacy of so many Americans whose productive future has been harmed for the greater glory of another self serviing president. So many Americans raised to think war is normal and makes a nation stronger. The legacies of that war (not just the so many physically and mentally scarred) taxes everyone's future.