I hate war and “military actions.” My father James Marks was at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed, and served in Korea. He retired an Army Major after he passed the bar and became a lawyer. All three of my older brothers served in the Army. Two were in Vietnam. My family is and has been affected by that Vietnam “military action” even to this day. The draft lurked ominously over us teenagers back in the 60’s and 70’s. I was set to serve my country if called upon, but I was none too happy about and was not going to volunteer to kill people. I watched my older brothers’ reactions to Nam and it was not good.
Why were we even in Nam? That is kind of ironic. President Lyndon B. Johnson convinced the US public through media manipulation that the US destroyer Maddox was previously attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin off the Vietnam coast. North Vietnam insisted that this did not happen. No matter, Johnson ordered retaliation. Then Congress created the The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that gave Lyndon B. Johnson approval, without a formal declaration of war, “to take all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist any member or protocol state of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty requesting assistance in defense of its freedom.” The Johnson administration took full advantage of the this Carte Blanche of war without name and 40,000 American Soldiers paid the price along with 4 million other humans living in Southeast Asia.
You would think that something like this could never happen again. Surprise, along comes George Bush and Iraq. Here we are in another “Military Action” without the declaration of war saving us citizens from ghosts called terrorists. I have seen many good young men and women and National Guard people not so young, having their lives changed and irreversibly interrupted. Over 3,000 will not be coming home alive.
History seems to repeat itself over and over. When does it stop? I wish I knew.
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6 comments:
Robin wanted to remind me of the correlation between Bush and Reagan. Years back in the 60’s when many peaceful protests were drawing huge crowds all over the US (250,000 for one in New York) then California Governor Reagan described the Vietnam protests as “giving aid and comfort to the enemy!” Sound familiar? Replace enemy with terrorists and Bush completes the plagiarism.
"Iraq Resolution" and "Iraq War Resolution" are popular names for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.
Public law 107-243, 116 Stat. 1497-1502, was a law passed by the United States Congress authorizing what was soon to become the Iraq War.
The authorization was sought by President George W. Bush (#43).
Introduced as H.J.Res. 114, it passed the House on October 10, 2002 by a vote of 296-133, and by the Senate on October 11 by a vote of 77-23.
It was signed into law by President Bush on October 16, 2002.
8:57pm- Thanks for the update.
The house voted 416 to 0 and the senate was 88-2 in favor the Tonkin Resolution. Years back.
The media highway was not there then.
Richard -
The Senate vote on the Iraq War Resolution (H.J.Res. 114)
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00237
I notice that in the Senate the vote was 77-23. Hillary Rodham Clinton (Dem-NY) was a "Yea" vote, along with John Edwards (Dem-NC), John McCain (Rep-AZ) and Dianne Feinstein (Dem-CA).
Over in Congress the vote was "Yea" by a margin of 296-113.
Now suddenly all our politicians said they were "mislead".
Too bad they didn't ask tougher questions back then before voting for war in Iraq.
Anon.R.mous
Why don't you leave me the hell alone? I really don't understand your obsession with me. The first time you appeared was back in 2004 and you're still harassing me. Why? What purpose does it serve? You've obviously spent a lot of time and resources gathering information on me. Why? What purpose does it serve?
I'm not even a human being to you, you are a faceless shadow to me. Why this ridiculous game? What purpose does it serve?
What does it matter to you where I live or what I do with my life? Why? Why is it your concern?
What do you want from me? Why should I give it to you? Why do you think you deserve to get it from me?
Why do you want to hurt me so much? Why do you feel you've the right to hurt me?
Somehow our leaders in the Congress were mislead, even though so many of us, and most of the rest of the world, seemed to be perfectly capable of seeing through the fraud.
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