Author: L. Reichard White
The Only Thing You Need To Know About ‘The Vietnam War’
“The Vietnam War” began airing on PBS this week.
But, besides the fact it was not legally a “war,” THIS – directly from the lips of Vietnam “War” U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara – is the only thing you need to know about it…
“Mr. McNamara, didn’t you ever read a history book?” – The Fog of War
Playing Nuclear Chicken – or is it Russian Roulette?
“It was not immediately clear how close the U.S. military recon jet was flying near Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between NATO allies Poland and Lithuania. This fall, Russia moved nuclear-capable ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, putting some European capitals in strike range.” — Armed Russian jet comes within 5 feet of US recon jet
“At the end, we lucked out. It was luck that prevented nuclear war. We came that close to nuclear war at the end. Rational individuals — Kennedy was rational, Castro was rational, Khrushchev was rational — came that close to total destruction of their societies. And that danger exists today. The major lesson of the Cuban Missile Crisis is this: The indefinite combination of human fallibility and nuclear weapons will destroy nations.” –U.S. Vietnam “War” Defense Sec. Robert McNamara, The Fog of War
So, is it just “Nuclear Chicken” – or is it Russian Roulette? Or maybe both?
And will M.A.D. still work after all these years?
Who Says They’re Not United?
GLENN GREENWALD: You know, it’s just such a somber reminder of the fact that while there are huge differences between Republicans and Democrats, …there are also huge areas of continuity, where it makes no difference who ends up winning. And what’s so remarkable is the Afghanistan War is now in its 17th year, under its third president. Obama—Trump is the third president to escalate it, after campaigning against it. And we barely ever talk about it anymore….
How do YOU justify things like this?
“Another east Mosul resident, Jasim Mohammed Ali, said his son and six grandsons were killed … Ali said that during the [coalition bomb] attack in the modest Aden neighborhood [in Mosul, Iraq], his grandsons were crushed by rubble in their bedroom as he cowered next door with his 17-year-old son, who was also killed. His pregnant daughter-in-law lost her baby, a girl who had yet to be named. His wife suffered scarring burns to her head and back. His daughter’s legs were crushed as she tried to hold her 6-year-old son, buried beneath the concrete. Although surgeons inserted metal pins in her legs, she still can’t walk. Unable to reach the cemetery… the family buried the bodies in a nearby schoolyard, marking the graves with cinder blocks.” –Civilian casualties from airstrikes grow in Iraq and Syria. But few are ever investigated – Los Angeles Times
Why Did the US Test an Outdated Bomb in Mountains of Afghanistan?
The U.S. Military, apparently eager to test a huge out-dated bomb – anacronym “MOAB” for “Mother Of All Bombs” – dropped one for the first time in the sparsely populated mountains of Afghanistan this week.
The goal was apparently to fulfill Trump’s earlier campaign promise to ~”Bomb the hell out of ISIS.”
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