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As a fellow VN vet, you are no doubt familiar with “Free Fire Zones”. Whole villages were napalmed ahead of the defoliation formations where I was a navigator—in the lead aircraft where I could observe the Pre-Strike destruction. Our government always tried to cover up this stuff, unless exposed, as at My Lai. But now we openly brag about it! We almost got Gadhaffi and did managed to kill a couple of his grandchildren. The story on Osama frequently changes, but the brutality of it seems a cause for great celebrating and self-congratulating by politicians who directed or at least participated.
Ron
A powerful case for the horrors and inhumanity of war. I am profoundly anti-war. I see war as a failure, win or lose. And what it does to those who engage in it is beyond revulsion. I am so glad to meet others who feel much the same and have the ability to express it. You're depiction of the Vietnam war helicopter pilots was especially poignant, as was the Kuwait massacre. I'm old enough to remember Vietnam, Korea and even WW2. I remember few atrocities from WW2 except, perhaps by the enemy. Must have been a kinder, gentler time for the U.S.? Remove the profit from war and we will have fewer. Best.
John
Mr. Whitehead:
If there were a God, he/she would have absolutely NO reason to help any of those of us making war on the world. "God bless the USA" Not likely. "Made in His image!" Sure we were.
Jack
John.
While I tend to agree that war is ultimately about killing, it seems unlikely that we will escape war.
We produce war as we do anything else. We have all grown up with stories of war. Literature, film, education, etc. There is no reason for us to assume that we can live without it.
Also, there is no reason for us to assume otherwise that rich men make poor men go to war. The way it seems to work here in the west is that the elite beat the drums of war to which the middle class march and the poor are sent to fight. F---.
If you murder a man on the streets, you are a murderer. Locked up and the key thrown away. But you murder a hundred men in battle and you are a hero. Accidentally kill a man on the streets and it's manslaughter; in battle, collateral damage. It's so strange and beautiful how our perception manages our interactions.
So we must change our cognition of war.
But one would think it's so easy to change our mindset; turn off the war switch. First, we need to understand the hell of war. Let's all go to war or none of us.
M
Thank you, John...
...for so clearly pointing out that the greatest cost of war cannot be measured in dollars.
Frank
John, thanks for having the courage to speak the truth in love. While Bin Laudin has done much wrong we all have responsibility & culpability because of the attrocities our government & country has perpetrated on other nations & peoples of our world. Please keep the faith & keep speaking the truth John..... Our world so desperately needs men of YAHWEH who have counted the cost and chosen to follow YESHUA. I pray that YAHWEH's love & peace will surround & keep you and your family always.......
Loren
Brilliant and soul-filled, as always.
May God help us all, yes.
Thank you, John.
Mike
Dear Mr. Whitehead,
Bin Laden, Gaddafi and Modern Warfare is a wonderful piece. I only wish more people would see it. I read in the paper (or on a website) that while only 40% of older Americans approve of torture, 60% of younger Americans do. This is an ominous development. I believe it is in large part a response to the public discussion of torture in relation to the war on Terrorism. It is also a symptom of the declining prestige of Christianity. The moral authority has passed to Judaism, and in Israel torture is legal. That may be a prejudiced view, but I really do think the decline of Christianity is making us a more brutish nation. It is very sad. Such elements in the Arab world that believe in world domination are hopelessly far from having the tools to pursue their fantasy. This is in stark contrast with international Communism. The Red Army was the world's strongest for a time, and the Soviet nuclear arsenal rivaled our own. Soviet propagandists taught in every major university (and still do, sort of.) Compared to such physical and intellectual firepower what the Arab extremists can muster is pitiful, and with one glaring exception their fight against the west has been entirely on their own turf. It must certainly seem nightmarish and Satanic to the camel drivers to see drones overhead reigning down fire. I am no longer proud to be an American.
Peter
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