The scenes from Forest Gump, surrounding Vietnam, are some of the best ever. The movie depicts how absurd war is under any circumstance but more dramatically, the human loss. What is really going to be an ongoing fascination to those of us who care is that once the Iraqi quagmire is over, if ever, will be the comparisons to Vietnam.
Because Iraq is truly our first saturated media war, aligned with all the commo technology, i. e., emails, text messaging, etc., it is going to be an overexposed war time experience to a weary public. My prediction. This is already happening. There are not less than four or five documentaries, soldiers' diaries, etc. presently on TV or HBO or at various film festivals. The various offerings depict Iraq or Afghanistan. In face, one was shot completely on a "cell phone." It is called, Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me It Would Become This Bad In Afghanistan. It is only the beginning.
Think about it: GIs have all this instant commo, they are calling, emailing wives, girlfriends, Moms and Dads every single day. Sometimes, they communicate more from Iraq than they did when they were home. Reporters are embedded with them--the media is right there recording and processing everything.
Some general said recently, a National Guard type, who was returning to his college where he was something like the dean, "there's no comparison in Vietnam and Iraq. In Iraq I was shot at occasionally; in Vietnam, I was shot at every day." This is somewhat capsulized as the practical--the philosophical likenesses and differences are much broader, of course. And, most of those documentaries, books and movies are yet to come. The war in Iraq will end one of these days and the comparisons to Vietnam will be a part of the aftermath.
1 comment:
Both Wars have 1 thing in common:
We have bought into the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). If you would like to read how this happens please see:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
Politicians make no difference.
Through a combination of public apathy and threats by the MIC we have let the SYSTEM get too large. It is now a SYSTEMIC problem and the SYSTEM is out of control. Government and industry are merging and that is very dangerous.
There is no conspiracy. The SYSTEM has gotten so big that those who make it up and run it day to day in industry and government simply are perpetuating their existance.
The politicians rely on them for details and recommendations because they cannot possibly grasp the nuances of the environment and the BIG SYSTEM.
So, the system has to go bust and then be re-scaled, fixed and re-designed to run efficiently and prudently, just like any other big machine that runs poorly or becomes obsolete or dangerous.
This situation will right itself through trauma. I see a government ENRON on the horizon, with an associated house cleaning.
The next president will come and go along with his appointees and politicos. The event to watch is the collapse of the MIC.
For more details see:
http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/inside-pentagon-procurement-from.html
Post a Comment