60 Minutes program for 2/25/07

The program "60 Minutes" will show a report on the members of the US military that are resisting this war. This will be tonight on CBS, and I will up date this post later to write up what they covered. I hope you join me in watching it.

Last night I watched "Sir! No Sir!" which is a movie about the military resistance against the Vietnam war. It had a lot of information about that the troops were doing then to stop the war and to stop going over to Vietnam, and a lot of it I did not know. It certainly was a brutal time, and the soldiers were often mistreated. This movie claims that nixon realized that he could not continue to send regular troops in Vietnam to fight, because they are resisting - even to the point of fragging their officers. So, he stared a bombing campaign in Vietnam which killed many innocents and destroyed many homes, business, schools, god only knows what else. He also ordered the dropping of Agent Orange on the Vietnamese, and they are still suffering from that today (and not getting any justice for it either). Two of the Americans who resisted are no longer suffering from their exposure to Agent Orange - and that's because they died of cancer from their exposure.

All of this was so evil. Vietnam was never a threat to the USA.

And Iraq was never a threat to the USA. Yet, today, I read that the US is dropping big (BIG!) bombs on Baghdad. This is so evil. And bush is not doing it because the troops are resisting (that is just starting), he is doing it because we DON'T HAVE THE TROOPS to really pacify the city of Baghdad, much less the rest of the country.

We have lost this war in Iraq, and there is no reason to keep US troops there even another day. They are just spreading terror and chaos, and it is impossible for them to (in the overall picture) to do something good for the country of Iraq. And that is not the fault of the troops - it is the fault of their civilian commanders - who have nothing but evil intentions for Iraq.

UPDATE: It was a fair presentation of the troops' position asking for redress. They will suffer some grief for taking this stand, however, what they will go through is nothing compared to what the Vietnam troops went through back in the 1960's and 1970's. For that matter, the anti-war protests are nothing compared to what happened back the either - four students were killed at Kent State, two more protesters were killed somewhere else. I hope it never comes to that here in the USA, but I have a friend who thinks this war will not end without "blood in our own streets" from the anti-war protesters. I hope he is wrong.

But, it is only Americans who can stop this war through non-violent resistance at this point. And I am not sure at this point that even they can do it - unless they "cut the funds" by not paying any taxes. One problem with not paying your taxes is - if they come after you, and you owe them, you may end up paying even more taxes! That would be counter-productive. It seems to me the only way to really avoid paying taxes, EVER, is to be dirt poor.

And I don't have the guts to do that. yet.