[Peace-discuss] 4th of July letter to Michael Steele (by "Judy Morris")

[Laurie Solomon]

I would disagree with you, Carl, concerning the questionable attribution 
that JFK got us into the Viet Nam war in that the assertion is contingent on 
what one defines as the start of that battle.  I would say that it was 
Eisenhower, a republican, who got us involved (via black ops and the 
machinations  of John Foster Dulles' cold war paranoia) with Viet Nam after 
the French were defeated and left.  JFK merely made the involvement visible 
by sending uniformed military "advisors" in sizable numbers to "advise" the 
South Viet Nam troops; LBJ then formalized the involvement with the "Gulf of 
Tonkin" resolution which legitimated and authorized the sending or troops in 
a combat status.

Of course, one also has to question why other conflicts and police actions 
throughout the US history pursued by the US under Republican - especially - 
leadership has been ignored  (e.g., the Indian wars and actions in the West, 
Granada, Nicaragua, Panama, etc.)

Moreover, I think that any quibbling over the meaning and use of 
"progressive" in today's world of conversation, discussion, and analysis is 
more than a mere quibble.  It has the same lineal ideological pro-western 
value assumptions and uses as terms like "development," "progress," 
advancement," etc. which serve as rationale and propaganda for policies, 
programs and practices.

--------------------------------------------------
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 04, 2010 2:08 PM
To: "E.Wayne Johnson" <ewj at pigs.ag>
Cc: "peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] 4th of July letter to Michael Steele (by "Judy 
Morris")

> An excellent exhortation - and essentially correct, I'd say. We could 
> quibble over the meaning of "progressive" - is it merely a propaganda term 
> or does it have some content? - but it's certainly true that the 
> presidents named were Democrats. (See Dennis Perrin's little book, "Savage 
> Mules: The Democrats and Endless War.")
>
> I'd add that it was John Kennedy (a Democrat) who got us into the Vietnam 
> War.
>
> Of course it was a Republican president who was responsible for the most 
> American deaths in a war (to date).  Some 620,000 soldiers died in the 
> Civil War - perhaps almost as many wounded, and an equal number of 
> civilians (?).
>
>
> On 7/4/10 12:08 PM, E.Wayne Johnson wrote:
>> Interesting read aside from the jab at "progressives".  Perhaps she is a 
>> bit
>> careless. Certainly the Democrat party was the historical war party.
>>
>> My July 4th Letter to Michael Steele
>> Today at 12:35am
>> Dear Mr. Steele:
>>
>> I applaud your extraordinary courage in thinking the unthinkable and 
>> speaking
>> the unspeakable relative to the futility of the war in Afghanistan. Many
>> have left the GOP because of its viral neocon commitment to endless and
>> murderous foreign interventions. I no longer vote Republican but 3rd 
>> party.
>>
>> History teaches us that it was the progressives and the Democrats who 
>> were
>> addicted to wars of empire. Democrat Woodrow Wilson got us into WW I,
>> Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt got us into WW II, Democrat Harry Truman 
>> got
>> us into the Korean War, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson got us into the 
>> Vietnam
>> War and Democrat Bill Clinton got us into the Balkan Wars. According to
>> www.abmc.gov, 35,473 Americans are dead/missing from WW I, 405,399 
>> Americans
>> are dead from WW II, 54,246 Americans are dead from the Korean War and 
>> 58,178
>> Americans are dead from the Vietnam War. That’s a grand total of 553,296 
>> dead
>> Americans from Democratic wars.
>>
>> At a trillion bucks a year, our insane foreign policy has bankrupted the
>> nation, destroyed our economy, assaulted our civil liberties, trashed the
>> Constitution and has churned a once peaceful and prosperous Pax Americana
>> into Pox Americana. It’s definitely time to focus the foreign policy 
>> debate
>> on legitimate national defense needs vs. non-stop interventionism. The
>> American people are sick to death of the wars and it’s time for the
>> Republican Party to get back to its historical roots of peace by 
>> following
>> the foreign policy advice of our founders and rejecting war unless
>> constitutionally declared by Congress.
>>
>> I would hope that you grow even more courageous and condemn all of our
>> interventions and wars as offensive to our Constitution, inconsistent 
>> with
>> the principles of liberty and morally repugnant. America is desperate for
>> political leadership that will restore Pax Americana, Liberty and 
>> Prosperity.
>> It’s July 4th and our founders who declared “we mutually pledge to each 
>> other
>> our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor” must be rolling over in 
>> their
>> graves at the horrors inflicted upon a once free and prospering people by
>> ignoble men and women with no honor and who mockingly spat upon all that 
>> was
>> sacrificed to create the greatest free nation in all of human existence.
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