[Peace-discuss] Cockburn on Vietnam POWs

[E.Wayne Johnson]

The Vietnamese generally speak pretty good English and there were lots of foreigners in Vietnam when I was there 10 years ago.  I suppose there are a lot more there now.  There are a lot of foreign companies doing business in Vietnam and lots of tourists about.  

Conspiracy theories need darkness to grow in.  There's quite a bit of light shining into Vietnam.  Someone would
come back from there with a bone or a scrap of cloth or something.   Some dust with thermite particles in it.

McCain supplies a lot of darkness to the recipe.  I dont like McCain.  He's not a nice guy,
and his handlers are not nice people.  Watching his supporters in action in St. Paul was 
truly surrealistic.

The POW/MIA people hate McCain and they never give up.  But they werent able to get much
traction in the previous struggle against McCain, and people are likely to care less about it now.

McCain is worried about losing this primary and the GOP has sent in top henchmen to help him.
He still has a lot of support in Arizona and it wont be easy to take him out.  McCain's head on a stake
would be a major trophy for the TeaPartiers, but the One Party System will pull out the stops to help McCain.


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: David Green 
  To: C. G. Estabrook 
  Cc: Peace Discuss 
  Sent: Sunday, May 30, 2010 4:08 AM
  Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Cockburn on Vietnam POWs


  I'll look at the evidence with an open mind. Franklin's books include M.I.A., Or, Mythmaking in America and Vietnam and Other American Fantasies. I've only read the latter. At the very least, it's hard to understand the "cover-up", since the Reagan administration was on board with the whole POW/MIA exercise, as Franklin shows. As is often true in these cases, the conspiracy shoe may end up on the foot of the accusers--those who quite successfully promoted the POW/MIA mythology that resulted in the flag that waves by law at the the post office (if it still does).




------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
  To: David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
  Cc: Peace Discuss <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
  Sent: Sat, May 29, 2010 1:22:28 PM
  Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Cockburn on Vietnam POWs

  I admit that Schanberg has been a dutiful imperial scribe.  Here's Chomsky on him more than 15 years ago:

      "...the press wasn't reporting what it knew. Until this day, we don't know a lot about the secret bombing of Cambodia, for a very simple reason - journalists like Sidney Schanberg, who is supposed to be 'the conscience of the press,' were sitting in Phonm Penh, refusing to interview the million and half refugees who were literally across the street. That's why we don't know about the secret war. It's not because of government lying..."

  I do however remind you of what we've called "The Incompleteness Principle" on News from Neptune: "No one can be wrong all the time."


  On 5/29/10 1:10 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
  > My memory is that Franklin (an acute, leftist literary critic) analyzed
  > the motives, during the Reagan years, for believing in POWs-MIAs left
  > behind: he saw at as part of the attempt to reverse the pervasive
  > "Vietnam Syndrome."
  > 
  > But it's always important to distinguish the motives for holding a
  > belief from the evidence for that belief. It's better to see what
  > evidence Schanberg has than to ignore it. --CGE
  > 
  > 
  > On 5/29/10 10:46 AM, David Green wrote:
  >> For the record, AC is right about the USS Liberty, very very very likely
  >> wrong about Vietnam POWs. A pretty shocking support for the POW
  >> conspiracy theory. H. Bruce Franklin has been all over this for years.
  >> http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn05282010.html
  >> http://www.thenation.com/article/powmias-amp-john-mccain
  >> DG
  > 



  -- 
  This message has been scanned for viruses and 
  dangerous content by MailScanner, and is 
  believed to be clean. 


------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Peace-discuss mailing list
  Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
  http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss

-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.chambana.net/pipermail/peace-discuss/attachments/20100530/7517b006/attachment-0001.html>