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1:26 a.m. - 2003-02-16
Vietnam
I spent a good part of the day reading through the newspapers for the past week. I just didn't find the time during my evenings. One night out with a friend, one night grocery shopping, one night watching "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", time with my guys and housework. Doesn't take long to fill up an evening.

I've noted before I don't really trust a lot of what I read in the paper, but it does give me a lot of background information and some idea of what is going on out side my own corner of the world. I can always research further, if I want to find a more balanced picture of events or look for information that is missing. Journalists in Canada have a group that monitor stories that aren't reported or are under-reported each year. Sometimes silence is more telling than all the fanfare.

Applied to most of the headlines about war right now, one needs to ask what isn't being said. I guess the "biggie" is the economy in the US. What would happen if all that money being poured into the war against the citizens of Iraq was invested in job creation and supports for American citizens instead. Makes more sense to me; or does the US government see war as their form of job creation, or is it "culling the herd". Taking out a whole generation of young males to keep power entrenched where it is. I'm sorry, but I don't see any difference between the current situation and Vietnam. My feeling is the outcome will be very similar. How many body bags will it take this time?

All I remember when I think of that war is the grief I witnessed and felt. I remember watching a Bob Hope special in Vietnam one Christmas. Watching while the cameras caught a young soldier breaking down when "Silent Night" was sung. I've never been able to hear that song since without tears. I guess it was because he looked to be about my age and I felt a very great fear for him and his family.

It was never about the soldiers who did their best that was the problem then, and it isn't now. Remember the child photographed by Huyn Cong Ut for the Associated Press -http//:www.ap.org/pages/history/timeline/1965index.html? Nothing has changed in chemical warfare. It doesn't matter which side uses it; whether it be Hussein against the Kurds, Vietnam and Agent Orange, or Desert Storm and the illness of the soldiers who served then.

It's very sad that American citizens feel that the anti-war sentiment being expressed by the rest of the world is aimed at them or is meant as a criticism of their culture - it isn't. No more does it mean dismissing Britons for that matter. Disagreeing with a friend or family member doesn't mean rejection. It does occur all the time in normal human relationships if they are healthy. On issues of conscience though, all the major nations involved guarantee their citizens the right to dissent and their right to demand their government represent that choice.

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