"HK" wrote in message
...
Eisboch wrote:

"HK" wrote in message
m...


You sure have some oblique "penpals." Is SepticTank FloridaJim referring
to U.S. males who headed north during the war against Vietnam so they
wouldn't have to bomb or shoot women, children and villages in order to
protect Topeka, Kansas, from an invasion by the Viet Cong?



Horsepuckey.

By far, the majority that fled did so because they didn't want to expose
themselves to any danger or felt they could pick and choose their
constitutional obligations.
Lot's of stories made up, but those are the real reasons. I lived it, as
did you. Let's not re-write history to serve your purpose.

True conscientious objectors stayed and made their cases. Some won and
some lost. Those that lost paid their dues in other ways. They deserve
respect.

Eisboch


My "take" on the war against vietnam is a lot stronger than the view I
presented, which I heard from more than a few contemporaries.

Sometimes the real reasons and history of why nations get themselves
involved in wars fade out of consciousness. They sure have for Vietnam.




"Reasons" then and now are two entirely different things. When pressed for
a decision, you have to act on the information you have at the time. I
don't find fault with anyone who does so in good faith, even if they are
found to be in error in history's hindsight.



I think we are getting ourselves deeper and deeper in the crap in
Afghanistan and Pakistan. Modern foreign occupiers/invaders have not had a
lot of success dealing with Afghanistan. Pakistan is a horror of a whole
different magnitude because of its nuclear weapons. What *we* are supposed
to do with either of these failed countries is beyond my understanding.
Neither of the governments of those countries have the ability to
withstand religious zealots. Hell, Pakistan was founded by religious
zealots.

When we finally leave Iraq, whenever that is, it, too, will slide back
into failed nation status, ripe for the plucking by the religious zealots.


I agree with you and am not critical of Obama's actions thus far in
Pakistan.
It's a serious problem and a real risk to our national security and that of
our allies.
I wouldn't want his job. But my point was that few of these problems are
really as simple as the Monday morning quarterbacks make them out to be.

Eisboch