Iconic Photos From the Vietnam War (23 pics)

Re: Jimmy Johnson
I think your a little confused, the Vietnam war occurred 25 years after the Korean war, not before. When I said, "it stopped the spread of communism to other parts of the region", I was referring to Cambodia specifically. If we would have stayed longer, perhaps we could have saved Laos and Myanmar from their current turmoil. I hope that communism is on its way out, but I don't see it going anywhere soon. Communism is alive and well in far to many countries, even if they don't officially classify themselves as communist. There is very little difference between the "communist" states of the today and many of the totalitarian states in existence e.g. Venezuela, Iran, etc. They all claim to exist for the good of the people, but end up just creating dynasties of corrupt power hungry individuals/groups.

Also in response to your statement : "The "rest of the world" chose to stay out of Vietnam in case you missed that obvious point, because other contries have the strange ability to recognize the sovergnty of a country." This is not true, countries other than the US involved in Vietnam include: S. Korea, Australia, Philippines, New Zealand, Thailand, Khmer Republic, Laos, and Taiwan.

You said, "No war was decared on Iraq ( a soveign country) yet it was invaded against strict violation of UN policy." The declaration of war in Iraq is a moot point, as war was only "declared" five times by the US government (War of 1812, Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, WWI, & WWII). Every other "war" in US history wasn't really an actual "declared war" and was preceded w/ regardless of the UN's authority (when applicable). The UN is a joke anyways, all it is another useless bureaucracy that spends it's time discussing topics instead of taking action. Not to mention the UN would collapse if the United States didn't continue to fund the majority of its budget.



I don't see what why you have a problem w/ Israel, what do they do to anyone other than embrace the right to exist. Anytime Israel fights back the media and other countries make them out to be the aggressor, when all they are doing is trying to not be whipped off the face of the earth by anti-semites. I'm not a Jew, but I recognize their right to exist, unlike Iran. Sure companies make profits off of war, that's capitalism, what's wrong w/ profit? If US companies make money, so do their employees, so does the government, so do share holders, so does every other business that all of the aforementioned patronize. I'm glad that some US companies are able get profit from war, why shouldn't something good come from something that is otherwise very costly to the nation as a whole both financially and in human lives.

I ran out of room:
If all the US wanted to do was profit from war and didn't care about others, we wouldn't have set Japan or S. Korea up like we did after WWII and the Korean War and left them to progress so wonderfully, we would have gotten more out of Kuwait after the gulf war instead we left them as a free country, we wouldn't be pulling out of Iraq like we are currently doing as their government and military stabilize. Yes the US gets involved where other countries don't, but if they didn't think what the world would be like today. All of Europe would be speaking German, Australians would be speaking Japanese, Kuwait would no longer exist etc.

mortex,
mortex,
Very well put.

they are not listening still, perhaps they never will

Mortex - I think you're missing my point. If the war in Korea had been won by the forces of "good" then we wouldn't have the need to repeat it again in Vietnam now would we? How is communism thriving? Is North Korea your example? China's government is not communism by defintion. It would be closer to capitalism/socialism. The US is not a democracy by definition. It is far closer to pure capitalism.

The other countries participating in Vietnam were there for nothing more than political reasons to gain favor with the US military complex. You're going to use that like Australia provided any tactical advantage?

The reason why you declare war in the modern age is because international conflicts must come under the jurisdiction of international law vis a vis the Geneva Convention. That's a small oversight war mongering nations don't bother with. But the Bill of Rights is sacred to any applicable laws in the US, isn't it?

Do you really think any US assistance in S. Korea and Japan was altruistic? General MacArthur's terms of surrender with Japan was to subsidize trade with Japanese companies to pay 1/3 of the selling price back to US companies that would guarantee trade with them. Japan was in no position to refuse, having to rebuild their war-torn nation. It was also a way for the US to extend it's imperialsm into the region as the US miltary was able to establish bases there.

If the UN cannot survive without US involvment, then perhaps the US can see to it to pay the $2 billion it owes in arrears.

Israel is the main buyer of US weaponry. So much so that military contractors, and therefore US taxpayers, have given Israel $30 billion in free military aid just to say thanks. If Israel has a right to exist, then aren't you a hypocrite to say a country, even through a civil war, doesn't have the right to decide it's own outcome? Where was the benevolent US military in Somalia or Liberia, or in Bosnia?

And it's so predictable for you to say Europe would be speaking German without US involvement. The US was the Johny Come Lately in ww2. Russian forces had all but defeated the Germans. US involvement sped up their defeat by a matter of 3 -4 months. But they don't teach that in history books do they?

It took a captured GERMAN scientist to develop the atomic bomb. I believe his name was Albert Einstein. The US has the dubious distinction of the only nation to use an atomic weapon on another country. Does half a milliion dead women and children and generations of cancer survivors make up for Pearl Harbor?..... Which by the way, was precipitated by false US intelligence.

war sucks

All of you who say war sucks...that is what is keeping us free. You should be thankful there are people willing to risk their lives for this country