I am a 65 year old retired Navy Supply Corps Captain and retired businessman from Fairfax Station, Virginia. I served in the US Navy from March 1963 until September of 1990, over 27 years. This posting continues the discussion of how the Bush AdministrationGÇÖs failure to heed the lessons of Viet Nam has led us to the point where we must repudiate its leadership and hold Republican incumbents accountable at the polls. Please read on for this 27 year veteranGÇÖs analysis.
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Today we deal with three more unheeded lessons from Viet Nam that has led us to a point where my generation is in grave danger of not meeting its solemn obligation to leave the nation in better shape than it found it:
GÇó Compliant GÇ£Rubber StampGÇ¥ Congress
GÇó Erosion of Civil Liberties
GÇó Failing to provide returning veterans proper care and support
GÇ£Rubber StampGÇ¥ Congress GÇô There were two GÇ£noGÇ¥ votes in the US Senate for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, Wayne Morse of Oregon and Ernest Gruening of Alaska. Both were iconoclast and were roundly pilloried as unpatriotic. In the coming years Congressional oversight of the war was virtually non-existent, until the campuses erupted and the political pressure became unbearable.
To their credit many Democrats opposed the Iraq War from the outset, but the Republican majority has been able to essentially quash any attempt at oversight. The few inquiries conducted have been buried and any critical reports have been effectively GÇ£mushroomedGÇ¥ as the Republicans have done the Administrations bidding. Critical information has been shrouded in a GÇ£National Security BlanketGÇ¥. It is outrageous and destructive of our fundamental values of self government. The Republican majority must be replaced.
Erosion of Civil Liberties GÇô During the Viet Nam War the domestic spying operation of J. Edgar HooverGÇÖs FBI was dramatically expanded to target dissenters and war protesters. The CIA joined the party with it its own brand of domestic spying. It took the Watergate outrage and the Church Committee to finally bring it to light. The center piece of the fix was the FISA court.
Today the Bush Administration and its lackeys in Congress are proceeding on numerous fronts to strip away citizensGÇÖ fundamental liberties in an atmosphere of fear mongering. The list goes on and on. Here are but a few:
GÇó Warrantless searches and wiretaps effectively bypassing FISA
GÇó Imprisonment without charge, remember Padilla
GÇó Data mining phone records
GÇó Warrantless seizure of financial transaction records
The outright attack upon citizensGÇÖ liberties is nothing compared to that being perpetrated on non-citizens:
GÇó Kidnapping
GÇó Renditions to other countries for torture
GÇó Secret CIA prisons
GÇó Torture
Of course, not to worry these people are all terrorist, correct. Well maybe not all, as the gentleman for Canada who was kidnapped, sent to Syria and tortured will attest. Now we have the curious situation where the GÇ£Rubber StampGÇ¥ Republican majority has made much of this stuff legal with those paragons of integrity Senators Warner, Graham, and McCain duly falling in line after their Andy Warhol fifteen minutes of fame. Almost makes me a conspiracy theorist. Shameful, disgraceful, immoral, are among the adjectives I would use to describe this situation. History will blame us as a society unless we take back our government and demand redress of these outrages. Empowering Veterans intends to begin with helping throw Senator George Allen of Virginia out of office in November.
Failing to provide returning veterans proper care and support GÇô The treatment of returning Viet Nam veterans was shameful. People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were denied treatment for years. In fact, there was an underlying hint that sufferers were malingerers. Similarly, the foot dragging and denial associated with the governmentGÇÖs stance toward Agent Orange was borderline criminal. The list could go on and on. This situation finally got so bad that the Congress reluctantly set about to make it right after untold thousands needlessly suffered.
The same thing is happening today largely under the radar screen. The Republican majority has a favored vehicle to avoid voting up or down on increases in funding for veterans. They simply refuse to waive the Budget Reconciliation ActGÇÖs pay as you go provisions. Of course, they could never raise revenues and take away some of the $1.3 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy. Of course, they conveniently waived the pay as you go provisions to enact these obscene tax giveaways in the first place. This hypocrisy alone should be enough reason to vote them out. I will treat you to more specifics when we start to explore George AllenGÇÖs shameful record of deceit on issues related to members of the Armed Forces, their families and veterans and their families.
Tomorrow we finish this analysis and then it is on to the specifics of Senator George Allen.