Rationalizing fear driven politics

Sheldon Richman describes how the draft set the environment for many age eligible boys in I Avoided Fighting in Vietnam and Have No Regrets. He thinks “If anything, avoiding that war was a moral duty” but bases that particular conclusion on a lie.

I don’t understand that view at all. Vietnam doesn’t deserve to be called a generation’s great challenge. It was a criminal war of aggression waged against innocent people by American politicians and bureaucrats without an trace of honor or decency. Millions of Indochinese people were murdered. Nearly 60,000 Americans died. The blood stains on America will never be washed off.

The U.S. was there because of a treaty obligation. The aggressor was the entity trying to invade South Vietnam and fomenting insurgency by infiltration and propaganda. This entity used very cruel and harsh methods on its opposition and it wasn’t the U.S. The lie was carefully built and pummeled into the minds of the gullible trying to rationalize their fears. The success of those efforts lead to the abandonment of South Vietnam after military victory and to the suffering of very many as the aggressors showed their true colors in victory.

The very sad part of this is that the lie is still held high and is leading to a repeat of the abandonment of promises and paid for gains for civilization and peace resulting in the suffering of populations. 

No regrets? Only in ignorance and denial or something even worse.