History Repeats?

Much of the commentary on John Kerry's noxious comments about our Military men and women in Iraq has focused on one of two aspects of his remarks.  Those who accept that his comments were a joke gone bad give him the benefit of the doubt and accept his partial apologies and clarifications at face value.   Others, who remember his "winter soldier" Senate testimony comparing American troops to Genghis Khan are less forgiving. 

However, both points of view neglect to notice that Kerry's remarks not only repeat his past slanders but also fit into a template that was perfected during the Vietnam War and was profoundly important in undermining support for that War.  Current events raise the question as to whether or not history is already being repeated.

Rich Lowry suggests that though many Conservative Democrats are running away from the Kerry sentiments, he is more representative of today's Democratic party than those who support the troops:

Democrats running as conservatives this year - like senatorial candidate Harold Ford of Tennessee and Jon Tester of Montana - have denounced Kerry's remarks and demanded an apology that he finally coughed up late Wednesday. But Kerry better represents the mainstream of the Democratic Party than they do, and it is old-school liberals like him - with all their sense of superiority and all their intellectual baggage from Vietnam - who will gain most from a Democratic majority won on the strength of relatively moderate candidates.

As if to provide evidence that there is an orchestrated campaign underway to destroy our efforts in Iraq, there is this report in the McGill Daily, of a speech that Seymour Hersh gave in Montreal last Wednesday in which he stated:

If Americans knew the full extent of U.S. criminal conduct, they would receive returning Iraqi veterans as they did Vietnam veterans, Hersh said.

“In Vietnam, our soldiers came back and they were reviled as baby killers, in shame and humiliation,” he said. “It isn’t happening now, but I will tell you – there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq.”

For those of us who lived through the Vietnam era in politics, this is all too familiar.  In order to undermine support for the war, the Left, which included overt Communist front organizations and other overtly anti-American organizations, skillfully co-opted the natural disinclination of young cosseted Americans to join the military along with the growing disenchantment of a large swath of American opinion, to delegitimize the War in Vietnam.  Among other techniques, the most crucial ultimately was the Seymour Hersh/John Kerry duet.

Hersh found glory when he broke the story of My Lai, a terrible massacre of Vietnamese civilians that crystallized the opposition to the war.  The Hersh/Kerry narrative was that innocent young American boys were taken by the (capitalist, imperialist, colonialist) War Machine and turned into ruthless baby killers.  This narrative became the organizing meme thathelped destroy the legitimacy of the War effort. 

There are obvious differences in Iraq, though you might not know it if you only read the New York Times.  The Iraqis have a duly elected government, the outcome of three fair and open elections; the Islamic terrorists overtly threaten us and have killed many Americans and many other Westerners, something the Vietnamese never did; our casualties are thus far only ~2.5% of our losses in Vietnam.  Furthermore, the American "War Machine" has been either spectacularly efficient and exquisitely targeted or, if Hersh is to be believed, spectacularly evil but ineffective.   After all, if "there has never been an [American] army as violent and murderous as our army has been in Iraq" then even if you accept the worst case scenarios, of 600,000 deaths (2/3 caused by Iraq on Iraq violence) since the American invasion, one can only conclude that (similar to the Israelis in Lebanon), the reports of our overwhelming and indiscriminate use of force seem to be somewhat overstated, to say the least.

Interestingly, Hersh claims in his speech that he has seen the proof:

During his hour-and-a-half lecture – part of the launch of an interdisciplinary media and communications studies program called Media@McGill – Hersh described video footage depicting U.S. atrocities in Iraq, which he had viewed, but not yet published a story about.

He described one video in which American soldiers massacre a group of people playing soccer.

“Three U.S. armed vehicles, eight soldiers in each, are driving through a village, passing candy out to kids,” he began. “Suddenly the first vehicle explodes, and there are soldiers screaming. Sixteen soldiers come out of the other vehicles, and they do what they’re told to do, which is look for running people.”

“Never mind that the bomb was detonated by remote control,” Hersh continued. “[The soldiers] open up fire; [the] cameras show it was a soccer game.”

“About ten minutes later, [the soldiers] begin dragging bodies together, and they drop weapons there. It was reported as 20 or 30 insurgents killed that day,” he said.

This is truly remarkable.  We have all become familiar with the MSM, of which Seymour Hersh is an exemplar, holding onto stories until they can do maximum damage to those they oppose, but this is worth pondering.  Seymour Hersh has evidence of American atrocities that would make abu Graib, 50 plus front page stories in the New York Times and counting, look like a walk in the park, and he has withheld publication?  This is hard to believe, unless there is an ulterior motive at play.

Publishing the stories now risks giving a boost to Republican chances in next week's elections.  The American people are not prepared to see our Military, truly the best and brightest among us, smeared again as murderers, torturers, and baby killers, and reports like Hersh's splashed across the pages of the legacy media would likely inflame most Americans and especially the Republican base.  This would not do.  Instead, once the Democrats have taken the House, and hopefully (from their point of view) the Senate, the publication of Hersh's charges would lead to investigations, daily news reports of atrocities committed by Americans in Iraq, more investigations, more news reports, in an endless loop.  Repeated often enough, it would be extraordinarily difficult to keep any sense of proportion. 

I may be wrong in all this.  There may well be no connection between John Kerry's Freudian slip and Seymour Hersh's perfidy, but when something has worked once, there is every tendency to try it again.  The stakes are much higher now; even most reasonable Democrats know that abandoning Iraq prematurely would be a victory for the forces of Islamic fascism, yet under the kind of media orchestrated barrage that would ensue from Hersh's "expose", I doubt many would be able to stand.

Comments

"The American people are not prepared to see our Military, truly the best and brightest among us, smeared again as murderers, torturers, and baby killers, and reports like Hersh's splashed across the pages of the legacy media would likely inflame most Americans and especially the Republican base."

They are ready. "truly the best and the brightest?" C'mon. Let's be real.

[Major John]

Perhaps Mr. Hersh's "video" is in the same league with the Boston Globe's "rape photos" and he knows if shown, it would be torn apart instantly. Better to insinuate, hint and lie in wait.

[Gabriel]

Given Hersh's longstanding opposition to facts, I'd take everything he says with a boulder of salt.

[Jerry]

From an April 2005 article in "New York" (not "New Yorker") magazine:

"There are two Hershes, really. Seymour M. is the byline. He navigates readers through the byzantine world of America’s overlapping national-security bureaucracies, and his stories form what Hersh has taken to calling an 'alternative history' of the Bush administration since September 11, 2001.

"Then there’s Sy. He’s the public speaker, the pundit. On the podium, Sy is willing to tell a story that’s not quite right, in order to convey a Larger Truth. 'Sometimes I change events, dates, and places in a certain way to protect people,' Hersh told me. 'I can’t fudge what I write. But I can certainly fudge what I say.'"

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/people/features/11719/

[TallDave]

I would not be surprised if he has such a tape, or if it shows what he descibes. Insurgents have video editors too, and they have no qualms about attacking in the middle of a soccer game. Naturally Hersh is eager to buy their version of the story, despite the obvious problems (where does Hersh think the weapons came from, if the victims are all innocent?).

"Useful idiots in the West" did not die with the Soviet Union. They just found new enemies to be duped by.

[R C Dean]

I suspect that Mr. Hersh knows all too well that his video, if it exists at all, will not survive blogospheric scrutiny.

Instead, he plays a version of the McCarthy game - "I have in my pocket a video . . . ."

Rathergate at least reminded the panjandrums of the press that being stupidly sloppy can cost them their jobs. No one will touch this story until they at least see the video and have it validated, which will never happen.

[ELC]

Instalanche! :-)

[Dick Stanley]

No one can fact check Mr. Anonymous Source, and he knows it.

Are you suggesting it was wrong to undermine the legitimacy of the war in Vietnam? We pulled out and the cold war ended a mere 15 years later without devestation to our population or the Soviet Union's. Why should we have stayed in Vietnam? Why was wrong to undermine its support? How did this apply today?

[Gary Campbell]

Maybe it's time for "right wing death squads" to form and remove people like Sy Hersh and his ilk from the stage.

[observer 5]

Yes, that My Lai massacre that Hersh reported on was all a lie, just as his story in May 2002 that we were going to invade Iraq on a pretext was a lie, and just as all of his stories on Abu Ghraib are lies. War is always a morally uplifting experience conducted by the rules. Civilians are never wrongfully killed, women are never raped, there were no atrocities in Vietnam, just as there are none in Iraq. The veterans who talked at the Winter Soldier conference were all fakes and their stories all made up. There were no atrocities, no indiscriminate use of force in Vietnam.

The alleged rape of a 14 year old girl and the murder of her and her family in Mahmudiyah this year - all lies. As are the killings of civilians in Haditha - they were terrorists. The reason why the war is not going so well is because of the treasonous fifth column, like Kerry and Hersh and Murtha. Rumsfeld's failure to plan, failure to provide adequate troop strength and resulting failure to restore order in Iraq have nothing to do with problems there. Anyways, there are no real problems, so why do people complain?

[observer 5]

Yes, Gary, by no means should anyone be allowed to tell the truth about something like My Lai or Abu Ghraib. Death squads are a great idea, that upholds American ideals. We have to protect our Constitution - if anyone casts aspersions on our Government and Freedom, kill 'em!

[aaron]

I like how people are trying to pretend that how Kerry botched the joke and how it was received aren't at all important.

[dadmanly]

The very first comment underscores your point.

There are those who see the entire US military in amber, frozen in time, stuck as some comic caricature in their imaginations. It wasn't a true picture then, even less true now with an all volunteer military.

For this latest comment, please note that your pretty little picture conveniently ignores the millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians that died at the hands of "victorious" communists, or for that matter the many thousands of Europeans and Russians who died or were imprisoned by the Socialists or their puppets.

Why was it bad to pull out of Vietnam? We can count the reasons in the lives of millions.

[Gabriel]

aaron:

When you're wrong your wrong and changing the subject is a longstanding tactic of those with little intellectual honesty.

The lefts only play these days seems to be the Strawman, case in point, posts by Observer5.

[pst314]

"I can certainly fudge what I say"

Jerry, thanks for reminding of what Hersch said. It's not often that a liberal is so open about his willingness to tell lies in the service of a partisan agenda.

[submandave]

"Are you suggesting it was wrong to undermine the legitimacy of the war in Vietnam? ... Why was wrong to undermine its support? "

Maybe the millions of bodies in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia following the Communist victory? Maybe the hundres of thousands, if not millions, of refugees and desparate people risking life and limb on anything that will float to escape the ravages and revenge of the Communists? Maybe the disgrace we, as a nation, must bear in turning our back on an ally and leaving them to the wolves? Maybe the deep self-scorn, shame and low confidence caused by believing all the BS used to undermine the legitimacy of the war?

That the USSR collapsed fifteen years after the fall of Saigon does not mean that latter caused the former. One could just as contend that winning Vietnam would haev invalidated Communist doctrrine much quicker. Remember, those driving the effort against the war were backed and financed by Communists who were most certainly acting for the benefit of the USSR and global communism, so why would you try and argue that lying about Vietnam and delegitimizing the effort in SEA somehow helped bring about the downfall of communism?

[TallDave]

"Why should we have stayed in Vietnam?"

Good point, it's not like there were 1.5 million "boat people" refugess and a nightmare of mass executions and "re-education camps" afterward.

For that matter, why should we have stayed in Korea? We've denied millions of S Koreans the right to live in Kim Jong Il's socialist paradise, where people risk their lives to flee INTO a country poorer than Mexico.

I wonder if the S Vietnamese ever look at S Korea and wonder what could have been, if Americans hadn't turned their backs...

[Ty]

My point was that we should let the inevitable course of history run out untenable social structures. What's happening in Vietnam now? It's the fastest growing economy in the region. And not because we stuck around militarily like the flacid counter-imperialists we were.

[EssEm]

One of the things I have learned to do in interpreting people's communications is to follow their passion. It is a strong clue. People like Jean Francois Kerry and Mr Hersch appear to reserve their passions for domestic opponents. It is typical of the left. Their real hatred is for their enemies at home and that is the real war for them. Despite what they may say about our Muslim enemies when pressed, they have no discernible passion against them.

And as for atrocities in war...they will happen. Even if Hersch's allegation is true, is it really all that significant? Where are his rants against the totally unrepented barbarities of the jihadis?

Seymour and Jean seem like self-castrated parasites to me. Thank God there are real men in the world.

[Tom]

If Seymour Hersh really does have or did see the video he described, then he witnessed a crime. Someone ought to call his bluff, perhaps the Army's Inspector General, or the Criminal Investigation Division. Perhaps they ought to have a little chat with Mr. Hersh, complete with a subpoena or a material witness warrant, to produce this evidence he claims that he's seen. Either he can turn it over, go to jail for contempt, or recant. Either way, his bluff ought to be called.

[Twok]

The fifth-column left is the reason the War on Terror is taking much longer than it might have. They truly are on the other side, and Americans have not woken up to this yet.

http://futurist.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/06/zarqawi_and_the.html

[Ty]

"Thank God there are real men in the world."

You mean, like King George and the flightless bird hunter?

Perhaps "Jean" believes that his enemy at home is only exacerbating our enemy abroad.

[TombZ]

Ty-

Yeah, it's great how the millions of dead Vietnames and Cambodians are benefitting from higher standards of living stemming from a booming economy.

[Jim Rockford]

Inevitable course of history? Marxist garbage.

Vietnam was BAD because our pullout encouraged Soviet adventurism and aggression which was particularly bad given their nuclear arsenal of strategic proportions. Even 50,000 Americans dead was a small price to pay compared to the increased risk of global nuclear war. You could argue that perceived American weakness post-Vietnam encouraged the Soviet Union's Afghan adventurism AND the widespread perception that America was "weak" and would run away at the least sign of domestic opposition and casualties.

Osama has argued THAT line citing Vietnam and Mogadishu and Beirut from the beginning, and still argues that to this day. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah also cites Vietnam as evidence that the US cannot be trusted, and that it will be "crushed" by Islam.

Running away from Vietnam had short-term little of consequence given the superpower control over the nuclear arsenals of the six nuclear powers at the time (US, USSR, UK, France, and Israel). Given that we have defacto TEN nuclear powers (add India, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran) and soon, about 20-40 as everyone in the region rushes for nuclear weapons (Egypt, Saudi, Jordan, Oman, Turkey have all announced or are expected to start their own programs) is ...

Suicide.

The cost simply put for running away from Iraq is the nuking of American cities by jihadis backed by unstable Islamic regimes convinced there exists no comeback for them. Deterrence only works if people are convinced there are real negative consequences of them when they act against deterrence.

Sy Hersh and Kerry don't care. They are busy fighting the Cold War on the part of the Soviet Union, don't care about nuked American cities at all. They have careers to make.

Vietnam is not Iraq (and their growth is from so low a point that any growth is "fastest growing" .. besides which they are doomed against the Chinese economic juggernaut). Iraq in defacto sectarian / tribal sections with parts under Al Qaeda control and a clear message to Iran or Pakistan's ISI there is no comeback for fighting America guarantees as much as possible nuking of American cities.

No one actually cares about American misconduct except moral vanity people like Ty; Saddam filled mass graves with infants and women and the American Left celebrates him as a hero. Meanwhile reality marches on and Zawahari and others plot the nuking of American cities.