Do Josh Marshall and his big-media counterparts have any idea what a bunch of petty buffoons they look like pecking away at the “Bush in the National Guard” story day after day after tedious day? Hint: As much of a bunch of petty buffoons as the people now going after John Kerry for being “inconsistent” about Vietnam, or for being in a photograph with Jane Fonda, or whatever.
There are several offensive things about the way both sides are now gleefully rehashing Vietnam, the most offensive being that we are currently at war, for Christ’s sake. That’s an order of magnitude more important than endlessly battling over the fact that–shock! horror!–two guys may have behaved in a way that would indicate they were less than enthusiastic about the Vietnam War 35 years ago.
It’s also offensive that people are still behaving as though there was a right and a wrong side to that war and the culture war it engendered. Look, it was a difficult time. I wasn’t even there and I could tell you that. Provided you weren’t giving aid and comfort to the enemy, or conversely deliberately mowing down civilians, I pass no judgements on your conduct way back then. Everyone did what they felt they had to do. If in your heart you felt it was your duty to go and to fight, good. If in your heart you felt it was your duty to protest, good. If in your heart you felt you didn’t really want to do either, good. If you used your connections to get you out of the issue entirely, good. If you told the draft board you were physically unfit and spent the next few years skiing, good. If you went to fight and won a ton of medals and then came home and told people the whole thing was a disaster, good. If you went to college in England and thanked your local government in writing for getting you out of the draft, good. If you went and fought and came home and thought you were doing something good for America and the world, good.
Obviously, in a perfect world, the people and armed forces of the United States would have enthusiastically supported a popular democratic resistance to a Communist invasion and guerilla insurgency, and defeated it, and Vietnam wouldn’t have to have suffered under Communism for decades. But neither the people nor the military were supporting the war, and the regime we were fighting on behalf of was not democratic, and the Vietnamese people (in the main) supported the Communists, and in response we blew the hell not just out of North and South Vietnam but every other country on that peninsula. In the present time, ignoring the horrible fate of that country following the Communist victory is a mistake. But so is recharacterizing the War as some sort of noble struggle for truth, justice, and the American way, all of which were in incredibly short supply during the length of the conflict. The war was not fought in such a way that it was a clear-cut battle between totalitarianism (them) and freedom (us)–it was more like a battle between improbably popular but self-evidently murderous and eventually disastrous totalitarianism (them) and well-intentioned but mendacious and horribly executed and eventually deliberately destructive rule by force (us). The fact is that as far as everyday people are concerned, I can understand nearly any viewpoint espoused or tactic taken by American citizens during that time, with only a very few exceptions. It was complex, extremely complex. And more importantly, it’s now over. Let it be over.
And what makes this even more offensive is that the Left has suddenly “discovered” its admiration for military service and begun making hay out of draft-dodging accusations. The hypocrisy is simply breathtaking, considering how they (rightly) defended former President Clinton and former fruntrunner Dean by saying that such accusations were stupid, pointless, divisive, and wrong. (For evidence, look at how stupid the Republicans look for calling Kerry a pinko due to his anti-war activities pre- and post- his tour of duty.) In fact, this is the kind of thing that has led me to refer to the Left as “they” rather than “we,” which not three years ago I would have said, and proudly.
I’m just sick of schadenfreude trumping integrity and ethics in politics. Any kind of attack is unfair, until attacking the other side in that manner will score you some points, at which point anything goes. Whether it’s Vietnam, or affairs, or the way opponents of the Drug War fell all over themselves saying Rush Limbaugh should have the book thrown at him, we’re embarrassing ourselves, and we’ve got bigger things to worry about.
Enough, enough, enough.