Cry the Beloved Country

Posted on Wednesday, September 7, 2005 at 12:18 AM

That was the title of a book by Alan Paton about apartheid era South Africa published in 1948.. I haven't read it but the title has always stuck in my mind and right now this is how I am feeling about the USA. I have some very mixed feelings about my country right now.

Three years ago, I got involved in a rather heated political discussion at work. My boss was trumpeting the cause of going into Iraq and kicking ass. I was less than enthusiastic about this proposal and said so. He then went on to basically accusing me of being anti American and certainly anti Dubbya. What he failed to understand is that I grew up during the Viet Nam war and that I saw how it went from a policy of "containment" under Truman to the ignominous slinking away of Tricky Dick's presidency. Did it prove anything? Did it improve anything? No, certainly not by our standards and that was the problem. Our standards, trying to impose them or shall I be PC and say introduce them, to a basically agrarian society who could give a rat's ass about our standards.

Well, we've gone and done it again-different reasons somewhat, but same result. I feel like I have been in the Twilight Zone. Does noone else in the current administration remember Viet Nam? There is a line from Princess Bride (one of my favorite movies)-Never get involved in a land war in Asia. Well, we can say that's true-now it's Southwest Asia, not Southeast Asia. It is a no win situation.

This has been my ongoing thought and now with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to deal with I feel even more strongly. Resources are stretched thin and we can not fight a war on multiple fronts-the devestation and consequences of a natural disaster like Katrina require billions of dollars to repair. Where will this money come from?

We got out of Viet Nam because Congress tied up the purse strings. I wonder if they would do it again?