Thus pens an editorialist in USA Today, who claims that
I'm guessing the writer may be all of, like, 40 years old, max. But, du-ude . . . . you don't remember "duck and cover," do you? Maybe you've never even heard of it?
As I remember the 1960s and 1970s, the fear with which we were inculcated was that, if the Commies take Vietnam, the dominoes will begin to fall, inexorably (OK, I admit, I didn't know that word back then), and the Soviets will soon be knocking at our door, offering us the lovely option of "Red or dead," shooting us if we said we still believed in God. And if we refuse to submit, they have a bazillion nuclear-tipped ICBMs (that's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, meine kinder) waiting to vaporize us - and then their millions of soldiers can sweep in and take over the entire universe.
Sounds ridiculous, like out of some comic book? Maybe. But we believed it, because our government told us it was the Truth. It was Us or Them.
Still don't get it? OK, hit Wikipedia, and look up Joe McCarthy, and while you're at it, Curtis LeMay.
Now our government (and those steeped-deeply-in-wisdom editorialists at USA Today) tells us that if we don't defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (all maybe 150 of them), it will be the end of civilization as we know it.
Golly.
Well, maybe it'll all be OK if our guys can first knock out all of Osama's nuclear-tipped ICBMs.
Win or lose in Vietnam, life for most Americans was not going to change. There was no al-Qaeda equivalent intent on attacking the United States. . . .For all the problems in Afghanistan, we are not reliving Vietnam. This is something much, much worse.
I'm guessing the writer may be all of, like, 40 years old, max. But, du-ude . . . . you don't remember "duck and cover," do you? Maybe you've never even heard of it?
As I remember the 1960s and 1970s, the fear with which we were inculcated was that, if the Commies take Vietnam, the dominoes will begin to fall, inexorably (OK, I admit, I didn't know that word back then), and the Soviets will soon be knocking at our door, offering us the lovely option of "Red or dead," shooting us if we said we still believed in God. And if we refuse to submit, they have a bazillion nuclear-tipped ICBMs (that's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, meine kinder) waiting to vaporize us - and then their millions of soldiers can sweep in and take over the entire universe.
Sounds ridiculous, like out of some comic book? Maybe. But we believed it, because our government told us it was the Truth. It was Us or Them.
Still don't get it? OK, hit Wikipedia, and look up Joe McCarthy, and while you're at it, Curtis LeMay.
Now our government (and those steeped-deeply-in-wisdom editorialists at USA Today) tells us that if we don't defeat al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (all maybe 150 of them), it will be the end of civilization as we know it.
Golly.
Well, maybe it'll all be OK if our guys can first knock out all of Osama's nuclear-tipped ICBMs.
No comments:
Post a Comment