I took this picture in South Pasadena. There are plaques for servicemen who died in Vietnam just off Fair Oaks Boulevard in War Memorial Park. Terry Brooks Dyer appeared to be the youngest of a small handful.
This man was less than one year older than I. He was killed less than one year after he would have graduated high school. Of course I didn't know him, but seeing this memorial to him made me very sad. War is followed by lifetimes of might-have-beens.
Someone needs to remind me why we fought in Vietnam. Would anything today be different if we had won?
Memorial Tags: Memorial Day. . . South Pasadena. . . Terry Brooks Dyer
4 comments :
"Someone needs to remind me why we fought in Vietnam."
I believe Orwell figured it out, well before Vietnam. We need to have perpetual war if we are to maintain the current power structure wherein all secular power is invested in a select coterie of unelected oligarchs who control the economy.
"Would anything today be different if we had won?"
Winning or losing are unimportant. It is maintaining a permanent wartime economy which is important, since that benefits the mega-corporations of the military-industrial complex. Perpetual war also insures that resources are not spent on bettering the lives of common people & creating a just & humane society which benefits all its members, as in the 'socialist welfare' states of Western Europe. We need wars because they are the most efficient means of transferring wealth from the general population into the bank accounts of the hyper-wealthy.
SF
Timothy Leary, said wars were really the old against the young.
I've never heard anyone put forth your second question. Almost as haunting as that sad little monument....and the day after christmas
I knew Terry. We were neighbors and classmates. It is indeed a sad monument. But I don't believe wars are fought to enrich the wealthy or the 'unelected oligarchs'. That might happen as a result, but that is a cynics view I don't share. The quotes listed here are cliches given by people with very limited experience and wisdom.
I think the biggest tragedy of all is how poorly and embarrassingly our soldiers were treated when they returned home from Vietnam. They fought in a war they didn't want and didn't understand, but they did it to keep the South Vietnamese free from Communist rule. Who was enriched? We all lost.
Post a Comment