Apocalypse Now Revisited

Please expand and clarify.

You say:
"America was born from Europe, from a world where war was conducted with honor and rules. War was always hell and it was always brutal, but there was always a code, always lines that separated war from crimes against humanity. "

I GUESS YOU ARE LEAVING OUT THE INDIAN WAR WHICH CONSTITUTE THE (((HIDDEN))) BULK OF OUR WARRING.
THOSE RED PEOPLE DON'T COUN'T

You Further Say:
"Southeast Asia was a different world. These people had known only centuries of fighting and repression."

WEREN'T MOST OF THE ***WITHOUT CODES OR HONOUR*** LITTLE YELLA AND LI'L BROWN PEOPLE FIGHTING SOME SORT OF ***HONORABLE*** WESTERN COLONIALISM?

I never referred to anyone's race in this post aside from pointing out where a group of people exist geographically. That's your own projection. I'm referring to cultural differences, vis a vis how wars are conducted and fought. It's a military culture born from uniforms and firing in line vs. guerrilla warfare and terrorism. Yes, you can show me instances where western nations and the U.S. have engaged in that sort of fighting, but it's the exception, not the historical rule. To point out how the nature of fighting has changed over the years would speak to part of the point. Furthermore, I have not endorsed "western colonialism" in any way in this post, nor have I defended justifications for past European wars. I have not even endorsed reasons for U.S. involvement in Vietnam here. To portray me as some kind of racist is to miss the point. There are many reasons for the differences discussed, but are not central to the point of this essay.

and I never said you were a racist , or any sort of bigot. If you infer that from my comments then pardon me, I apparently lack the communication skills that I need to communicate effectively.

Let me try again

I am saying that you are essentially omitting negative aspects of western culture in order to construct a sterile, logical, convenient, argument in which you base your comments.

IE. "America was born from Europe, from a world where war was conducted with honor and rules."

THIS MAY BE TRUE IF YOU LEAVE OUT NEARLY A TWO CENTUIES OF butchering INDIANS.


If the gist of your argument is, that we're trying to fight this war in a noble European way, but like the movie “Apocalypse Now,” we are getting lost by the mere facts that not only the enemy but the monster of war itself creates a certain chaos and moral ambiguity, I heartily disagree with you.

I say America fights by no such code.

We do adhere to a basic code of humanity, but the overwhelming premise of the American fighting machine is to use whatever means necessary, normally overwhelming brute force, or overwhelming technology.

And in the cases where we have needed to fight defensive wars where we were outnumbered, we did that also.

So again , I do not mean to imply AT ALL that you are racist, or have posted bigoted commentary, by comission.

But you seem to have put a set of blinders on, and by omission created an ideal, which is incorrect.

You may be a tad pollyannaish in you military history!

Sorry for misinterpreting your earlier remarks. I don't have any strong disagreements with anything you've said, other than to note that I do believe that some of the U.S.'s biggest challenges in time of war, both on the field and at home, have come when facing enemies that fight by different rules of engagement. The way the American Indians were fought could probably be included in this argument, and that would perhaps be an interesting topic to expand upon. I was not trying to argue that western nations have historically taken the moral high road in their histories of wars. I will also respectfully disagree with you that the U.S. does not fight without any type of code. The U.S. has traditionally not employed an 'ends justifying the means' approach to warfare (although I'm sure we could point to arguable exceptions). For instance, the U.S. (in recent history) does not intentionally target civilians. Military restraint occurred in Vietnam and it's occurring in Iraq; which could be one of the primary reasons a clear military victory has been difficult to achieve.