Witches brew: Terrorism, ghosts of Vietnam, eternal war

Coincident to the Pentagon’s request for thousands more US soldiers to be shipped off to Afghanistan comes the massive vehicle borne improvised explosive device (VBID) attack in Kabul that has killed nearly 100 and wounded 400 others. Among the wounded are said to be about a dozen US citizens who, likely, are defense and support contractors. The Taliban vehemently denied any involvement in the attack. The Islamic State, or an affiliated group, is the likely suspects. Meanwhile in London during the first weekend in June terrorists there driving a van mowed down pedestrians and then went about stabbing random victims. The result? 7 dead, 21 critically wounded.

And so the world is off to the races again with a news cycle that features the routine victim portrayals, on scene interviews, expert analysis, and statements from leaders around the world condemning the attack and vowing to carry the fight to the evildoers. The UK prime minister, Theresa May, calls now for Internet censorship and President Trump wants the US judicial branch to vacate its role as a check and on the executive branch. As to May’s worry about the terrorists using the Internet to exploit weaknesses, the issue was brought up 15 years ago in an American Behavioral Scientist piece, titled Terror in Cyberspace, Terrorists Will Exploit and Widen the Gap Between Governing Structures and the Public, in which scenarios explored have come to life today.

So we all watch the carnage on television or the Internet and empathize for, maybe, 10 minutes. Then, we get back to the daily grind of work, soap operas, video games, sporting events, the mobile device and the Game of Thrones television series. We know that more attacks are sure to come. We civilized 21^st Century world citizens have become accustomed to civilian, military and enemy body counts on television, in the papers, the Internet, and in conversation. We call it the new normal, but it us anything but: The Internet-World Wide Web and telecommunications networks have not so clearly changed the world, as much as it has provided a mirror to the savagery of the human species. Whether it is terrorism, toxic destruction of the Earth, collateral damage, poisoned water, austerity, or man-made famine, those woes have always existed but now we can see them, and it hurts and then it numbs.

This has all the feel of the Vietnam War Era during which political, social, cultural and racial/economic currents came together in an unprecedented fashion. It seems that is about to happen again. It may take years, but it is coming.

Mini-Tet Offensives

The Kabul attack, and to a lesser extent the London, UK, event, become props to support the Pentagon’s request for more US troops to support Afghanistan, Iraq and the eternal global war on terrorism. But how are a few thousand US soldiers sent to and fro going to bring the Taliban to its knees or stop terrorist attacks from happening anywhere in the world? Even as the Islamic State is being squashed in Iraq and Syria, they are able to create havoc in Baghdad, Kabul, the Philippines and London/Manchester, UK.

Don’t we need 500,000 plus soldiers in Afghanistan as we did in Vietnam to crush the adversaries? Why the incremental increases? Why not seek the services of 1 million American citizens via the draft to go and get the job done in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Syria?

The suicide attacks serve as mini-Tet Offensives: They remind world leaders and military planners that they are largely helpless to eliminate terrorist attacks. The relatively low numbers of reinforcements requested by the Pentagon are puzzling. If the US wanted to annihilate the Taliban and the Islamic State, they’d get the Whole of American Society involved in the task. Most Americans don’t care about US military actions in Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria. Nor do they want to go to war with Iran, which leaders in the USA seem keen to do.

Censoring the Internet is no solution. Want to stop terrorists and uncover propaganda? How about a basic education in critical thinking merging liberal arts and general science? Or maybe reduce war-making. As it is we are heading to a situation where we will not have one Vietnam War, but many: North Korea, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, etc.

The Haunting

In a New York Times article dated August 7, 1967, two unidentified generals were quoted, one who stated that he had destroyed a single North Vietnamese division three times: “I’ve chased main-force units all over the country and the impact was zilch. It meant nothing to the people. Unless a more positive and more stirring theme than simple anti-communism can be found, the war appears likely to go on until someone gets tired and quits, which could take generations.”

The other general’s quote was “Every time Westmorland makes a speech about how good the South Vietnam Army is, I want to ask him why he keeps calling for more Americans. His need for reinforcements is a measure of our failure with the Vietnamese.”

Replace the “anti-communism and Vietnamese” with the Taliban, Islamic State or any terrorist group and the sentiments from 1967 are relevant in 2017.

In many ways, American society is culturally fragmented and stove-piped in three factions: Left, right and center. This is not dissimilar to the late 1960s, early 1970s. Aggressive Alt-Righter’s have taken up the mantel of Neo-White Nationalism, an ideology that finds friends in a Republican White House and Justice Department Attorney General Jefferson Sessions.

The Democrat Left still bemoans Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016 and has, as yet, no aggressive platform to counter the Alt-Right or appeal to its lost followers. The Independent Center looks Left and Right and disdains the rigid, uncompromising ideology they hold. If the stovepipes crack open in the worst way, the streets are where passions will be fought for as they were during the Vietnam era.

Vietnam

There are other similarities to the Vietnam experience. President Donald Trump’s administration is in disarray and under investigation by the US Justice Department. CNN reports that former FBI Director James Comey will testify in the US Senate that Trump pressured him to halt the investigation into Russian influence operations during the 2016 presidential race. The country is already, officially a nation at war and is even flirting with a war against North Korea. To top it off, Trump just declared war on the planet on June 1 by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords. The Trump administration is cornered and dangerous.

It’s hard not to draw comparisons with the Vietnam War experience. The convergence of the anti-war and anti-racism movements, the criminal investigations of President Richard Nixon, and a cultural sea change challenging the established order was, then, unprecedented. Its ghosts seem to be haunting the American Republic at this moment in time.

According to History.com: “Though U.S. and South Vietnamese forces managed to hold off the Tet Offensive Communist attacks, news coverage of the offensive (including the lengthy Battle of Hue) shocked and dismayed the American public and further eroded support for the war effort. Despite heavy casualties, North Vietnam achieved a strategic victory with the Tet Offensive, as the attacks marked a turning point in the Vietnam War and the beginning of the slow, painful American withdrawal from the region.”

History does repeat itself simply because humans are repetitive creatures.

“And corruption is stranglin’ the land. The police force is watching the people and the people just can’t understand. We don’t know how to mind our own business, ’cause the whole world’s got to be just like us. Now we are fighting a war over there but no matter who’s the winner we can’t pay the cost.”—Steppenwolf Monster, 1969.

John Stanton can be reached at jstantonarchangel@gmail.com.