By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Parallels between Mideast, Vietnam
Placeholder Image

So many people seem incapable of seeing the parallels between America’s involvement in the Middle East and the war in Vietnam.

During the 1960’s the defense industry, via its puppets in Congress and the Pentagon, laid siege to our fears with something called the Domino Theory.  We were warned that, if we got out of Vietnam without winning, all of the nations of Asia, including Japan, would fall one by one to the communists, like a row of dominoes.  Well we didn’t win, we did get out, and what happened?  In the end, it was the communists’ nations that fell like a row of dominoes, as a bad idea finally collapsed of its own accord.

With the demise of the great boogeyman of the 20th century, the military industrial complex needed a substitute villain to justify looting our economy.  Where better to turn than the highly combustible atmosphere of the Middle East? Our first war with Iraq led  to 9/11, which gave George W. Bush the opportunity he needed to destabilize the region entirely, in essence creating ISIS.

Now here we are, 13 years later mired in what must be a defense industry dream, two open-ended wars.  Putting tens of thousands of American troops on the ground will not end this nightmare.  It would only recruit hundreds of thousands of extremists to the Is cause.

The United States could end the terror threat to this country easily.  Just get out of the Middle East.  Remove all American military personnel, and quit selling weapons to Israel.  Israel won’t suffer.  It would just purchase its death machines from China, France, Brazil, or Russia.

Stanek is a former Hillsboro Sentry Enterprise reporter.