[Rhodes22-list] I Wish To Change My Vote

[Rik Sandberg]

Roger,

What a great analysis. That's what I was thinking all along, but I 
certainly couldn't have put it into words the way you did. I have to say, 
you'll get no argument from me on most of your logic. Glad to see you are 
starting to see Kerry/Edwards for what they are.

Rik

At 10:57 AM 10/6/2004, you wrote:
>Well, after watching the presidential & vice presidential debates, I wish 
>to pull a flip flop & change my vote to Bush/Cheney.  Let me explain my 
>thinking.
>
>As a draftable male college student in the early 1970's, I watched 
>developments in the Vietnam war & the protest movement here at home with 
>great interest.  John Kerry's presidential candidacy has made me reexamine 
>my own attitudes towards Vietnam.  There were a lot of mistakes made in 
>the way the United States conducted the Vietnam war - presidential 
>micromanagement of war strategy at the tactical level, overly restrictive 
>rules of engagement, "pin-prick" strikes vs. the use of overwhelming 
>force, allowing the enemy to reoccupy captured territory thus causing 
>multiple battles over the same sites, over reliance on airpower in a 
>jungle gorilla war, forced adoption of weapons like the M-16 assault rifle 
>that were not yet ready for prime time, etc.  The US military shot its 
>credibility in the foot by publishing inflated enemy "body counts" that 
>had no basis in reality.  This was also the 1st war that played out on 
>American television screens on the news every evening.  The Tet offensive 
>was really the turning point.  You really have to give the VC a lot credit 
>for the way they pulled off Tet.  Seemingly under our very noses, the VC 
>had constructed extensive underground tunnel complexes within striking 
>distance of strategic targets all over South Vietnam.  They had spent 
>years building these tunnel complexes & stocking them with weapons and 
>ammunition.  We were completely surprised when the VC seemingly came out 
>of nowhere in a massive coordinated assault on something like 23 targets 
>all over South Vietnam.  Yet, within a month, we had recaptured all these 
>targets.  We took something like 4000 casualties, the largest US body 
>count of any battle in the Vietnam war.  But, reliable North Vietnamese 
>casualty data indicates we slaughtered them something like 4:1.  Some VC 
>units were completely wiped out & were never again an effective fighting 
>force.  The Tet offensive was pretty much an all out, one time attempt for 
>North Vietnam.  Tactically, the VC got decisively defeated & it set their 
>ability to wage war back by years.  But, by then, the US military had lost 
>nearly all of its credibility.  No one believed the US military published 
>body counts, or accounts of recaptured cities, and the US casualties were 
>all over the nightly news.  The American public was horrified at the 
>carnage on display on their televisions & it changed everything.  Before 
>Tet, most of the American public believed the Vietnam war was 
>winnable.  After Tet, the antiwar movement grew exponentially, the talk 
>changed to "peace with honor" & getting the troops home.  So, even though 
>the Tet offensive was a decisive tactical defeat for North Vietnam, their 
>all or nothing gamble paid off and eventually resulted in total victory.
>
>The lesson the world took away from Vietnam was the United States is a 
>military superpower with no staying power.  We'll spend a fortune on 
>weapon systems and training to enable our military to efficiently kill 
>from a distance.  Our military has learned from the mistakes made in 
>Vietnam & has fixed most of them.  We go into a conflict with overwhelming 
>force and just simply roll over our enemy.  But, anyone that can reduce a 
>conflict to a bloody, protracted battle of attrition, especially when it 
>is played out on the nightly news, will eventually win over American 
>public opinion & defeat us.
>
>So, what kind of a president will John Kerry make?  With Bush, we have 4 
>years of actual presidential record to examine.  With Kerry, we must look 
>at his life experiences that have prepared him to be president.  As I 
>examine John Kerry's resume, I see a rich, privileged kid that went off to 
>war in Vietnam in what might be called "patriotic fervor".  In Vietnam, he 
>looked the horrible face of war square in the eyes & it scared & sickened 
>him.  Kerry's record since Vietnam indicates he has turned into an 
>appeaser.  His voting record in the US Senate is especially revealing in 
>this regard.  Just like the United State's reputation in the world, Kerry 
>makes a lot of blustering tough statements about fighting terrorism & 
>finishing what we started in Iraq during the campaign.  But, when the 
>rubber hits the road & the body count starts climbing, Kerry wants to 
>fold.  After listening to the debates and considering Kerry's record, 
>there is no doubt in my mind; that, if Kerry is elected, the US will make 
>a speedy withdrawal from Iraq, no matter the side effects.
>
>Some of you may be saying, "So what, we shouldn't have gotten into Iraq in 
>the 1st place!"  Well, that depends upon what you believe the war on 
>terrorism is.  Is it merely a "law enforcement" issue against groups of 
>isolated radical Muslims?  Or, has it become a life & death struggle 
>between ideologies?  I would argue it has become the later.  The presence 
>of stable democracies in Afganistan and Iraq will go a long way towards 
>stabilizing the situation in the Middle East.  Yes, the war is not going 
>well at the moment; but, to quit now will only confirm the world's view of 
>us.  The damage to our credibility with our allies might be 
>irrepairable.  The terrorists realize how big a defeat it would be to have 
>stable democracies in Afganistan and Iraq.  That's why they are fighting 
>so hard.
>
>Originally, I thought a Kerry election would permit other nations to join 
>our coalition in Iraq without losing face.  Since the debate, both France 
>& Germany have been asked that question & both said, "Huh, no way?"  No 
>one will follow Kerry's leadership when his conviction regarding the 
>mission in Iraq is so weak.
>
>I do not expect the Republicans to lose control of congress in this 
>election.  Therefore, Kerry's chances of passing his domestic agenda are 
>slim to none.  So, as much as I dislike the Bush administration's domestic 
>policies, it is a vain hope to think a Kerry administration would have any 
>significant impact.  More likely, nothing would happen.
>
>So what is it that I expect or want from a Federal government?  Well, I 
>guess 1st & foremost I want the country to be as safe as possible from 
>attack.  Terrorists exploding a nuclear weapon or biological weapon in the 
>midst of a large city is a truly frightening proposition.  Bush is clearly 
>a better choice on this issue.
>
>The 2nd thing I want is a stable supply of critical resources.  Keep in 
>mind the United States uses about 50 million barrels of crude oil per day 
>& about 50% of that is imported.  This is a staggering amount of crude 
>oil, a number so big it's hard to come to grips with.  Modern civilization 
>has become so interconnected that interuption of this resource would be 
>simply devastating.  Think about what happened in New York City in July, 
>2003 during the power outage.  That was from just one day of power 
>interruption to a major metropolitan area!  A few years ago, James Burke 
>did a series of shows that aired on PBS and The Learning Channel.  I think 
>the television series was called "Connections" and he also published a 
>companion book with the same title.  In this series, Mr. Burke documents 
>how interconnected & intrinsically fragile modern civilization has 
>become.  Basically, our civilization has become so specialized and 
>interconnected that we need to start thinking of critical resources like 
>crude oil in the same category as air, water, & food.  Those of you that 
>live in big cities, just remember your entire lifestyle is enabled by a 
>nearly invisible technological life support system that is massively 
>interconnected, intrinsically vulnerable, and totally dependant upon a 
>stable global flow of goods and services.  You should be very nervous.  At 
>the very least, stop saying things like, "No oil for blood!"  Get real 
>people, in modern civilization, oil is blood!  We're in a global 
>competition for scarce resources.  If we lose this competition; then, our 
>population is much too large to be supported without these resources & the 
>consequences will be real bad.  I would argue this is a really good reason 
>to go to war.
>
>Although the outcome is by no means certain with Bush's vision for Iraq, 
>at least there is a chance of a good outcome with this president.  I see 
>little or no chance for a good outcome in Iraq with Kerry.  If we lose the 
>country to a terrorist attack or can't get the resources to sustain our 
>civilization, the domestic issues have to take a lessor 
>priority.  Besides, I don't think Kerry would be able to get his domestic 
>agenda passed anyway because of congress.
>
>That's why I've changed my mind & I'm voting for Bush/Cheney.
>
>Roger Pihlaja
>S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
>
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