First Door on the Left

Even money says that you did not watch Bill Moyers Journal on PBS last night. Did you? Thought not. I did.

I found his commentary very interesting and extremely relevant. He equated President Lyndon Johnson’s march to war in Vietnam to the pressure President Obama is now under (mostly from the chicken hawks on the right) to escalate the war in Afghanistan. I’m going to post Mr. Moyers’ closing remarks here and follow them with the video (in two parts) from last night’s broadcast. I recommend you watch. I guarantee you’ll find it interesting, especially if you were alive and aware during the Johnson administration. You may even if you weren’t.

Now in a different world, at a different time, and with a different president, we face the prospect of enlarging a different war. But once again we’re fighting in remote provinces against an enemy who can bleed us slowly and wait us out, because he will still be there when we are gone.

Once again, we are caught between warring factions in a country where other foreign powers failed before us. Once again, every setback brings a call for more troops, although no one can say how long they will be there or what it means to win. Once again, the government we are trying to help is hopelessly corrupt and incompetent.

And once again, a President pushing for critical change at home is being pressured to stop dithering, be tough, show he’s got the guts, by sending young people seven thousand miles from home to fight and die, while their own country is coming apart.

And once again, the loudest case for enlarging the war is being made by those who will not have to fight it, who will be safely in their beds while the war grinds on. And once again, a small circle of advisers debates the course of action, but one man will make the decision.

We will never know what would have happened if Lyndon Johnson had said no to more war. We know what happened because he said yes.

LBJ’s Path to War, Part I:

LBJ’s Path to War, Part II:

I guess it is true what they say: Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

I hope we learned.
 

Tags: Afghanistan, Bill Moyers, LBJ