There are moments when what we believe is more real than reality. A simple lie can be picked up by the media, trumpeted as the final word on the issue, heard and regurgitated by those who believe the same lie but never had a voice. The lie spreads and what is worse, those who are rational and thoughtful people pick up on the lie, spread the lie, thus generating a sense of authority and respectability for the lie. Soon everyone is telling everyone else about the lie and asking whether they had heard, and soon everyone has bought in to the lie.
Reality v. Reality
The above is the story of Vietnam.
The media (Walter Cronkite) picked up on events that were not events, but it played well - lots of bodies, seemingly a show of US weakness, a failure of military options, and a refusal to negotiate. We were never defeated militarily. We did not lose the Tet offensive, and after we were driven out of Vietnam by the left, within six months nearly one million South Vietnamese were murdered by the North.
That is the legacy of Vietnam.
Mai Lai is a tragedy of war. It was a criminal event. It is too simple for Oliver Stone to make a movie about Vietnam showing the horrors done by American servicemen. It ignores reality. Then again, reality is what you want it to be, not necessarily what it is or was.
In war, soldiers and marines are placed in a highly charged situation to kill or be killed. When you spend 30 days on the ground in Vietnam and lose half the friends you had made in the previous 30 days, watched as their heads were blown off, bodies torn apart, bombs carried in to the camp by children who smile at you as they deliver death ... enough of this (just once for some) and you will not allow a child to make it to your table the next time. When you are walking through the jungle, it will not be wait and see, it will be shoot first and see later.
In an ideal world, soldiers would have been removed from Vietnam when the slightest stress showed. Any soldiers who witnessed another American killed, would be removed from the field. Psych testing would be done weekly on those who remain to determine their limits and ability to function. Understanding also, we had at one time or another nearly 500,000 men in Vietnam. If 1% of those men are criminals, psychopaths, killers - the number would be 5,000 bad guys on our side. In the general population, the number is higher than 1%. Add to that the issues of death and gore. What if only 1/4 of 1 percent were the worst of the worst - still over 1000 very bad men in Vietnam. Committing acts that are NOT reflective of Americans, nor of the average American solider - more in common with Charles Manson than with Sgt Rock. Stone will ignore this as have nearly all other portrayals of Vietnam.
That reality can NEVER happen (Mr. Stone hear this clearly - THAT REALITY can never happen ever, not now or ever in history nor the future). The next best thing is to never wage war ... and within six months one million South Vietnamese were murdered. The world that Stone and other loons live in, is a reality where everyone gets along, and no one ever gets killed unless it is 100% certain they are guilty, and no one disagrees with the sentence, or the conduct of the sentence. That war will be waged very civilly. That bad guys will play by rules, because they love their children too.
Reality v. Reality.
Telling Stone or Moore, that they are two of the biggest piles of shit in Hollywood does not mean we like or want war, rather, it is the final solution when diplomacy fails or when more dangerous consequences will result without armed intervention. War DOES solve things. Sometimes ONLY war can solve things.
The same issue of reality v reality applies to Bush. The first eighteen months, he went from being born with a silver spoon in his mouth (versus the gold spoon in Kerry's mouth, silver spoon in Gore's mouth, and the silver spoon in Clinton's nose), selected not elected, to being a war monger, war criminal, incompetent, involved in the 9/11 attacks to living in his father's shadow and wanting to get even with Saddam ... lie after lie. Yet, repeat it enough, spread it far and wide, and soon, even rational people who do not play along with the lemurs, will start to believe and spread the malicious hate.
Reality.
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