Replies to post #318254 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[PegnVA]

Thanks.

[fuagf]

For mentally balanced people being in that jungle, in a war that never should have been, would have been sheer hell.
And you guys lost some 58000. Suffering and damage from colonization never stopped when the occupiers left.

Broken: Vietnam vets' long struggle with PTSD

The stepson of an Australian Vietnam veteran gives an insight into what it's like to live with war-induced PTSD.

Reem Shaddadby Reem Shaddad
25 Nov 2017

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/11/broken-vietnam-vets-long-struggle-ptsd-171111141901546.html

You would have so many more.

-

Vietnam War
1954–1975
Written By:

Ronald H. Spector

Last Updated: Jul 11, 2019

[...]

The human costs of the long conflict were harsh for all involved. Not until 1995 did Vietnam release its official estimate of war dead: as many as 2 million civilians on both sides and some 1.1 million North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters. The U.S. military has estimated that between 200,000 and 250,000 South Vietnamese soldiers died in the war. In 1982 the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C., inscribed with the names of 57,939 members of U.S. armed forces who had died or were missing as a result of the war. Over the following years, additions to the list have brought the total past 58,200. (At least 100 names on the memorial are those of servicemen who were actually Canadian citizens.) Among other countries that fought for South Vietnam on a smaller scale, South Korea suffered more than 4,000 dead, Thailand about 350, Australia more than 500, and New Zealand some three dozen.

https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War

[sortagreen]

When you think about it, Threlkeld and his crew were exposed to the same peril as the rest of that platoon... maybe not as much as the hero walking point, but in a crossfire, press credentials don't help against bullets. They got the full experience of humping equipment through a jungle in the 100 degree heat (and 90+ percent humidity) and waiting for those bullets to fly. Most importantly, they were able to show America what a nightmare, and exercise in futility that war was.

Well, we can't have that. When the US went into Iraq, I'm not sure about the first time, but definitely in the 2003 invasion, they made it a point to "embed" or we should say "muzzle" the press. Instead of reporting the war, the press was largely reduced to issuing press releases from the Department of Defense... nice... neat... positive.

The last thing we want, is a free press. They might accidentally show the truth and allow people to draw conclusions they're not supposed to.

The press was often vilified for showing us that war from the ground level (which apparently means "with bias"), and politicians were blamed for losing it. Both statements are rich. Without the politicians we wouldn't have been there, and without the press we wouldn't have known anything about it.