One thing, fellow Americans: to much of the world, we are the bad guy. The destabilizer, the aggressor, the uninvited blight. If you watched the vice-presidential debate, then you know that Walz made clear his team's commitment to expanding Israel. There is no version of this where we come out the good guy. From my perspective, it would do us good to confront our demons sooner rather than later. We can do it now or leave it for another generation, but eventually it will have to be done. Spreading "democracy" and "civilization" necessitates undemocratic and uncivilized conduct. It's simple accounting. We should know that few will cry for us when the tables invariably turn.
Iraq and Afghanistan and Vietnam—everyone knows who the antagonists were. Everyone, that is, but us—though some of us did learn eventually, and kicking and screaming at that. If not resource grab, then land grab. If not land grab, then proxy war. And always, always profit. The US went to Vietnam as a Cold War proxy project, and in the process, subjected the Vietnamese people to unholy perversions and grotesque horrors. Somehow, and I don't know how, the Vietnamese forgave us. I'm not sure we deserve it, considering we are doing more of the same in Gaza. The more I learn, the clearer it becomes that the US empire is about as humane as the Nazi regime. Reading that may make you uncomfortable, but I encourage you to stick around to find out why.
We US Americans have some reckoning to do. Why "we"? Because we pay taxes to perpetuate war and then vote to uphold that system over and over and over again. We may not like to hear it, but our comfortable lives come to us by way of murder and bloodshed in far away places. The Vietnamese may have forgiven us, but will others?
If you are still here, I invite you to explore the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) with me. I also invite you to keep your heart and mind open to the discomfort.
Ho Chi Minh's words of thanks to the global community. An excerpt: "The US government forces hundreds of thousands of American youths into deaths and injuries in vain on Vietnamese battlefields. The US government squanders tens of billions of dollars, which come from Americans' sweat and tears, on the Vietnam War every year. You are striving to call for an end to the US war of aggression in Vietnam, and thus you are fighting for the just cause and supporting us. We want independence, freedom and unification for our nation; we want to live peacefully and in solidarity with all the nations in the world, including Americans."
"Alice Herz, who immolated herself in Detroit Michigan, in protest of the Vietnam War, March 16, 1965."
A similar claim has been made about Gaza being a testing ground for Israel's latest weaponry, the development of which is funded, of course, by the United States.
A disseminator of Agent Orange
"They decide on a water torture," the caption explained. That kid looks far too happy.
The plaque in the middle explains the following: "The sewer of Mr Bui Van Vat used in 1969. At night of February 25, 1969, a group of Seal Rangers (one of the most selective rangers of U.S Army) led by Lieutenant Bob Kerry reached for Hamlet 5, Thanh Phong Village, Thanh Phu District, Ben Tre Province. Three grandchildren of Bui Van Vat hidden in this sewer but the U.S rangers catched and stabed two (Bui Thi Anh - 10 years and Bui Thi Nguyet - 8 years old), disembowelled one (Bui Van Dan - 6 years old)."
You adapt or you die.
The museum emphasizes the US's many war crimes, for which it was mostly held unaccountable, including the genocide of the Vietnamese people.
A victim of Agent Orange: "...[The girl pictured] lives in a cagelike enclosure. She attempts to chew and swallow anything within her grasp. The most 'human' moment is when she extends her hand through her enclosure, reaching for her father as she recognizes him..."
A victim of Agent Orange: "Unable to walk, the young man must crawl to ger around. Many people in this area are under such sufferings like him as they were forced to live with the daily threat of the US Army's spraying defoliants..."
