Perhaps the most well respected and known Hmong elder, Vang Pao, has been picked up on conspiracy charges that he was in the midst of attempting to overthrow the Laotian government. Of course this is a continuation of the conflict the U.S. created and funded during the 60's and 70's concurrent with the Vietnam war. We hired these people to fight for us, to attempt to establish "Democracy" in South Asia.
There are glaring parallels between Vietnam and Iraq. The fact that the U.S. moseyed on in, pitted one segment of the population against the other and now is apparently going to be moseying off...again.
I feel fairly conflicted about the U.S. leaving Iraq in its current state. On the one hand, it's jacked that we're there in the first place, on the other; it's jacked what's going to happen when we leave.
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I am of a similar opinion, I believe.
Though I was strongly against the war to begin with, now I think something should be done to help create a resolution of some sort instead of throwing up our hands and throwing in the towel.
(oops, I screwed up my previous post, here's a revised version)
I agree with Ian. However, I am incredibly frustrated by the people who are in charge of what we do before we give up as they continually prove themselves incompetant. I mean, I WANT to help. I don't want a bunch of people to die when the U.S. leaves. But I don't think the people in charge are smart or talented enough to fix enough things to prevent that. It's very depressing, doubly so because most democrats want to leave, which means I actually ideologically agree with republicans on something. It makes me feel like I need to shower for a week.
This is when I wish the UN had military power. It would make sense for the country to be divided along ethnic lines...but Baghdad is a big question mark. Something needs to happen other than the US just leaving. Clearly Iraq will be ravaged by an even more intense civil war along ethnic and religious lines. I think it's about time we start looking inward as a nation. Recognizing the wars that need to be fought on our own soil. Poverty, inequality, mass stupidity; to name but a few.
A pity that the people we iconify in this struggle make manipulative movies and write books with covers like this.
BBC picked up the story
BTW that previous comment was an oops post from me.
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