Wednesday, July 25, 2007

I remember...

"...we're killing the enemy and we are also killing many civilians. But we are doing it because they want it.

Now we changed, we switched. Maybe they don't want it but we want it. We are going in there, we're killing ..., we're killing children, we're killing women, we're killing innocent people. Because we don't want to have war fought on American soil. Or because they are twelve thousand miles away and they might get to be eleven thousand miles away.

Our whole moral position changes it seems to me.

Do we have the right here in the United States to say we are going to kill tens of thousands of people, make millions of people as we have refuges, kill women and children as we have.

There is thirty-five thousand people without limbs...one-hundred and fifty thousand civilian casulties every year. Thousands of children are killed because of our efforts.

Do we have that right, here in the United States to perform these acts, because we want to protect ourselves so it is not a greater problem for us in the United States.

I very seriously question whether we have that right. And I think other people are fighting it, other people are carring the burden. But this is also our war. Those of us who stay here in the United States. We must feel it when...a villiage is destroyed and civilians are killed."


No, that's not from the debates. That's from a television interview given 40 years ago!

I've been spending some time with an old friend since the "You Tube" debates the other evening. No matter what page I open this book to, I find words that mean as much now as they did then!




Actually, perhaps they mean more now. I was 12 then...

Damn the man who extinguished the light and the hope I remember!

His name I won't mention because he doesn't deserve web hits!

9.8 last night; 9.2 tonight. Off to shower and sleep...

alan

Addendum, 1PM Wednesday.

As I was wandering through the house to the bathroom about 10:30 I woke up just enough that RFK's statement at the beginning of this interview really hit me:

"We are going in there, we're killing ..., we're killing children, we're killing women, we're killing innocent people. Because we don't want to have war fought on American soil. Or because they are twelve thousand miles away...."

If I drive fown the street to the next block, or downtown and start shooting people there because they might come break into my house while I'm at work, I go to prison!

Is there really any difference?

alan

11 comments:

robin andrea said...

Those are stunning words, worth reading and re-reading. I can't believe what we have lost, and what it seems we are never permitted to have. So many people know what is true, and yet, the wars continue.

Thank you for posting this, alan.

Anne said...

i still have "profiles in courage" by bobby's big bro, which i received when i was about 12.
sigh.

Kranki said...

WOW! Very powerful. Shame Bush hasn't learned from it.

Connie in FL said...

Where are the Bobby Kennedy's of today? Is there one? I don't think so. Vietman, Iraq... same, same.

There was a piece on tv last night about the generation of children who barely know one or both of their parents because they keep being deployed. And for what? Oh yeah, to protect our freedom.

I didn't even know my freedom was in Iraq.

Jennifer said...

There is no difference.

None whatsoever.


My mother had "Profiles in Courage." I remember her horror at Vietnam stopping short of wearing love beads and smoking dope. I always suspected she voted republican to keep the peace with my father. Glad to see she's finally clearly defined herself as an independent.

Anyway.

No, there is no difference at all.

yellowdoggranny said...

same ole same ole..any time there is money to be made in the name of freedom..there are assholes like bush, cheney and his crew to be there..but you notice..none of them have ever fought in a war..
great post

dragonflyfilly said...

i have been at my computer since 6:30 this morning, and i have to attend to some urgent business, so i will come back and comment later,
but i want you to do me a favour - could you check out my most recent Post and see if you can leave a comment there. Just type something like, "ok, all seems ok", or just something brief,

that is, when you have a free moment.

thanks so much.
pj

Barbara said...

The assassinations of the 60s were a big reason why we left the US. When Bobby was killed the year after we left that validated or decision to leave.

The US is not the same country of my youth. It has devolved into some abomination of all the ideals my generation were taught and held so dear. I've been in mourning since 1967.

Dr. Deb said...

So powerful to read those words. And now, it doesn't seem any different to me. Just awful, terrible and horrifying. I wish I could make it stop like some superhero. Alas, I am not.

dragonflyfilly said...

i know, it's sheer madness, isn't it?

(and thanks for stopping by my blog, i got the comment so i guess the techy stuff is ok.)

*sigh* - but about all this war; one wonders how it will ever end...so much hate has been spread, so many enemies made...i shake my head...i dispair...

HAR said...

It is so horrible. What I just don't get is where are the American people ? Why is there a business as usual attitude around here? I know people will not like this but if we had a draft I bet the American public would get involved.