McNamara

Howard Zinn's analysis of Robert McNamara on Democracy Now!(7/07/09) included a connection with our current administration. Zinn authored "The People's History of the United States" and the "People's History of American Empire", among other works. He said that the intellectual ability to process and recall information is revered in the American culture. Instead, we should revere and teach "moral intelligence". He compared our current policy of "winning" in Afghanistan with that of "winning" in Viet Nam. He contended that we are making the same mistake of not looking at why we are there from a wider moral perspective. He also pointed out that when McNamara realized that we were losing, he resigned, but he remained silent about it instead of speaking out. This is the malady of involvement in government, when dissenting opinions are not disclosed and mistaken policies are permitted to continue in a downward, destructive spiral. McNamara regretted the failures but never moved to correct them. Is this the road on which we are traveling in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan? Even though we are supposedly engaged in a staged withdrawal in Iraq, we are building a one-billion dollar fortress/embassy in Pakistan and killing Taliban terrorists with drones. Too bad the technician in Arizona with the joystick is vaporizing innocent civilians as well. It's more than "collateral damage" on the ground there, and we are creating new rage daily with our plan for a permanent presence. Is this the change we believed in? --- undertoad57