One War .. connection between the two wars ...

[Veronica.Franco]

Run time: 03:34 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY5CzzzP4Ks   Posted on YouTube: January 14, 2011 By YouTube Member: MaxMagixx Views on YouTube: 10   Posted on DU: January 15, 2011 By DU Member: Veronica.Franco Views on DU: 738

 
"Vietnam, the first large-scale guerrilla war of its kind, set precedents for future wars for America. These precedents gave us an understanding as to how our country should conduct and handle this new type of war. Every decision we make now is influenced by the successes and mistakes that our country made in Vietnam and the interpretations of those decisions. This is because it is the only war we can look back to now for guidance. We believe that the significance of Vietnam is the influence it has over the current war now, not whether we learned from the experience or not. Taking a position on whether the war in Vietnam was "good" or a "bad" is not what we interpret to be relevant in understanding the connection between the two wars.

To begin our film, we decided we first needed to introduce the obvious connection between the two wars. We did this by switching back and forth from an image of either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars to an image of the Vietnam War. To clearly distinguish between the conflict we are dealing with currently in Iraq and Afghanistan and the conflict in Vietnam, we chose only to use black and white images of Vietnam and color images for Iraq and Afghanistan. This gives the film an interesting contrast because of the switch from black and white pictures from Vietnam, our past, to color pictures from Iraq and Afghanistan, our present. Along with the interesting contrast in color and shade, we paired images from the different wars based on their content to show and emphasize their strong similarities. For example, the picture of the face of a soldier looking into the camera that is in color, and picture the face of a soldier in black and white looking in a similar direction as the previously mentioned soldier. We believed this would properly introduce and tie the two conflicts together.

To continue with the flow of our movie we decided we wanted to emphasize the idea of looking back to Vietnam. We did this by building up images of Iraq rapidly to the lyrics "time to look back" in the song "First thing's first," by Steven Stills. At the peak where we looped the phrase "time to look back," we suddenly switched to images of just Vietnam that are in black and white. This was done to drag us back to the past and how we are looking back on the Vietnam War to help us in our current situation. Finally, to ease into the end of our film, we slowly added color to the photos of Vietnam. By transitioning from black and white to color, we wanted to show that America is bringing the Vietnam war to the present to say that it is still relevant to the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. To go even farther to connect the two different times of conflict, we added color pictures of Afghanistan and Iraq to the colored Vietnam pictures. It then becomes very difficult to differentiate which war the images are from. This symbolizes the fact that these conflicts are one single war. Vietnam influences everything we are doing currently, and how we perceive and interpret our decisions as Americans." by Max and Emma

[Pharaoh]

1. K&R

No more war..........

[swilton]

2. Great Film Segments -

But anti-war activists have seen this/these connection/(s) all along - the segments don't answer the 'so what' question. Or what is the common denominator over the decades?? - Both conflicts are asymmetric wars - where one adversary possesses a dominance in resources and technology...what is the common denominator? Is it lust for power and resources? Imperialism? Hubris? Inability to resist the military industrial complex?

This video seems to be a presentation of interesting video clips but fails to have a message - wouldn't there be analogous clips in other conflicts - i.e., WWII where innocent children were killed. Similarly, in the American Civil War one can find black and white photographs of soldiers experiencing camaraderie similar to the photographs of these wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Vietnam.

Where's the beef?

[Veronica.Franco]

3. fear=money ... money=fear

you were looking for beef too? ... ;-)

[Veronica.Franco]

4. It's quite simplistic really ...

Human beings want to belong ... to be not just good for something but to make a difference ... it's tribal ... so all THEY have to do is exploit their core value system and generation after generation they'll line up like sheep to the slaughter ... cheap labor for profit ...

Bang the drum ... they'll come running every single time ... and yes, that's sarcasm ...

[truedelphi]

5. And apparently it is not only ingrained inside the

Tribal needs of the young, to be part of something, to belong, but also part of the tribal need of older people, hmm, let's say politicians, who always seem to need to band together to fund the wars too. Lots of camaraderie there, too. (Especially between the politician and the lobbyist.)

Otherwise, why weren't the wars ended once Nancy Pelosi got her majority in the House? She kept saying that the war could be knocked down if there was ever a majority, but once she had that majority, the wars went on just as before. And it wouldn't take much - just a refusal to offer up the Corporate War Lords their monies.

But no, even in July of 2010, some four years after she got her majority in the House, the public had to sit by and watch the house and the Senate approve of some 33 billion dollars for the war supplemental. With state deficits at all time highs, we can't have schools funded for the kids, or fire stations, or social services, but we still have the wars.

[Veronica.Franco]

6. That's just business as usual ...

Politicians are paid to tell the masses whatever they want to hear to get into their power puppet positions .... then it's United States of Corporate Whores of America part 15,16,17, and so on ... whatever their OWNERS, the corporate predators, want so they can ALL stay in power and keep the money flowing from their wealthiest contributors ... the fed, the tax payer, halliburton, blah blah blah ... you pick ...

As my Dad used to say, "They've established what they are, now they're just settling on a price" ... it's legalized prostitution ... whatever it takes to make the deal ... any deal ...