The Wall For Vietnam: What For Afghanistan?

[BeFree]

The Wall for Vietnam is a stirring reminder of the war that ended up killing 53,000+ of our boys and millions of Vietnamese.

But the Wall came years after the war ended. This time why don't we get ahead of it, a leg up if you will, and begin the design for the Afghani memorial to all our dead soldiers, now.

I'm thinking a big tilted "A" with one leg buried in the sand and out of the top pours a waterfall of blood and money flowing down the leg and into the sand, disappearing without a trace.

[bemildred]

A pit?

Maybe a big pit that you step into and then there are all the names?

That seems very apropos to me.

[BeFree]

3. A pit it is

Something that is easily overlooked would be apt.

[BeHereNow]

4. Good concept- may I add a few ideas?

The Pit is lined with US dollars, with the faces and names of all
those who have died or been injured.
Surrounding the pit on the ground level, statues of all those
who have profited from these wars, guarding their earnings.

BHN

[SpiralHawk]

5. Clusterf*cks of bronze republicon chickenhawks at the edge of the pit

pecking merrily away at the moneybucks

[cliffordu]

1. Or maybe just another wall.

[alittlelark]

2. Paging Swamprat........

I don't have the skills to bring this epic to cartoonition.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. A bog, to represent the endless quagmire, with stone oblisks

around it, on which the names of all the arrogant generals are engraved.
The bog is made of oil, of course.

[bemildred]

10. A bog with a pit in the center, I like it ...

Maybe some "eternal flames" to burn off the swamp gas.

[boomerbust]

7. 58,000 plus

[av8rdave]

8. There should be a memorial

The women and men who died there deserve no less. But I wish there was some way of showing the folly of those who caused it, without dishonoring the sacrifice of those who served there.

[Iggo]

11. It's happening right now. And there's no end in sight.

Let's make it a memory before we start thinking about making a memorial.

[av8rdave]

12. Good point

I just want future generations to know what a falsehood this was all based on. It should be part of any memory/memorial/monument.

[Obamanaut]

9. Not boys, but men and women. n/t

[Ozymanithrax]

13. Setting up a monument for an ongoing war is disgusting...

Commemoration comes after the last soldier dies, not while they are stilly dying in the field.

[provis99]

14. but what if the war is endless?

Food for thought there...

[Ozymanithrax]

15. The universe may be endless, but wars are not.

They can go on for a long time.
The 100 years war, the thirty years war, the Iran Iraq war (longest conventional war in the 20th century) were all long wars. Irelands wars for freedom lasted generations (and there are still a few holdouts trying to fight).

But a commemoration for an ongoing war glorifies the war rather than commemorates those who sacrificed their lives.

[BeFree]

16. No glorification here

Just another shameful exhibition of the failure of American military to first protect us from 19 hijackers and then kill off and waste hundreds of thousands of lives for nothing. Just like Vietnam.

Take your glorifying war shit to the enlistment office with you, bub.

[Ozymanithrax]

17. I retired from the military after 20 years, bub. ..

The American military did not fail to protect the U.S. from 19 hijackers. That job was in the hands of the President, his advisor's, the FBI, the CIA, and TSA. All of those groups failed. The military had no role in protecting us from 19 hijackers because they were trained in the U.S. at American colleges and schools and the military is not allowed to operate there. You should take your lack of knowledge about how our system works to a school, bub...

[BeFree]

19. NEADS

NORAD, Pentagon defenses, etc.
Military. Bub

You'd think after 20 years you'd know that?

I guess you are in favor of the pit idea? That way you can just stand there and overlook the whole problem without seeing a damn thing that might get you upset?

[Ozymanithrax]

20. Those forces must be called by the President/Vice President/Secretary of Defense.

If they are not called, they can not act. The military is not allowed to shoot down civilian airliners without permission from the civilian leadership of this county. Such permission was not given. Even then, they can only act once the they are alerted by the Civilian Leadership of the U.S. Government. The military is not allowed to investigate criminal actions by persons in the United States, unless they are on a military reservation. We are a Representative Republic not a military dictatorship.

I don't overlook the whole problem. I do not advocate a war memorial for an ongoing war, that glorifies the war while men are still dying. Memorials should be held until something is finished. Afterwords, yes, memorialize those who died. I have friends whose names are on the Vietnam Memorial Wall. I've visited that sad place. If you feel a protest should be made, get yourself to Washington and chain yourself to the fence. Carry a large sign that says, "bring our chldren home" or "Shame on you, Obama" or whatever you feel will express your outrage over the war.

I do not now and never have supported the Iraq war. I have sons of friends that died there. I felt that the reaction to 9/11 should have been undertaken as a crimal investigation rather than a reason for war against Afghanistan. I do understand the diplomatic reasons why we went there, but it suffered from piss poor management and direction, as all of Bush's fiasco's have suffered. I understand why Obama is staying there. We do have a stake in regional stability, and as long as we remain an empire, we will continue to doing these uggly things. I would much prefer the U.S. divested itself of empire, but that will not happen willingly. As a nation, or elected leadership will hold on to that power until we are forced to relinquish it.

[elehhhhna]

18. a stack of bloody dollar bills that reaches to the sky