SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Robert Gates, Meet Robert McNamara
Robert McNamara is dead.
So are two to three million people in Vietnam and Laos whom he outlived by three decades.
And so are tens of thousands of U.S. troops whom he outlived also.
McNamara wasn't solely responsible for their deaths. Kennedy and
Johnson bear the biggest burden--and Nixon after McNamara sought asylum
at the World Bank.
Jul 07, 2009
Robert McNamara is dead.
So are two to three million people in Vietnam and Laos whom he outlived by three decades.
And so are tens of thousands of U.S. troops whom he outlived also.
McNamara wasn't solely responsible for their deaths. Kennedy and
Johnson bear the biggest burden--and Nixon after McNamara sought asylum
at the World Bank.
But McNamara did more than his share, as Defense Secretary, to map
out the U.S. war strategy in Vietnam and to stress body counts, as if
that were any decent yardstick for winning--either morally or
militarily. He also authorized the widespread use of napalm and
carpet-bombing, which wreaked widespread horror.
One of the best and the brightest, he led one of the sorriest and
most brutal and most foolish wars the United States has ever waged.
To his credit, he finally grasped some of the hideousness of it all.
But he never did anything significant, when he was in power, to try
to extricate the United States from that war, even when he understood
it might be unwinnable.
Today, Robert Gates and his boss, Barack Obama, might want to learn a thing or two from Robert Strange McNamara.
On CNN back in 1996, McNamara said: "External military force cannot
reconstruct a failed state, and Vietnam, during much of that period,
was a failed state politically. We didn't recognize it as such."
We ought to recognize that Afghanistan is a failed state politically.
"Today, Afghanistan is a mafia state," Malalai Joya, the feminist
member of the Afghan parliament, said in a speech in Oslo in early
June. "The U.S. and its allies are busy in the warloridzation,
criminalization, and druglordization of our wounded land." (The
Progressive is reprinting her speech in its August issue, along with a
great speech by Naomi Klein on Sarah Palin. Subscribe now to get that issue when it comes out in a few weeks.)
Gates and Obama, like McNamara and Johnson before them, believe that
"external military force" can get the job done, despite the failed
state that exists.
It didn't work in Vietnam. And it won't work in Afghanistan.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Matt Rothschild
Matt Rothschild is the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Prior to joining the Democracy Campaign at the start of 2015, Matt worked at The Progressive Magazine for 32 years. For most of those, he was the editor and publisher of The Progressive.
Robert McNamara is dead.
So are two to three million people in Vietnam and Laos whom he outlived by three decades.
And so are tens of thousands of U.S. troops whom he outlived also.
McNamara wasn't solely responsible for their deaths. Kennedy and
Johnson bear the biggest burden--and Nixon after McNamara sought asylum
at the World Bank.
But McNamara did more than his share, as Defense Secretary, to map
out the U.S. war strategy in Vietnam and to stress body counts, as if
that were any decent yardstick for winning--either morally or
militarily. He also authorized the widespread use of napalm and
carpet-bombing, which wreaked widespread horror.
One of the best and the brightest, he led one of the sorriest and
most brutal and most foolish wars the United States has ever waged.
To his credit, he finally grasped some of the hideousness of it all.
But he never did anything significant, when he was in power, to try
to extricate the United States from that war, even when he understood
it might be unwinnable.
Today, Robert Gates and his boss, Barack Obama, might want to learn a thing or two from Robert Strange McNamara.
On CNN back in 1996, McNamara said: "External military force cannot
reconstruct a failed state, and Vietnam, during much of that period,
was a failed state politically. We didn't recognize it as such."
We ought to recognize that Afghanistan is a failed state politically.
"Today, Afghanistan is a mafia state," Malalai Joya, the feminist
member of the Afghan parliament, said in a speech in Oslo in early
June. "The U.S. and its allies are busy in the warloridzation,
criminalization, and druglordization of our wounded land." (The
Progressive is reprinting her speech in its August issue, along with a
great speech by Naomi Klein on Sarah Palin. Subscribe now to get that issue when it comes out in a few weeks.)
Gates and Obama, like McNamara and Johnson before them, believe that
"external military force" can get the job done, despite the failed
state that exists.
It didn't work in Vietnam. And it won't work in Afghanistan.
Matt Rothschild
Matt Rothschild is the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Prior to joining the Democracy Campaign at the start of 2015, Matt worked at The Progressive Magazine for 32 years. For most of those, he was the editor and publisher of The Progressive.
Robert McNamara is dead.
So are two to three million people in Vietnam and Laos whom he outlived by three decades.
And so are tens of thousands of U.S. troops whom he outlived also.
McNamara wasn't solely responsible for their deaths. Kennedy and
Johnson bear the biggest burden--and Nixon after McNamara sought asylum
at the World Bank.
But McNamara did more than his share, as Defense Secretary, to map
out the U.S. war strategy in Vietnam and to stress body counts, as if
that were any decent yardstick for winning--either morally or
militarily. He also authorized the widespread use of napalm and
carpet-bombing, which wreaked widespread horror.
One of the best and the brightest, he led one of the sorriest and
most brutal and most foolish wars the United States has ever waged.
To his credit, he finally grasped some of the hideousness of it all.
But he never did anything significant, when he was in power, to try
to extricate the United States from that war, even when he understood
it might be unwinnable.
Today, Robert Gates and his boss, Barack Obama, might want to learn a thing or two from Robert Strange McNamara.
On CNN back in 1996, McNamara said: "External military force cannot
reconstruct a failed state, and Vietnam, during much of that period,
was a failed state politically. We didn't recognize it as such."
We ought to recognize that Afghanistan is a failed state politically.
"Today, Afghanistan is a mafia state," Malalai Joya, the feminist
member of the Afghan parliament, said in a speech in Oslo in early
June. "The U.S. and its allies are busy in the warloridzation,
criminalization, and druglordization of our wounded land." (The
Progressive is reprinting her speech in its August issue, along with a
great speech by Naomi Klein on Sarah Palin. Subscribe now to get that issue when it comes out in a few weeks.)
Gates and Obama, like McNamara and Johnson before them, believe that
"external military force" can get the job done, despite the failed
state that exists.
It didn't work in Vietnam. And it won't work in Afghanistan.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.