What Are You Reading ?

[Jerome]

Pulitzer Prize winner about America's biggest foreign policy blunder. Painful for me to read about the stupidty of my government's decisions. I can laugh at the small stuff, but when it comes to human lives, not a laughing matter. John Paul Vann was one of the first american advisors that went to the country in the early 60's to "help them" resist the communists. We all know how that worked out. John was in the country on and off for about 10 years before his chopper went down in '72 and he was killed. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetary with full military honors. The book is not so much about him as our involvement in that conflict. Title refers to the lies told by the military to the policy makers that kept us there. Specifically that we were winning, when that was never the case. I find it hard to blame the man at the top (Johnson/Nixon), when they are being fed lies from the people at the bottom. George Bush anyone?

Grade - A

next up - Washington D.C. by Gore Vidal

Simple fact of the matter is that all our respective governments have screwed up at one time or another. And all lie. It's part of the job description. I lived in South Africa for many years and we were brainwashed day and night via media etc. Now I live in Ireland and it's no damn different. This is supposedly a first world country but in reality is far from it. In fact in many ways it's way behind SA. The crime here is just a whole lot 'cleaner' and very few of the really big criminals ever end up in jail (bankers, accountants & judges as well). And even the poor sods who do go to jail get let out for their Xmas jollies! At least in the USA you are held accountable for your actions. That's one thing the States does correctly.