They Have Goals?

Of course we don't have to talk about mythology if you don't want to. I don't remember how we got on that subject, we must have segued into it from somewhere else, so I don't see why we can't just segue out if it.

I think the Vietnam war was ramping up a year or so before I got out of the army. The reason I think that is they were accepting volunteers to go there, but you had to have 13 months left on your enlistment or you had to re-enlist. When I first joined the army in 1964, I wanted to go to Vietnam but, at that time, they only had a few Special Forces advisors in country. When they announced that anybody could go there, it must have been early '66 because I got out in March of '67. I wasn't about to re-enlist for it but, since I had just enough time left, I considered going there for my last year. I was walking down the street on my way to sign up for it when I heard this voice. I don't know if it came from God or just from inside my own head, but I distinctly heard it say, "Are you out of your fucking mind?" I took it as a sign that I shouldn't volunteer for Vietnam, so I didn't.

That harassment thing they taught us about was not specific to Vietnam, it was just one of the standard tactics right out of the book. It's one option you have if you're not ready yet to launch a full scale offensive but you want to keep the enemy engaged. It can also be used against an occupying force, and it falls under the heading of guerilla warfare when used that way. You're right that the Boys of '76 used it against the Red Coats in the early stages of the war, and the resistance fighters of World War II used it against the NAZIs. The Viet Cong used it against our guys, but I don't think our guys used it against them. You don't usually hear of both sides using harassment tactics against each other at the same time, but I suppose it's possible. Maybe that's what's going on with those Sunnis and Shiites. If that's the case, they are going to fighting forever because you can't decisively win a war that way, all you can do is buy yourself some time. If you want a decisive victory, you've got to escalate to a full scale assault sooner or later. I read somewhere that's what the Viet Cong were trying to do with their Tet Offensive. Although the offensive was a military failure, it is generally regarded as the turning point in the war because it seems to have weakened the resolve of our already ambivalent political leadership.

Do the current Islamic terrorists actually have any goals? I seem to remember that it used to be about "pushing Israel into the sea", but I haven't heard that slogan for a long time. Are these even the same Islamic terrorists? Maybe that generation has died off and the newbies don't even remember why they're supposed to be mad at us. I knew a guy like that at the paper mill. He was mad at somebody seven years after the person had died, and he still resolved to settle the score someday. I asked him what the guy had done to anger him so and he said, "You know, I don't think I remember. I don't always remember why I'm mad at somebody, but I never forget that I'm mad at him."