tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post2839029424812875365..comments2024-01-03T15:30:05.586-05:00Comments on Home in the railroad earth: Robert McNamara, R.I.P.steve on the slow trainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18257811143869341854noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-60924113976620979552009-08-03T08:37:12.106-04:002009-08-03T08:37:12.106-04:00I re-read your post and the comments, and the phra...I re-read your post and the comments, and the phrase "the banality of evil" popped into my head.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-5592020062793779122009-07-25T07:22:07.942-04:002009-07-25T07:22:07.942-04:00I don't give McNamara credit for anything, but...I don't give McNamara credit for anything, but a palm leaf for shitty people who die is kind of a tradition, I suppose.<br /><br />Ah, yes, a lot of politicians/militarists sadly bought into the mythology of the "Cold War." I never believed in the "Cold War," don't think it ever existed except as something to hoodwink the populations of several nations, resulting, in our country at least, in a military budget bloated beyond all reason (note that the military budget didn't really go down after we "won" the "Cold War").Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-68074103388252549552009-07-23T01:54:10.785-04:002009-07-23T01:54:10.785-04:00Gerry, I disagree with with McNamara's Rule No...Gerry, I disagree with with McNamara's Rule No. 9, as I though I made clear. McNamara's experience in World War II surely inspired this maxim. He did, after all, help plan the firebombing of Tokyo. From a utilitarin point of view, and McNamara was clearly a utilitarian, it was an act of evil (LeMay and McNamara knew that thousands of civilians would die horrible deaths) that would bring about an earlier end to the war and thereby save more lives than were lost in the raid. I'm not certain they were correct--it seems now that the most important reason for the Japanese surrender was the fear of the Red Army.<br /><br />Unlike LeMay, who didn't seem to have a lot of qualms about massive bombing, McNamara had a conscience. He honestly believed in the domino theory, in monolithic communism, and in the necessity of containing communism. He believed that abandoning South Vietnam to the Communists was like letting Hitler have the Sudetenland. He was wrong.<br /><br />That he failed to speak out against the war when he knew it was wrong, instead of going off to the World Bank, was inexcusable.<br /><br />But unlike Gen. Westmoreland, Dean Rusk,Henry Kissinger, Melvin Laird, Richard Nixon, or LBJ himself, McNamara finally did try to clear his conscience. He was thirty years too late, but I have to give him some credit for that.steve on the slow trainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18257811143869341854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-27526727582288605582009-07-22T15:12:52.430-04:002009-07-22T15:12:52.430-04:00Sorry for the late replies--adjusting to a new sch...Sorry for the late replies--adjusting to a new schedule and actually doing some writing on my novel.<br /><br />Charles--I learned some of this after Reading "The Best and the Brightest some years ago.<br /><br />Gerry--I really don't understand why McNamara waited 30 years to explain himself. Another reader who commented on Facebook said he initially didn't want to jeopardize his job with the World Bank. And his explanation at the beginning of his book doesn't make sense.<br /><br />As far as stupid wars, I'd put the so-called Philippine Insurrection above Vietnam in terms of stupidity--McKinley essentially said he had a message from God to make the Filipinos Christian, despite the fact that most were Christian. The war in Afghanistan was in direct response to the 9/11 attacks, as al Quaeda had its base there. Iraq was an elective war based on false premises, and certainly counts among our dumbest wars, perhaps even ahead of the Philippine war. With John Kerry, I agree that GWB "took his eye off the ball" and went into Iraq while letting the Taliban regroup.<br /><br />I'll respond to your next comments shortly.steve on the slow trainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18257811143869341854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-59261450812241918272009-07-19T08:24:26.659-04:002009-07-19T08:24:26.659-04:00I can't help myself.
Exactly what was the &qu...I can't help myself.<br /><br />Exactly what was the "intended," the "conceptual" good to be accomplished by our commission of near-genocide in Viet Nam? (Setting aside my prior rhetorical question about any actual good accomplished).<br /><br />I'd like to hear some real examples of good being accomplished by the commission of evil. Truth is, this idea was just self-forgiveness by this evil cretin McNamara.gerry rosserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06095232815291651669noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-24882426358187666842009-07-16T09:18:40.518-04:002009-07-16T09:18:40.518-04:00Lessee, what exactly was the good accomplished by ...Lessee, what exactly was the good accomplished by the evil of murdering hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people?<br /><br />This guy would have done well in the Third Reich.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-1533889440276158182009-07-16T09:15:12.640-04:002009-07-16T09:15:12.640-04:00Robert McNamara, A.M.F.
This guy was really brave...Robert McNamara, A.M.F.<br /><br />This guy was really brave speaking up decades after it would have done any good. Just another damn right-wing vampire.<br /><br />The Viet Nam war was the second stupidest thing the US Government has ever done (topped only by the current war (yes, singular) in Iraq and Afghanistan.<br /><br />"The best and the brightest" indeed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12159522.post-84243708874592133142009-07-15T14:30:58.880-04:002009-07-15T14:30:58.880-04:00I didn't know most of this stuff. I guess I h...I didn't know most of this stuff. I guess I hardly ever think of public figures as having lives outside the public.Charles Gramlichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052592247572253641noreply@blogger.com