Reply #17: It is worse now

[Zomby Woof]

Yes, the helicopter lifting off the embassy roof in Saigon... I do remember that. My dad is a Vietnam vet (1968, the worst year of the war), and I knew a sad era was at an end, even shy of my 8th birthday.

Although there was a recession then, lines at the gas pump, war in the middle east every few years or so, and a long, long awful war in Vietnam coming to an end... today just seems so much worse. We're going to be in Iraq for even longer than we were in Vietnam, plus we're going to be encouraging the rise of more terrorists, resulting in more acts against Americans at home and abroad... the gap between rich and poor will only get bigger, the rise of greater instability, arms races, genocides, and a debt-based economy holding up like a house of cards. Global warming, environmental degradation... the neocons have eclipsed Nixon, which is quite an amazing feat.

There is a sense of deja vu, but it has a darker feel to it, like it will only get worse.

And I am an optimist!