We might wonder why a reference to the VN war would be mentioned here. But there were serious issues of right and wrong, and those issues return again and again. After all, we fought the War of 1812 because we wanted to conquer Canada, and we fought the Mexican war because we wanted to take the SW U.S. from Mexico. We encouraged Texans to fight their revolution because we wanted territory from Mexico. We fought the Spanish American war because we wanted to take Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Phillipines from Spain.

And we fought in Viet Nam to prevent an election. Now we're fighting in Iraq for reasons that keep changing. But in the end the oil companies hope to come out ahead in the deal.

Using an excuse to start a war is not new. It has happened again and again. We would hope that in America, an educated public would not fall for that. But it has, and with remarkable ease.

Viet Nam was supposed to have an election, a year after the treaty in Geneva. But at U.S. instigation, Diem held a plebescite to depose the emperor. More than 90% of the people voted "yes," including more people in Saigon than the population there, and with similar results around the country.

Again, with U.S. instigation, the new South VN government refused to have the election promised in the treaty, because they knew who would win. Ho Chi Minh was a hero to the Viet people, and would win any election hands down.

So we sacrificed 50,000 American lives in Viet Nam to prevent the Vietnamese from holding an election. The number of Viet deaths on both sides was much greater, as was the number of U.S.maimed and wounded.

Is it possible we can learn anything from this? Is it possible we can learn enough to prevent its happening again?

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