In 1965, Lyndon Baines Johnson in describing the conflict in Vietnam to the Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. declared "So we must be ready to fight in Viet-Nam, but the ultimate victory will depend upon the hearts and the minds of the people who actually live out there. By helping to bring them hope and electricity you are also striking a very important blow for the cause of freedom throughout the world."On a separate occasion, he is also quoted as saying “If you got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow."
It seems like no matter how much times change, certain beliefs continue unabated. The United States government since the time of Harry Truman, has seen its role to "Americanize" the rest of the world. Whether it is by "bringing democracy" as our current president is fond of saying or via economic globalization, the goals are to promote, by any means necessary, the "American Way."
I am glad to have been born in the US, but I do not believe that it is to anyone's advantage to have another country tell them what to do--except when large numbers of human lives are in the balance--e.g., the genocides in Rwanda, Darfur, etc., which I believe, have moral imperatives attached.
When our nation's founders put together our Constitution and said "in order to form a more perfect union," I believe they understood that our democracy was not and, most likely, would never be perfect. I believe they felt that if the words they used in creating our Constitution meant anything, they would have to recognize that it was a great experiment.
As with any experiment, the variables have to be controlled, otherwise the experiment has unintended consequences. In our case, how much government we have, and how much power it wields are variables. Another variable is the influence that "special interests" have on how government works. Finally, the wild card of a democracy is the will of the people. As we saw in Vietnam, government power and corporate interests walked hand-in-hand to fight a war that was of little national interest. As we also saw, it was the will of the people that ultimately turned the tide and moved our government toward ending it.
We are at that same crossroads in Iraq. We the people need to express our will to end this war. We need to assist in rebuilding that country with humilty, and we need to work productively with nations in the region. This is not a "war to end all wars", it is a war that has economic interests at heart.
The only hearts and minds we need to worry about are our own. I think what we need to question is who or what has got us by the balls. I conclude, as Walt Kelly's cartoon Pogo once said "We have met the enemy, and he is us."
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