IRAQ AND VIETNAM

A FALLING LEAF:

Bill Ayers, who was a leading anti-war activist of the Vietnam War era, has recently said that the lesson of the 60's is not that everyone was easily protesting everywhere and ended the war. Instead, it was a very hard effort over a long period of time. One point that might be drawn from this is that we cannot expect the leadership of this country, and especially not the Democratic Party, of its own accord, to lead this country against -- much less out of -- the Iraq War. And where is the hard working resistance from large groups that would be necessary to push them to it?

Those of us who "went along with" the Iraq War back in 2002 bought into a fiction peddled by the government. I have therefore come to accept that this war is my fault. As members of this democracy, we should take responsibility for our individual culpability. Long ago, I reached the conclusion that the war should be ended, but I have no hope that an end is near. There is little will in either political party to find a way out, and there is presently no effective anti-war movement that can force the decision makers to end it.