[net.politics] Asymmetry

janw@inmet.UUCP (09/18/85)

> Larry Kolodney (USENET) ...decvax!genrad!teddy!lkk (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa
> What the Soviets are doing now in Afghanistan is at about the same level of
> terrorism as what the U.S. did in Vietnam (operation Phoenix, napalm, Agent
> Orange, etc.).

 This statement seems to proceed from a desire for symmetry - at least,
I see no other foundation for it. Symmetry is intellectually attractive,
but hard facts take precedence.

 A huge, indisputable fact, staring you right in the face,
completely disproves the Vietnam-Afghan analogy. 
 A quarter to a third of the population have fled Afghanistan.
Vietnam had its exodus, too, but that one occurred as a result of
American GI *leaving* the country.  
 Surely, the people themselves are the best authority on who does what to them.

 I've put it into a jingle, so we won't forget again:

	
	   How can we know what to believe
	   Of distant lands, so weird and rum ?
	   Well, webs of words aren't hard to weave -
	   But here's a simple rule of thumb :

	   The people flee when the Commies COME.
	   They also  flee when the Yankees LEAVE.

		
		Jan Wasilewsky