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On Al Franken, Robert McNamara, and Running Against Joe Lieberman
Three things I would like to post here:
One is to offer congratulations to my friend and one-time TV colleague Al Franken, now Senator Franken, for the patience, savvy and perseverance that he has shown in defeating Norm Coleman and winning the US Senate seat in Minnesota. Al is a smart, hardworking man whose fine mind will go a long way toward serving the people of the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Second is that I wish to mark the death of Robert McNamara, who I portrayed in the HBO mini-series Path to War, starring Michael Gambon as LBJ. The project was the last film directed by the great John Frankenheimer. Frankenheimer steered me toward several sources in order to research the role. Richard Holbrooke offered good advice. Halberstam's relatively brief section on McNamara proved helpful. Many people believe that "McNamara's War" was an anomaly of sorts, specific to the end of the Cold War period. That was the beginning of America learning the terrible lessons about the true cost of projecting US military power around the globe without a defined mission. In Southeast Asia, the Pentagon learned, to its dismay, that there are nations that have no interest in Western-style democracy and are willing to fight and die for that belief as well.
I have watched the news recently, bobbing for air in the flood of coverage of Michael Jackson's death, unnerved as to how the war in Iraq seemed to just shut off on TV, as if someone threw a switch. Now Americans are fighting in Afghanistan and the names of the cities there are in the bylines of the reporters. A trillion dollars will likely have been spent on the Iraq war by the time it is truly "over." And, like Vietnam, for nothing. A trillion dollars to execute Saddam. A trillion dollars to create a hatred of our country that will live in the souls of Iraqis for generations to come. And while neocons here at home decry Obama's fiscal policies and how he is burning through US debt like no other and how he must be insane for even considering a health care policy that costs any money, think of where that trillion, or any part of it, might have gone.
Robert McNamara, the architect of the US escalation in Vietnam, circa August 1964, is dead and the real tragedy is that the leaders at the Pentagon have learned absolutely nothing since then. Iraq. Another costly war, particularly in terms of the lives of brave servicemen and women, for nothing.
Lastly, no I am not moving to Connecticut to run against Joe Lieberman. As much as I think Lieberman is an enormous letdown to the party that gave him their nomination for Vice President, I am sure that Democratic Party leaders in that state will take care of themselves.
Running for public office involves among the most sacred trusts that one can enter into and I would like to give that a lot of serious thought before I decide if that is right for me and the voters I would potentially serve.
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I am not from there and so I cannot vote for you but, I know you'll work on doing the right thing. I wish the best...to all of us.
I don't live there and so I cannot vote for you. I know you'll work on doing the right thing. I wish the best for all of us. :)
Dearest Alec,
You are living proof that all performing artists are not unintelligent, apathetic morons.
Positively yours,
Caviar
I am Australian and my dad fought in Vietnam. I have read his letters to his mum and the change in tone when he went from Malaysia to Vietnam is scary. In one letter he told his parents to destroy any letters he wrote to them before placing them in the garbage as other families had people going through their garbage and placing death threats in their letterboxes. I am pleased to see that today protestors are able to separate the war from those sent to fight, I am saddened that any armed forces personnel are being sent to fight a war against a nation that has not engaged them in a conflict. When I was a child, my mum warned my brother and I that dad didn't like helicopters flying overhead, and we had to understand if he had a reaction. I believe that any politician that makes decisions on sending people to war should have served themselves or have a family member in the forces so they understand the ramifications of their decision. I am lucky, my dad is relatively unscathed, so many others aren't.
McNamara admitted he was wrong. So what? Over 50,000 American boys were lost in a jungle in Southeast Asia because of his "oops." Nothing was learned from it, we still counter guerilla warfare with typical military responses. We are lousy at Imperialism.
As for the 1 trillion, it makes me sick to see that kind of money poured into a rat hole like the middle east. However, if you think for one minute that money would have been put to better use here, you're kidding yourself. Education? Healthcare? Forget it. Doesn't Hawaii need a bridge to the mainland instead?
As for running for office, Alec, you already ARE running for office. This rash of comments these past several weeks show your intellect and ability to understand and breakdown complex issues. But don't do it. Your too much of a lightening rod and in the end instead of holding office you'll wish you did "Canteen Boy II."
I interviewed Robert McNamara a dozen times between 1993 and 2004, seeking my own answers to a war that ended when I was ten.
McNamara was a brilliant man who lacked wisdom and ruthlessly sought to find it in the last three decades of his life. He served on panels in Havana and Hanoi, examining the causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War, and became one of the most eloquent spokesmen against the United States’ overuse of force in wartime.
With his 1995 memoirs In Retrospect he became the only top-level policymaker to admit error in Vietnam.
I am troubled by my country’s narrow focus on one man’s role in a failed war.
During McNamara’s tenure, 22,000 Americans died in Vietnam. Another 34,000 died under Kissinger, Nixon, and Ford. Yet Kissinger is frequently trotted out as a senior statesman.
Whether hawks, doves, or the vast number of disaffected, as citizens in a democracy, we can never point to one man to absolve ourselves of our nation’s foreign policy.
Can we accept that our best and brightest will make mistakes that are irreparable, for which our nation – all of us – must take some measure of responsibility?
The estimated '$3 trillion"spent is history..gone gone gone...why harp on about it ?.. how much more was wasted before it in the 200 of so acts of military aggression by those people DD Eisenhower tried to warn us about ???.. if you have a God you need the Devil for justification..if you have the biggest,most costly Military in the world one needs ememies in order to justify that expense..created OR real..is ANYONE accountable ?? .Morality is sold as Sex here in the "land of the free" ... where, I ask, is the REAL morality ???.. certainly NOT in Healthcare fo Profit.. or political favours for more political favours...lets hope Al Franken will bring some honesty and humour for his constituents...
The money spent is gone, while you can complain about it all you are doing is blowing hot air into a city that lives on hot air. If you want to stop the spending you have to remove two very large almost foundations to what America is today. The first and the easiest is to change the military from the failed auto company leadership. Top heavy, only caring about advancement and yes men with brown noses
and retirement. That also means you have to make sure any general has been in the front lines not pushing buttons but kissing the earth as people try very hard to kill him. The second is the political need to pork your state with federal funds, the best way is military bases and production. No politician is going to not grab every dollar of the fat that an unlimited military credit card can give him. However, as been seen over the past thirty years the political parties have, when in power, cut the number of bases and production plants every time the change in the white house occurs. I suggest that the bases have to be equal throughout the USA and that military production has to be equal in each state.
The biggest change has to come from the people. also understand that it is your fault.
"A trillion dollars to execute Saddam. A trillion dollars to create a hatred of our country that will live in the souls of Iraqis for generations to come. And while neocons here at home decry Obama's fiscal policies and how he is burning through US debt like no other and how he must be insane for even considering a health care policy that costs any money, think of where that trillion, or any part of it, might have gone."
Well said. I also applaud your taking the time to think seriously on just what can be accomplished in the political sphere and what price you pay for going there. Just happened to catch Joyce Behar's quote on you yesterday... You'd enjoy it too!
Even if that trillion had not been spent on Iraq and, instead, used to reduce this year's deficit, that would only reduce it from $1.8 trillion to $800 billion.
Look, Obama told us that his presidency would be "change we can believe in". His deficit-spending is just George Bush times 3 (he has tripled Bush's deficit).
Oh, good! you can "do the math." Wonderful.
What you seemingly can't do is discern the fact that the $1 trillion under discussion could have been used not only to reduce the current annual budget deficit, but far more importantly, invested in our country to improve efficiency, provide affordable health care, educate our children, and wean us off of our insane dependence on fossil fuels, especially those which we import.
Those direct improvements, AKA "investments," would have paid far higher dividends over and over, year end, year, out, ultimately dwarfing budget deficits while improving our economy through large-scale job creation and the tax base.
That's what "investments" do -- near term "sacrifice" for long-term gain.
Shoveling a trillion or more dollars year after year into a rahole war without end is NOT investment. It is insanity.
So, please, let's compare apples to apples next time shall we?
I feel Baldwin would bring much to the political table in Washington and perhaps some much needed levity as well. Think about it. Franken could use some support.
As for McNamara, the man, I think Pat Oliphant expressed it best:
http://thetruthburns.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/the-end-of-an-error/
Alec - one of the classiest guys in entertainment, media and film. He would make a great public servant.
Mr. B.-
Stop using the passive voice.
I love you.
-Plainslady
Not that I hate Alec Baldwin, but he would be a horrible politician! Some actors are good at delivering lines, and some are good at writing them. Alec is the latter. Thank goodness we are free from him running, yah!
I love you on 30 Rock. Don't go anywhere! :-)
Mr. Baldwin writes "A trillion dollars to create a hatred of our country that will live in the souls of Iraqis for generations to come." Right on target, now the neo-cons are all but assured of getting their endless war. I have learned to forgive those foreign terrorists, because I know that only a forgiving heart can ever find peace. Yet I will never forgive our own government for ruining my daughters world.
Huh? Did you really just say, "I have learned to forgive those foreign terrorists, because I know that only a forgiving heart can ever find peace.", followed immediately by "Yet I will never forgive our own government....". So the moral to the story is that hating your government is worth not ever finding peace?
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