Comments by "Madam Vaudelune" (@madamvaudelune3298) on "Analyzing Evil: Colonel Kurtz" video.

I think that is a reference to the Iliad, a poem that Kurtz probably knew all too well. In fact Kurtz is an archetype of Achilles in his 'menas,' a state of soul-deep angst translated as 'madness' in many early versions. Achilles and Kurtz are both warrior demigods; Achilles the son of Zeus and Kurtz the son of the god-like-powered Uncle Sam. and both have thwarted in their quest for glory,denied the ultimate fulfillment of their destiny. But gods are not compelled to act morally. Kurtz cannot reconcile his mission with his conscience. The rapine and destruction of a nation too far away and not white enough for anyone in the USA to think twice about garnered little sympathy and much profit for the makers of boot wax. But Kurtz self elevation to nascent godhood followed the self destruction of a civilization that has collapsed under the weight of its own powerHe is anti-civilization, he is the rejection of European civilizing whiteness and the embrace of the jungle; he who embraces the jungle enbraces the orchid AND the cobra. He knows that he must die, but he killed himself long ago, when the civilized poet-soldier fought a war driven by makers of boot wax. Before he dies at the hand of Willard he divests himself of the stench of civilization, so that he may become a god. 'For we all live as upon the razor's edge..'(Nestor, in Homer's Iliad)
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@Mr.Bobcat1776 Yes, that is why we left the country after ten years of worthless sacrifice. That is why Viet Nam is a Communist nation, because we won Really? The Pentagon Papers spill it out. Armchair Ivy League graduates thought that France needed to retain its colonies after WW2.Ho Chi Minh was eager to drive the French out. We promised Ho that his democratic Viet Minh party would be installed after the battle of Dien Bien Phu. Guess what? WE. LIED. We helped the French who were driven out in any case; we just thoughtbthey could beat the Viet Minh. Furious, Ho Chi Minh got revenge and how.
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@jonathand.terrell3419 TY!
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@bring-out Sir, I really hanen't the time to process an entire text wall. To suggest that the United Staes has the same world view today regarding war in the late 20th century as we had in the early 20 century is ludicrous. The United States is acompassionate and just nation, but our leaders are not. The common people only generally believe what their favorite politician tell them. And people bound to prosper off the Viet Nam war-partcularly firms like Halliburton- do not give a flying fuck about THeir OWN sons dying in a jungle, they sure as hell didnt care about a bunch of slant eyed kids in black pajamas. If I were you, I would educate myself by reading The Pentagon Papers. The reason we were in Vietnam is that, after that after WW2 a roomfull of 'Society of the Bell' type assholes believed that France had to keep it colonies to remain solvent. Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Viet Min party and we promised to support Vietnamese independance if he helped us drive out anti French partisans at Dienh Bien Phu. GUESS WHAT? WE LIED. We betrayed HCM who at the time was very pro American. We have done this often. We destroyed Guatemala in the 70s by funding an ouster of the legitimately elected president who vowed to give millions of acres of coffee growing and banana growing land back to the Maya. We played pocket pool while Gen. Efrain Rodriguez Mont murdered 1.5 million native Maya. We used our technology to overturn an election in Chile and make sure that we had a military junta instead. Of what the Chilean people wanted. . WE FUNDED THE COUP AGAINST SALVADOR ALLENDE. WE PUT SADDAM HUSSEIN IN POWER. WE DESTABILIZED IRAN. You were extremely insulting to me and will not return the favor but I have no time for those who wish to discuss politics with no knowledge of history.
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@bring-out So race is not a political issue? What great thing do you have to say about race? That we have destroyed South American Nations, Middle Eastern nations and Asian nations without compunction because they arent 'people just like us?' Let me point you to another book 'War Against All Puerto Ricans' (Nelson Denis). The United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898. In congress it wad declared that ' They cannot be assimilated, being mostly of Negro stock." This incredibly well researched and impeccably sourced book tells of the Massacre of Ponce, when gov. Blanton Winship's soldiers opened fire on unarmed teenage bationalists. During the 1950s la Ley de la mordaza (muzzle law ) gave 10 years in prison to ANYONE SINGING THE PUERTO RICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM. WE ARE CITIZENS OF THE USA HAVE BEEN SINCE THE FOEAKER ACT OF 1914. You talk to me when you KNOW you country's politics not before.
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@bring-out lololol The little mountain town of Jayuya was BOMBED by Ramey AFB because these farmers and dairymen and pig raisers were suspected of harboring our nationalist leader, Pedro Albizu Campus. This man was the FIRST black man to graduate from Harvard-at the top of his class. He was imprisoned in La Princessa Jail and. subjected to x-ray experiments to see how long it took for a man to die of x-ray burns. THISWAS BROUGHT BEFORE THE UNITED NATIONS BUT THE USA REFUSED TO DISCUSS IT.NOW, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR POLITICS, PLEASE.
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@bring-out Hmmm.Yet tou have not refuted any of my points. I wonder why that is?
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@bring-out But go ahead sir, refute my arguments. Tell me how our politics are not racist. Tell me that blonde, white Canadian children would'nt be bussed INTO America of bunches of them were traveling homeless in big caravans. Tell me that Puerto Rico hasn't been destroyed by American policy. I am no idealist; the only reality in politics is power and the will to use it. There is NO "truth," there are only facts and non-facts and all the American people get is the latter. But the only thing that I can say about America is that we are wrapped in a comfortable blanket of ignorance, traveling back and forth to Disney movies in comfy cradles with names like 'Lexus' and 'Cadillac.' And this will end sooner than you think.
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@felipesimoes1699 So apparently you not only need help with reading skills, but with civics? * Only CONGRESS HAS THE POWER TO DECLARE WAR. Did we declare war on N k? Pls. give me the date. This was an international police action. In VN it was a simple act of piracy.
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@bring-out This is actually drawing a parallel between Homer's 'The Illiad' and Apocalypse Now. Yes I am aware that it is based on J. Conrad's book. However, the parallel drawn is between Achilles and Kurtz because their reaction to being denied a promised 'fulfillment' of their destinies struck me as very similar. Achilles knew that the heroic efforts of Hector would reduce him to to little more than a mercenary, Kurtz knew that his soldier-poet self concept could not survive his prostitution to the military-industrial complex.Both were drawn inward by an increasingly profound 'zerissenheit.' a peeling of layers of the soul exacerbated by a surrounding ambiance of madness and violence. In no way did I imply any endorsement of racism, in fact, the tragic implication was that war endured because America was completely indifferent to the suffering of the Southeast Asians of Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. I can't envision Americans dropping Napalm on a village. full of blonde, white children, can you?
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F22 Pilot Excellent list. Without being presumptious may I suggest two more 'A face in the Crowd' starrind Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal References the power of the media to present, distort, manipulate and control.'Apocalypse Now,' because it places in perspective the nature of American politics and War.
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F22 Pilot lol we discuss it.. But how many have yruly seen it??
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@euanreid6682 You obviously haven'T watched the movie. If this is partof your 'I hate America' personal feelings and/or pseudo-intelectual veneer, stand in the autograph line and wait. I knowwhatAmerican venture capitalism did to my country; and mayI recommend. 'War Against All Puerto Ricans' by Nelson A. Denis. ButAmerica is not its government, it is a people who range from West. Virginia to Detriot to East LA who lost sons that arestill wept. for in a war they did not understand. You must be ridiculously ignorant not to get the point of this.movie: that this warwas the aptheosis of madness, with one man losing his sanity sent to kill the maddest. of the mad. This film glorfies only one thing: the ability of truly great. Cinema to tell an epic story so profound that it marks the soul.
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@felipesimoes1699 And that has what to do with anything? The circumstances surrounding WW2 and surrounding VN are completely different. The war in VN was fought because war is profitable. JFK was against this war. "To stop the international spread of communism? If we do not invade Cuba to do this, which is so near, why do we go to VN which is so far away?" If you read 'The Pentagon Papers' you will find out that we had no intention of winning this war. In WW2 we joined our alliie England in stoping a genocidal maniac from destroying all of Europe. You had a whopping serving of stupid this morning, didnt you? The US didnt care about killing its own sons. It cared less about the children of Asia.
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@felipesimoes1699 These facts are well known to me. Where you failed is that a half truth is still a lie. It was not only America, but England, France, Russia and parts of the Balkans who dropped bombs on. Germany to fight a madman. The Vietnam war was a manufactured crisis fought to make boot wax makers rich. Ho Chi Minh was initially very pro American; and we promised that we would support his efforts for a free VN . We lied. We listened to the ivy league, Skull and Bones idiots who told us tha France needed its colonies to remain free. There was no need for a VN war.JFK in fact said "If we do not fight Communism in Cuba, which is so near, why would we do so in VN which is so far away?" And I do believe that sentiment got him killed. JFK found out very soon that he was not running the war. Then as now, the president is surrounded by those who had their own agenda. McNamara confessed on his deathbed that the war was about making the rich richer. But its not as easy to keep a strong young president in the dark as it is to run circles around a senile old man. . In Europe children died from air raids because a madman named Adolph Hitler put them in the way of those who had to free their nations or watch many more children die. Children died in VN because to the American Military Industrial Complex they weren't human. They were g**ks, slants, sub humans whose death meant nothing. During the 2nd WW. people of Japanese descent were rounded up and put in concentration camps. Why werent people of German descent treated the same way? Because they were white. I call them as I see them. And if you think I dont research. then read the Pentagon Papers for yourself. Stupid is as stupid does Forrest.
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@felipesimoes1699 I most certainly answered your question about the increase in numbers. And as far as VN being a 'just war' IT, LIKE THE WAR IN IRAQ, WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A WAR AT ALL IF HAD NOT CAUSED IT. . You dont even read your own writing. Germans were detained and questioned. As YOU YOURSELF WROTE 'but very few' actually remained imprisoned. Those who were HAD PROVEN TIES TO THE BUND.' That was a crime. Japanese citizens were detained solely -SOLELY-based on their race. This is history. You cannot spin it or change it. At the same time the war was going on. Guatemalans were being DELIBERATELY infected with syphillis by thebAmerican govt. But what the hell, they arent white.I know what Americans did in my country, Puerto Rico. In one of the most impecabbly researched books ever printed, ' War Against All Puerto Ricans' will explain how, before Congress, it was explained that we were 'Largely innimicable to assimilation, being mostly of Negro stock.'Good thing they didnt explain that to the 65th Infantry who served with distinction in Korea. My dad was one of them. But just like you he was 'white washed' to the point that he was ashamed of the darker skinned people of his family'. When you read the Pentagon Papers you come back and talk big. As for now, our destabilizing of Iran, Iraq, Guatemala, Chile-we did these things DELIBERATELY. AND just like VN the chickens are coming home to roost. I can live with whatever opinion you have of me much better than if I had to live with myself as an imperialist, racist, white washed apologist for the gross atrocities commited every time the USA "liberates" countries like Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan
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@felipesimoes1699 Incredible. The only thing that I can wish you is that YOU, or an innocent loved one, is stuck in a city where they cannot exit, and coming to 'liberate' that city is a person with your philosophy. Sitting pn a chair in a comfortable room in London, WADC, Liege or Berlin, men in expensive suits made decisions about the lives of mothers, fathers, schoolchildren, the elderly, the blind, nuns, priests, grocers and teachers and dustbin cleaners. They were 'civilans,' a word that means 'human beings' or 'people. They did nothing to deserve to be wounded or die. People like Napoleon and Hitlet DELIBERATELY put them between themselves and the countries they wanted to conquet and we HAD NO CHOICE but to kill them if we ourselves wanted to remain free. But VN was not that kind of a war. Left to their own devices VN would become what it is now; a rather pleasant country that welcomes us as tourists. A nation of people where you can prosper by your efforts, you just cannot leave an estate to your children. I dont agree with that but the Vietnamese have a thriving nightlife and like us, people who have made it and people who barely make. But my sister visits Saigon every year ( she is a British citizen) and calls this a nation of lovely and gracious people. And we are not that.
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@felipesimoes1699 I see you haven't read the Pentagon Papers. We caused the war in So. Vietnam. We caused it because we tricked HCM. We betrayed him. We did not support him as we promised. Just like destroyed Salvador Allende. Just like we put Saddam Hussein in power. Just like we put Efrain Rodriguez Mont in power in Guatemala. A man who murdered over 1.6 million Maya (read 'I, Rigoberta Menchu). Enjoy your coffee and bananas, Uncle Sam. They came to you dripping blood. As to you and your family, you get the same mercy you wish to uncle Sam's little brown victims.
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@felipesimoes1699 I answered your question. Reread my first answer. Your illiteracy is not my problem.
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@felipesimoes1699 THE intervention was justified. We were honoring a treaty with President Syngman Rhee. This was never a 'war,' war was NEVER declared against N K. We were PART OF AN INTERNATIONAL FORCE, we were not alone, as GB, ANZAC, and other forces were involved in a police action-not a war.
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@felipesimoes1699 They rose because Kennedy, as he soon found out. Was not running the military. Kennedy, if you read the Pentagon Papers, was furious when he realized that HIS order to provide air cover for the Bay of Pigs insurgency was countermanded. He said that he would 'make it his business to find out' who had done so. Shortly after making this statement he was assasinated. But i posted this. And I also posted that it is much easier to run a shadow government when the president is a senile old man, not a spry young man in his 40s. What a coincidence. My first language is Spanish. One of us applied ourselves at learning the language, I see. I see no reason be pleasant to an imperialistic racist white-washed military boot licker. I speak for your victims, not your masters. There is honor in defending one's nation, in fact, one has no choice. There is ZERO honor in invading a smaller, weaker country to make $$for the military-industrial complex. I feel pity and anger for the inner city blacks, Mexicans and Appalatian white boys who fought a war they believed in to put money in the pockets of the rich. Only honor to them. To you, apologist for Haliburton and Bell and the makers of the Meal, ready to eat, nothing but the garbage you deserve.
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@felipesimoes1699 Now you answer me. Why do you worship a govt. that deliberately innoculates Guatemalan indians with syphilis? Who runs a study on Black men in Tuskeegee with syphilis and provides no treatment? Who overthrows a LEGITIMATE election of Salvador Allende in Chile? Who helps install a dictator in Guatemala who murders over 1.5 million indiginous people. WHY if we care so much about Communists picking on people, we cant care about a murderous thug dictator in Central America? Why destabilize a modern, progressive 70s Iran? Look at pictures of Iran in the 70s. We made the Iran we have today. The Iraq. The Syria, for oil. When we have MORE OIL THAN SAUDI ARABIA EVER DREAMED OF HAVING.? *,You had better have an answer for this one " Captain America."
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@felipesimoes1699 If only congress can declare a war, when was war declared, 'Captain America?' Yes, I love my country. And I served my country in UNIFORM for 10 years. I believed. I believed the propaganda I was spoon-fed from childhood-never being told that Ramey AFB bombed the tiny mountain town of Jayuya Puerto Rico for 'hiding nationalists.' I never knew that it was treason to desire freedom. 19 young high school students were killed for marching in Ponce, Puerto Rico, by brave American soldiers. Even though we were ALL granted citizenship in 1914, we cannot vote for the PUSA. Funny, because we sure as hell could be drafted.
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@felipesimoes1699 Hmmmmmm it seems that you love half truths, or you need a lot more ESL classes. You forgot to mention that those Germans in internment camps were FOREIGN NATIONALS OR GERMAN BORN The Nisei (Japanese anericans) were second generation AMERICAN CITIZENS BORN AND RAISED ON US SOIL. And not 11,000. 120,000 Japanese Americans.( read 'Come See the Paradise). Thats another way your English needs help. I always quote sources. You never do, and your link helps me, not you. Care to explain? Lol you better check again on Japanese internment camps. Apologies were issued.
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@felipesimoes1699 No, I simply am amazed that you are so very, very ignorant. You still deny that the Nisei were interned? Foreign nationals on American soil who act against America are criminal. Native born Americans who have ties to the Bund then or thevTaliban now are criminals. Simple. Kennedy was not running the war. He didnt like it, he didnt want it, but Johnson did. The kind of twisting and squirming you are doing now is so pathetic. Only a sad keyboard warrior reprints the op's writing, as if we didnt know what we wrote. In fact I save all my e-correspondence. Next year I will be publishing a book called 'Arguing with Idiots' (Argos Press) and I promise you a. Stellar spot in the introduction. Be sure to tell your friends that the imperialist part of their family will be famous!
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@felipesimoes1699 Gen. Maxwell Taylor was Kennedy's advisor. Pres. Diem was a dictator who KNEW that an increased American military presence in VN would confirm Communist propaganda. The initial 8000 soldiers sent to VN were called 'flood control' and were NOT supposed to do anything but be adeterrent prescence. But frankly this had already been arranged with Johnson behind Kennedy's back. Along with the assasination of President Diem and Kennedy both in 1963. One in a very quiet coup, one by his generals. What yuo didnt know this?
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@felipesimoes1699 I do not do cut ans paste as i consider it a form of theft It offends me at the deepest levels that your racist ignorance requires my attention. But I will direct you to Executive order 9066. If you did not read my last post on Kennedy and VN that is your problem. Kennedy was STILL trying to find the person or persons responsible for contramanding his orders to give air cover for the bay of Pigs insurrection! He would never know. If Johnson had a hand in Kennedy's assasination we would not know. That he profited from it is history. Btw Gerald Ford gave a formal apology to the Nisei in 1974. Your ignorance is so offensive.
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@felipesimoes1699 lololol if you deny the internment of the Nisei you would deny the Holocaust as well. I will let you strut your ignorance that those who read may know you for what you are. 'White washed' dosent mean white. White washed means that you emulate and admire the worst aspects of Eurocentrism. Imperialism, colonialism. racism, exclusionism and DENIAL of the atrocities committed in the name of these horrible things. I am a light skinned Latina and I live in the USA.I love my country and my country of origin. The horrors committed in VN and Iraq, Iran and the ME are not the doing of a people but of the oligarchy that passes for a government.
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@felipesimoes1699 Again, i do not cut and paste. Look at your answer beneath the link you sent me. VERY CLEARLY you wrote ''First you claim that Japanese Americans were put in internment camps durind WW2. THAT IS FALSE'. THATis a direct quote from your post. So maybe you will see who is the liar Not much ofva challenge.
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@felipesimoes1699 . I may be old but only one of us has memory issues. But read it before you delete your post. I have not lied even once. About Kennedy, President Diem, the 8000 'flood control' soldiers and the assasination of two presidents in the same year. The war in VN was carefully manufactured, knowing that a 10 000 mile supply line is practically impossible to maintain. It went on for as longbas it was profitable.
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@felipesimoes1699 Okay so am I still a liar? Man up and admit that is what you wrote. Surely you remember your own correpondence? You had better because other people will.
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@felipesimoes1699 So i guess that either you have no integrity or you just can't remember what you posted. Don't worry someone else will. I don't cut and paste because it is a form of direct plagiarism.. But I am sure that you know what you wrote. You CLEARLY wrote 'that's false.' You werent lying you just didnt know it.
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