Clinton finally goes...

[SARGE]

He finally gets around to it, going to Vietnam, to rub elbows with his old buddies. Supposedly, he wants to solidify relations to increase "trade", i.e., business deals. The per capita income of Vietnam is $350 a year. You can't do business with people who don't have money. I'm sure it's to build factories for Nike, etc.

Here's an old flick of someone who served in his place:


http://grunt.space.swri.edu/images/vn/recon/lee_14.jpg

[bob]

That is unfair. Bush and his AWOL from the national guard is worse. It costs mucho dinaros to train a fighter pilot when the grunts were eating SOTS and being sprayed with agent orange.

[troysvihl]

open trade is always beneficial

[LawyerRon]

Hey Sarge,
Maybe he'll hook up with Hanoi Jane.

[LawyerRon]

Troy, your concept is valid but we never have true "open trade" with these countries. Look at China and Japan. These are really closed markets to the U.S. Just try to export something to Japan and you'll see just how closed their markets really are. The only reason we do so much trade with China is because we like their cheap labor and cheap products.

[stylin19]

sarge

After the navy & state dept. denied the trip was going to take place.

we used to rub fish over ourselves, to try and mask the meat-eater smell. I was up in I-Corps..mabe he could look for my watch. Semper Fi !

[troysvihl]

LawyerRon - lol. Yeah, he could hook up with Hanoi Jane now that she left that socialist pig Ted Turner. Of course being single doesn't seem to be much of a prerequisite with Clinton.



I agree that we have less than free trade with Vietnam (or any other country for that matter), but I'm in favor of any step in that direction. The benefits of trade are maximized if both parties drop all trade barriers, but even if one party does not it is still best to minimize restrictions as much as possible. If countries like Japan and China want to shoot themselves in the foot by putting up restrictive trade rules on their side of the fence, let them. One just has to look at Japan's economy today to see that protectionism (or in their case, merchantilism) does not work.

[LawyerRon]

I agree Troy.

[SARGE]

Stylin19, I lost my high school ring in I-Corps, you lost your watch, but here we are.

[Karel]

Sarge,

I have read a lot of the testimonies on the Vietnam Veterans Home Page.

You will understand it was a whole new world to me (I was born in '56, in Belgium, 'nough said).

For whatever reason they went there (and without condemning those who didn't, a priori), I developed a deep respect for those thousands of men and women who sacrificed so much.

The greatest lesson that any war can teach us, I think, is that those testimonies also made me respect their adversaries, for exactly the same reasons. I don't say this to hurt your feelings, far from it. I only hope it hurts the feelings of all the so-called leaders of this world.

Thank you for the link.