The stories of our Vet Art participant veterans are powerful in their re-creations of the daily tragedies of war. Not only has the Vet Art Project stirred up many war-related memories in my mind, it has rekindled a desire to be more politically active. I am grateful to a veteran who inspired me to write a letter to President Obama about the purpose of the current wars.
In a recent Newsweek article entitled "Obama's Vietnam," (02.09.09), I was struck by the article's comparison of our current wars to the horrific situation my generation faced in Vietnam. Military expert Douglas Lute's statement that the U.S. has "never been beaten tactically in a fire fight in Afghanistan" is akin to the Vietnam era military expert Harry Summers' exchange with a North Vietnamese Army expert. When Summers had stated "you never defeated us in the field," the Vietnamese military officer simply replied, "That may be true. It is also irrelevant."
It is time for the U.S. to be "relevant" on so many fronts.
--Janis Clark Johnston
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