Mike Malloy on Bush's Vietnam trip

[Greeby]

The photo in today’s New York Times showing George W. Bush seeming to yuck it up with a Vietnamese woman identified as a restaurant employee was jarring – even after six years of news photos of Bush involved in moments that invite ridicule and scream his near bottomless cultural ignorance.

His current, monumentally embarrassing trip to Vietnam reminds me of two seminal scenes from Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.” In the first – at the beginning of Joker’s (Matthew Modine) tour as a Marine infantryman/combat journalist - a Vietnamese prostitute diverts Joker’s and his friend’s attention with negotiations for “sucky-sucky; me love you long time” long enough for a thief to rush up and steal the fellow combat journalist’s camera equipment.

In the second scene, near the film’s end, as the Marines try to enter what appears to be a dead, bombed-out village, a Vietnamese sniper is slowly and devastatingly killing member after member of Joker’s platoon. The sniper is finally cornered, wounded, and executed by members of the platoon – Joker firing the last bullet, point-blank. The camera closes in for a tight shot of the dying shooter: It is another Vietnamese woman. Kubrick’s point regarding US perception of Vietnamese women and the bloody truth of resistance to an invader was clearly made.

Thinking of those two scenes from what is arguably one of the two definitive movies (from the US point of view; the other film is, of course, “Apocalypse Now.”) of our horrific involvement in that war I, once again, could feel the rage and deep, deep sadness that comes from knowing that lies from both the military and civilian leadership of the US in the 60s caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans and nearly three million Indo-Chinese for no reason whatsoever. None.

And, to add insult to deep shame and humiliation to a 40-year-old chapter of US/Vietnamese history that is staggering in its uselessness and death, today there was a photo of George W. Bush hugging a waitress on page A-14 of today’s Times, while on page one, Bush in Vietnamese ceremonial dress appears to be whispering a snide comment to his soul brother Vladimir Putin. Maybe something about “sucky-sucky?”

http://www.mikemalloy.com

[Fridays Child]

1. Malloy must be referring to this photo

President Bush, with Prime Minister John Howard of Australia, was hugged by a restaurant employee
after a meal Sunday night in Ho Chi Minh City.

[Greeby]

2. Yanno, it's funny Mike should mention Full Metal Jacket

I always thought Bush was what you'd get if you put Private Pyle in the White House