In Vietnam, the lack of any clear objective allowed the savagery of war to devolve to the point that the only thing that mattered was the body count. Such savagery, performed by those who saw no discernible point to it, was clearly one of the great vices of America's "war" in Vietnam, regardless of how one looks at that war.
Today, the war on drugs, like the war on terror, likewise has no discernible objective or goal, and least of all to those who, often out of a misplaced sense of patriotism or sense of duty, or in an attempt to simply escape the plight of their own poverty, are sent to fight it.
But the difference is that, while simply focusing on the body count was seen as only contributing to the horrors of the mistake in Vietnam, and thus a vice, today, the body count is seen as not only a virtue, but as the only discernible objective in the war on drugs and on terror.
And in this way, the body count was transformed from a vice into a virtue.
Today, the war on drugs, like the war on terror, likewise has no discernible objective or goal, and least of all to those who, often out of a misplaced sense of patriotism or sense of duty, or in an attempt to simply escape the plight of their own poverty, are sent to fight it.
But the difference is that, while simply focusing on the body count was seen as only contributing to the horrors of the mistake in Vietnam, and thus a vice, today, the body count is seen as not only a virtue, but as the only discernible objective in the war on drugs and on terror.
And in this way, the body count was transformed from a vice into a virtue.
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