A reminder of why the anti-Vietnam War movement was one of the most important, if not the most important, movements in US history, and why the movement never really receives the level of commemoration of other past movements. Notice that there are no schools or streets named after the leading figures in the anti-Vietnam War movement The American Revolution was a landmark historical event, but one that provides the founding myths of the system. The victory of the Union in the Civil War consolidated the foundation for the American empire. Movements like abolition, women’s suffrage, labor, civil rights, gay rights and environmentalism can be pointed out as examples of social progress, and incorporated into the System. The two World Wars helped the USA become a world empire. The US got an Asian satellite state out of the Korean War. But the Vietnam War was a major defeat, a major victory for the anti-colonial movements of the postwar period, and an embarrassment to the establishment that the power elite would prefer to sweep under the rug.

It is because of the legacy of the anti-Vietnam War movement that the draft is no longer politically feasible, and that Americans will not accept imperialist war if its requires any sacrifices on their side. The Vietnam War was also the last major interstate conflict between wars between states began giving way to fourth generation warfare.

By Gil Barndollar

USA Today

With U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the installation of John Bolton as national security adviser, new sanctions and demands on Iran and a White House that appears committed to doing the heavy lifting for our friends and allies, regime change in Iran may well be back on the menu.

Should a serious public relations campaign for regime change begin, we will assuredly hear some familiar songs: the mullahs’ theocracy is weak and will swiftly collapse; our “man in Tehran” will be embraced by the people; the war will practically pay for itself; and most important, we won’t need to put any American “boots on the ground.”

All of these claims should be treated with enormous skepticism, but the last one is the most dubious.

Any serious effort to end the Iranian theocracy will not only require American troops, but will also almost certainly break our vaunted All-Volunteer Force If you like the idea of regime change in Iran, you had better love the idea of a new American draft.

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