Nixon didn’t take office until January 1969. “Vietnamization” was well under way by summer of 1970 and it continued until the South Vietnamese military could “stand up” (sound familiar?).

Thus, we were in a phased withdrawal during Nixon’s first term. US ground troops were virtually out completely in 1973, just like he promised in the 1972 election campaign.

The genocide came after the Demon-crats stopped all funding to South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese military was winning on the battlefield until the money dried up.

The slaughter was inevitable yet none of the true murderers (the Democrat majority that decided those “gooks” weren’t worth any more of our tax money) have yet to be held to account.

The very same mindset is operating today, with a different set of “gooks” being set up for slaughter if the “war costs too much” types have their way in the next election.

The Iraqis know that without McCain in the White House, millions of them will die. They’ve seen the Vietnam script in action, doncha know?

The fact is that most of us boomers had parents who were of the Great Depression, possibly saved the world from totalitarianism, and raised us under the daily fear of nuclear annihilation with the expectation that we would still work hard and be successful. (Of course, all of the sex, booze, drugs and swing music of their youth were supposed to be a secret.)

As the 60s and early 70s unfolded, we fought an unnecessary war based on mistaken assumptions in which over 58,000 of us died. My Mother cried for three days when I was drafted the year after her baby brother came home all shot up.

We partied as they did in their youth. We too feared that we could not afford to keep them in their old age. We too feared that we would not have the money to retire.
Well, we were all wrong. My parents have an active, affluent retirement still, in their 80s.

We boomers came home, got educated, went back to church and worked hard. My wife and I made and contributed more money to more causes than ever before this year. Our children are grown, with productive lives.

My wife and our friends talk about retirement soon. Not of rocking chairs and porch swings. We talk of taking care of our parents, second carriers or starting businesses. We talk of travel, vacation homes and health care.

We will not be a burden to the generation after. We will make you rich. In our “retirement” we will create jobs for you and purchase countless goods and services from you.

We have built on and will continue to build on the wealth that our parents created. Your challenge will be to build on that which you inherit from us.

The split in that generation can be seen in films like Rambo, and in the bitterness against the “anti war movement” that ridiculed returning soldiers and congratulated themselves for being for peace while Pol Pot killed a million people and VietNam ethnically cleansed their Chinese population (quick: how many boomers know about the Chinese-Viet Nam war?).

The press, which are the first group, support Obama.
The others, the quiet ones who stayed sober and grew up, will support McCain.

Well, now I work at a relatively crappy job I don’t like and all my “dreams” are just hobbies or pathetic nostalgia. I did not do as well as my parents because I did not put as much planning and work and discipline into the process as I should have. However, I recognize the failure as mine, not my parents’. I don’t expect anyone else to pick up the tab. No feeling I’m entitled to retire on the public dime, thanks. My biggest fear right now is not being old, it’s being useless. To me, someone who has done as little as I have has no right to retire. You have to put something into the system before you get to take out. So I’m hoping the second half of my life – the wiser half – will be more productive than the first. Don’t count this boomer out yet. I’m not one for following the crowd.