Thomas Wictor

Strangely enough, the author of the stupidest thing you’ll read all day is Oliver Stone:

As Samuel Huntington aptly reminded readers in a statement of particular relevance to the United States, “The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion…but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.”

What does this even mean? How has the west “won the world”? Do we control China? Russia? India? The Middle East? Central Asia? Latin America? Africa?

In the same piece, Stone says, “The U.S. invasion of Vietnam is the most egregious case of external aggression by any nation in the post-WWII era.”

Wait: We applied our superior organized violence in Vietnam. Did we win? Also, when did this invasion take place? What was the date? There were two Vietnams, North and South. Since the South was an American ally and approved of American troops on its soil, where exactly is the aggression? And what the fuck is “external aggression”?

Is there such a thing as internal aggression? In Oliver Stone World, do nations invade themselves? Could Oliver Stone jam his head so far up his own rectum that he’d disappear? I’d pay him $100,000 to try.

Let’s look at the post-WWII era in terms of geopolitical conflict:

Iraq, Egypt, Joran, and Syria invaded—meaning crossed into the territory of, without permission, for the purpose of conquering—Israel on May 15, 1948.

North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, 1950.

The People’s Republic of China invaded Tibet on October 6, 1950.

The USSR invaded Hungary on October 23, 1956.

North Vietnam invaded Laos on May 15, 1959.

India invaded Portuguese Goa on December 18, 1961.

The Peoples’ Republic of China invaded India on October 20, 1962.

The USSR, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, and Poland invaded Czechoslovakia on August 20, 1968.

Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on October 6, 1973.

Indonesia invaded East Timor on December 7, 1975.

Vietnam invaded Kampuchea on December 25, 1978.

Uganda invaded Tanzania on October 30, 1978.

The Peoples’ Republic of China invaded Vietnam on February 17, 1979.

The USSR invaded Afghanistan on December 24, 1979.

Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980.

Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands on April 2, 1982.

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990.

Every one of these invasions was an act of aggression far more egregious than the US sending troops to an ally. Opposing the Vietnam War is perfectly honorable and intelligent. But we didn’t invade Vietnam, and we went there to defend, not conquer. Stone is a combat veteran of Vietnam. He knows this. The first troops were sent to South Vietnam to advise the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and to protect bases. It wasn’t until 1965 that the US changed from a defensive to an offensive strategy.

The buildup of formal U.S. military units had begun on 8 March 1965, when two battalions of Marines landed at Da Nang. In June, Marine and army units began offensive unit operations—”search and destroy” missions. On 28 July, Johnson announced that 50,000 U.S. troops would go to South Vietnam immediately. By the end of the year, there were 184,300 U.S. personnel in the South. Although Johnson’s actions meant that the United States had crossed the line from advising the ARVN to actually fighting the war against the Vietcong, the president downplayed the move.

“A few years before his death,” Stone writes, “former secretary of Defense Robert McNamara told students at American University that 3.8 million Vietnamese died in that war.”

Right. That figure is the total number of violent deaths from 1954 to 1984, you fuck. You’re including the people killed DURING THE SEVEN YEARS BEFORE WE WENT THERE AND THE ELEVEN YEARS AFTER WE LEFT. So now we’re responsible for deaths caused by other countries? Americans are so evil that it’s our fault even when non-Americans kill? Check this out, you sack of shit:

“The big jumps are in deaths from 1955-64 and from 1975-84.”

WHEN WE WEREN’T THERE. Game, set, and match.

Oliver Stone decries Americans’ ignorance of history. In an attempt to rectify this shortcoming, he’s decided to lie his ass off.

We’ve got massive problems. I can admit that. Still, I love this country. The US doesn’t have to be perfect for me to love it. I also don’t have to lie in order to convince others that this country is worth loving.

When I bought my Toyota, the salesman was a sarcastic kid from Nigeria who looked like a model, the manager of the dealership was a sarcastic Turk, the credit officer was a sarcastic Saudi with a giant mustache (his eyes almost fell out of his head when he saw my perfect credit score), and the finance officer was a sarcastic Korean who gave me the pen with which I signed the agreement. There wasn’t a single native-born American there. And that’s GREAT. The best Americans tend to be Americans-by-choice.

All the Seven-Eleven clerks in my city are Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, and Bangladeshi. I’ve gotten to know most of them, and each has said unprompted that he’d rather be a Seven-Eleven clerk here than an IT specialist, dentist, or medical assistant—his previous job—in his home country. Those are THEIR words, not mine. Maybe Stone thinks these guys are too dumb to know what they’re talking about, since they’re not Caucasian?

When I lived in San Francisco, I had dinner one night in a French restaurant. The owner was a Burmese man. One of the customers was loudly complaining about the Rodney King beating, which he said proved that the US was an absolutely horrible place.

The restaurant owner finally marched over to him and shouted, “One man was beaten, and the entire country is in an uproar! It’s national news! Everybody’s outraged! In my country the police murder hundreds, and nobody does or says anything! This is the greatest country in the world! Get out of my restaurant and never come back!”

His words, not mine. And as the customer left, he muttered something about stuck-up immigrants. Seems to me there was more than a little racial animus in his sulkiness, even though a few seconds earlier he was weeping over Rodney King.

When a person is reduced to lying, it means he doesn’t have an argument. Oliver Stone is not only a liar, his transparently false claims are intended for ignoramuses who need their baseless, preconceived notions bolstered. If you share Oliver Stone’s view of the US, I forbid you to buy my books.

Fuck you, Oliver. You’re a complete disgrace with no redeeming features whatsoever. People like you—disgusting liars with totalitarian agendas—are what’s wrong with this country.