King's Vietnam criticism rings true for Iraq

In his column at EURweb.com, Cameron Turner draws parrallels between Dr. King's views on Vietnam and Iraq.

It's ironic that President George W. Bush chose the week before Martin Luther King Day to denounce Americans who oppose his policy in Iraq. (In his speech on Tuesday, January 10, Mr. Bush more than implied that those critics are disloyal, irresponsible and aiding the enemy.) Martin Luther King, Jr. was an outspoken critic of the war in Vietnam and his eloquent challenge to U.S. policy then is startlingly relevant today.

Dr. King denounced the Vietnam War as an unjust, cruel and futile campaign which ravaged the Vietnamese people in their homeland and robbed the poor here in the U.S. He articulated the war's impact on low income Americans when he stated:

"A few years ago.it seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor - both black and white - through the Poverty Program.. Then came the build-up in Vietnam and I watched this program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idol, political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic, destructive suction tube."

Read the full story HERE.