I thought I should put this happier picture up instead of the one that everyone remembers. I remember it but I don't remember when I first saw it - it just seems to have been there all the time like the associated pictures of B52s dropping tumbling sticks of bombs into the Vietnamese jungle. At this point I have to state that the Napalm which burnt Kim Phuc was actually dropped by South Vietnamese aircraft rather than US planes but it really does not matter whether it was the South Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese or whoever. What DOES matter is that apparently Richard Nixon doubted the authenticity of the photograph which I suppose means he thought it was a fake for propaganda purposes. Now in a war where the abomination that is Napalm is used did he not think that there might be some collateral damage. There was simply no need for either side to fake atrocities because so many real ones existed. Was Nixon simply making a statement knowing that a good percentage of anyone who heard of his comments would believe them.
I sometimes wonder if large numbers of people wander about with a very sketchy view of the world (in some cases of the next street) but I have had to adjust this recently to wonder how many politicians actually have similar incomplete pictures of the situations they are nominally in control of. My line of work is generally proscribed, planned, regulated and tested to the highest level and yet sometimes an unforeseen issue can mean that risks have to be taken to get things to work. This means that occasionally I find myself changing things on the fly which little planning and this bugs me. The funny thing is that most times thse flailing attempts succeed and all settles down to normality. I suspect that most Government works like this. Government is not a joke or a game for children to play: it is a serious thing with consequences for real people's lives.
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