42 Years ago today...

November the 22nd 1963 saw the assassination of the 35th President of the United states of America. 42 years later, his death is not only remembered. Its still affecting the country.

Conspiracy theories aside, the death of Kennedy marked a turning point in US history. Much like 911, America changed on 1122 too. The establishment felt vulnerable and over the coming months, the USA would change its foreign policies away from peace to war.

Of course, no-one can really say what would have happened if the bullets had gone a foot to the left but after the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedys near-miss with nuclear holocaust, it seemed that he was keen to broker peace with communist Russia, and quickly. Kennedy also seemed luke-warm over Vietnam, maybe to the point of withdrawing troops.

If Kennedy had lived and if peace with Russia had come 20 years earlier and if Americas involvement with Vietnam had not been so substantial, maybe we'd live in a very different world. It was Kennedy who vowed to put a man on the Moon and he never saw it. Maybe if he had, then we would not have seen the cold war continue and the USA become what it has. Maybe we wouldn't be looking at the USA as global 'defenders' and maybe we wouldnt be looking at war in Iraq?

I leave you with this, its based on US Congress figures as to the cost of the continued conflict in Iraq to the US taxpayer. Ironically, the first human casualty could have lost his life 42 years ago?