Posted on 02/25/2004 1:26:32 PM PST by CIBvet
GUEST OPINION
My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.
The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: "They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
I was a Green Beret Officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.
My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.
Eight National Guard Green Berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his Green Beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.
John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW's, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier's International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.
"Hanoi John," now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.
Medals do not make a man. Morals do.
Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado
Maybe leave a few off at the local VFW/American Legion etc.
Scatter a few around the local Starbucks, so the local Liberal pukes don't feel left out. In fact, that's where I'm headed right now for a cup. d;^}
If you're referring to the Vietnam Human Rights Bill HR2883 about which the author wrote, I know about as much as you. I "Googled" Kerry+HR2883 and only found this same open letter cited on 29 blogs.
Now don't you go takin' this personal, Mr. billb, but...BULLSHIRT!
If you truly feel that way, then you have been sucked in by the goofy idiot, just like all the others.
Kerry is a arrogant, two-bit, piece of brahmin excrement, who knew exactly what and why he did as he did.
He simply made a small mistake, in that he incorrectly assumed he would ride the liberal tide all the way to the White House, and that the tide started to come in at the time he made the decision to jump into the midst of protest.
He didn't do it for his "conscience".
Hell, he's a Kennedy wannabe, he ain't got no conscience, first of all.
Everything, every single thing, that long-faced goofy doofus does is calculated.
He can stick his medals up his third point of contact as far as I am concerned.
I might, might have more respect for him if he had at least thrown his own damn medals over that fence.
I have difficulty finding the appropriate words to express my disgust for him, without descending to profanity and vulgarities, therefore, all I can say is what I've said before:
Hanoi John, go to hell.
You do not speak for me.
Your crap cheapens and dishonors me and all the other good men that went to VN and totally disrespects and dishonors those good men who did not come home.
If, by some long shot, some cosmic transgression, some, some momentous occurrence, he is elected to the presidency, I will never, ever recognize him as such and I will counsel all those within my sphere of influence to act accordingly.
I feel very strongly about a person that uses that type of record for personal gain, especially when that record is suspect.
Enough said. My blood pressure is rising.
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