"MLSRM" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Dear John,
As usual, you have it wrong. You don't have a beef with President George
Bush about your war record. He's been exceedingly generous about your
military service. Your complaint is with the 2.5 million of us who served
honorably in a war that ended 29 years ago and which you, not the
president,
Quoted message said:made the centerpiece of this campaign.
I talk to a lot of vets, John, and this really isn't about your medals or
how you got them. Like you, I have a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. I only
have two Purple Hearts, though. I turned down the others so that I could
stay with the Marines in my rifle platoon. But I think you might agree
with
Quoted message said:me, though I've never heard you say it, that the officers always got more
medals than they earned and the youngsters we led never got as many medals
as they deserved.This really isn't about how early you came home from that war, either,
John.
Quoted message said:There have always been guys in every war who want to go home. There are
also
Quoted message said:lots of guys, like those in my rifle platoon in Vietnam, who did a full 13
months in the field. And there are, thankfully, lots of young Americans
today in Iraq and Afghanistan who volunteered to return to war because, as
one of them told me in Ramadi a few weeks ago, "the job isn't finished."Nor is this about whether you were in Cambodia on Christmas Eve, 1968.
Heck
Quoted message said:John, people get lost going on vacation. If you got lost, just say so.
Your
Quoted message said:campaign has admitted that you now know that you really weren't in
Cambodia
Quoted message said:that night and that Richard Nixon wasn't really president when you thought
he was. Now would be a good time to explain to us how you could have all
that bogus stuff "seared" into your memory -- especially since you want to
have your finger on our nation's nuclear trigger.But that's not really the problem, either. The trouble you're having,
John,
Quoted message said:isn't about your medals or coming home early or getting lost -- or even
Richard Nixon. The issue is what you did to us when you came home, John.When you got home, you co-founded Vietnam Veterans Against the War and
wrote
Quoted message said:"The New Soldier," which denounced those of us who served -- and were
still
Quoted message said:serving -- on the battlefields of a thankless war. Worst of all, John, you
then accused me -- and all of us who served in Vietnam -- of committing
terrible crimes and atrocities.On April 22, 1971, under oath, you told the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee that you had knowledge that American troops "had personally
raped,
Quoted message said: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 in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan,
shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged
the country side of South Vietnam." And you admitted on television that
"yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other
soldiers have committed."And for good measure you stated, "(America is) more guilty than any other
body, of violations of (the) Geneva Conventions ... the torture of
prisoners, the killing of prisoners."Your "antiwar" statements and activities were painful for those of us
carrying the scars of Vietnam and trying to move on with our lives. And
for
Quoted message said:those who were still there, it was even more hurtful. But those who
suffered
Quoted message said:the most from what you said and did were the hundreds of American
prisoners
Quoted message said:of war being held by Hanoi. Here's what some of them endured because of
you,
Quoted message said:John:
Capt. James Warner had already spent four years in Vietnamese custody when
he was handed a copy of your testimony by his captors. Warner says that
for
Quoted message said:his captors, your statements "were proof I deserved to be punished." He
wasn't released until March 14, 1973.Maj. Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot who was in Vietnamese custody for
2,284 days, says his captors "repeated incessantly" your one-liner about
being "the last man to die" for a lost cause. Cordier was released March
4,
Quoted message said:
1973.Navy Lt. Paul Galanti says your accusations "were as demoralizing as
solitary (confinement) ... and a prime reason the war dragged on." He
remained in North Vietnamese hands until February12, 1973.
John, did you think they would forget? When Tim Russert asked about your
claim that you and others in Vietnam committed "atrocities," instead of
standing by your sworn testimony, you confessed that your words "were a
bit
Quoted message said:over the top." Does that mean you lied under oath? Or does it mean you are
a
Quoted message said:war criminal? You can't have this one both ways, John. Either way, you're
not fit to be a prison guard at Abu Ghraib, much less commander in chief.One last thing, John. In 1988, Jane Fonda said: "I would like to say
something .. to men who were in Vietnam, who I hurt, or whose pain I
caused
Quoted message said:to deepen because of things that I said or did. I was trying to help end
the
Quoted message said:killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and
careless about it and I'm ... very sorry that I hurt them. And I want to
apologize to them and their families."Even Jane Fonda apologized. Will you, John?
Oliver North is a nationally syndicated columnist, host of the Fox News
Channel's War Stories and founder and honorary chairman of Freedom
Alliance.
Quoted message said:--
"Hillary Clinton is a museum-quality specimen of a Yankee -
self-righteous,
Quoted message said:ruthless, self-aggrandizing" ~ Clyde Wilson
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