As I said, I fully expected exactly that sort of thing. Of course many veterans are upset. And of course different units in different circumstances had different experiences and witnessed different things. It could hardly be otherwise.
Former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland, an Army captain with the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam who lost both legs and his right arm when a grenade exploded near him, said Kerry was part of "the moderating force" within the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Cleland, a strong Kerry supporter, said he agrees with the senator's 1971 testimony. "The bad guys used terror. It was war," Cleland said. "The Americans in that kind of hell did the same thing."
As for those veterans who feel betrayed by Kerry, Cleland said, "Bullfeathers. He spoke for all of us. He earned his spurs." The former senator recalled other words in Kerry's Senate testimony that he said still ring true, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
I noted this, too:
I see that both Wasser and Valdonis would like to see Kerry as president, and Valdonis's only hesitation is that he is under the misimpression, that the Republicans will try to cultivate, that the veterans, and Kerry, have said that "all" veterans did these things.
It's understandable that people don't want to face these things. And some have had different, less traumatic or severe, experiences.
I wonder if you, wstera, actually believe that these terrible things didn't happen. Or do you just believe that fewer happened than people have the impression happened?
Mackubin Thomas Owens, a Naval War College professor who led a Marine rifle platoon in Vietnam, also remains angered by Kerry's words, which he believes painted all Vietnam veterans as war criminals. While noting Kerry's "immense courage under fire," Owens wrote in the conservative National Review magazine last week, "Those who might be otherwise inclined to support him should ask themselves if they appreciate being portrayed as war criminals: murderers, rapists, men capable of committing the most heinous atrocities.
John Hurley, national director of Veterans for Kerry, dismissed Owen's views as "ludicrous," pointing out that Kerry's Senate testimony echoed the views of others who served in Vietnam and witnessed or participated in atrocities. .
Owens is a RWer publishing in the National Review, Bush supporters, who is pretending that Kerry portrayed all veterans as war criminals. And of course that is the impression people like you will try to give.
A close reading, which I gave your post, is unimpressive. |
