I know you're sincere in your sorrow Andrew. I didn't agree with our being in the Vietnam conflict for many reasons. We should have never been there in the first place. That's really not the issue I'm debating. I don't agree with many policies of my country and, being a democracy, we are given a forum with which to express our opinions, positive or otherwise. There is a line which, if crossed, can ultimately lead to the lost lives of our countrymen and women. Jane Fonda crossed that line. It's one thing to express your disapproval of your country's policy in a war with another country, it's another to actually cross the line into enemy territory and graphically show support to that enemy. Imagine a celebrity, from the country you're fighting, the stature of Jane Fonda actually sitting on a gun placed to kill our men and women. To be shown visiting POW camps and declaring our men as being humanely treated when they were actually being tortured. Senator John McCain, a POW at the time, will never forget those images.
So much of war is morale driven that such an image could, and did, have tremendous effects on the morale of the Viet Cong. Much the same as Bob Hope and other celebrities visiting the troops in Viet Nam. Would we have cut Woody Harrelson any slack if we had seen him on TV sitting on an anti-aircraft gun in Baghdad during the Gulf War just because he disagreed with our policies? I'll never forget Margot Kidder declaring how she didn't blame the Iraqis for beating and torturing our downed pilots because they bombed "baby food factories." I've never heard her make an apology for her misstatement.
Sometimes people don't think through the consequences of their actions and, thus, should face the results of those consequences. Jane Fonda will always be considered a traitor to me and many other Americans who lost loved ones during the last years of that war.
halfscot |
