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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: marcos who wrote (2414)	2/15/2004 6:01:04 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81568

Facts are a fragile thing. Especially in the hands of a master storyteller such as yourself. I lived through the 1960s, and surprising, I was both there and remember it. I was on the Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 15, 1969 with my friend Bob, the son of the owner of the Baltimore Bullets (now Washington Senators), and a CIA analyst father of another friend, among the crowd of 500,000 protesting Nixon's expansion of the war into Cambodia. In the subsequent two years I was tear gassed about a dozen times, and had menacing black helicopters flying surveillance over us with 500K footcandle searchlights and 50 calibre machine guns aimed at us as we hurled the gas canisters back at the pigs. So when you relate the history of John Kerry, I can tell you I speak from some experience. John Kerry was not a founding member of Viet Nam Veterans Against the War. He joined after the nucleus of the group was formed, and he did a great service to the cause by using his aristocratic connections to wheedle himself in front of a Congressional committee that would never in a million years consider empaneling someone like me who had a much better political grasp of the situation, albeit I did not have Kerry's erstwhile hero credential and pedigree. So, Kerry didn't help to found the group. Why does this matter? Because as an executive, this experience offers no evidence of Kerry's leadership. Only that he was a clever and well-connected young man who could take advantage of the situation for some self-promotion. And perhaps some effort for the anti-war cause. As far as Kerry leaving the group, I would say that I differ greatly in your representation of the decisions being made within SDS, the Yippies ad hoc groups and other ad hoc committees on campuses across America. I was there. I was witnessing the angst being suffered by the most intelligent young people of that age trying to come to grips with a society that had gone feral and was becoming the most wicked force on the planet. Not to my credit, I opted out and joined the counter-culture, dropping out of the struggle and avoided confrontation. Not to his credit, John Kerry did much the same, walking away from VVAW. Those who had the courage of their convictions were the people who saw the necessity to escalate the struggle against the evil of the U.S. government. I admire them. They were the only true American heroes of that era. Which naturally meant that they were and are hounded, hunted down, incarcerated and destroyed by the U.S. Government which to this day remains the most evil terrorist conspiracy the world has ever faced. Kerry's vote, in October, 2002, for Bush to lead us into naked aggression was an act of pure cynicism. Shame on him. God Bless America. A Land Where Fairy Tales Come True. (Or at least are sold as the truth.)

To: marcos who wrote (2414)	2/15/2004 3:54:26 PM
From: the navigator	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Hello Marcos, it ends with Nixon declaring 'peace with honour' and pulling the troops out ..... Thank you for the brief history lesson, from my experience you are pretty much on point. The above Nixon quote I remember quite clearly. When I heard him say it, in concert with the people mobbing our embassy in Saigon hoping to be rescued from the coming takeover; in concert with the helicopters lifting people from the top of the embassy building; in concert with broadcasts of our helicopters being shoved from the decks of our carriers to make room for more refugees; in concert with the North Vietnamese tanks rumbling through the streets of the South Vietnamese cities I turned from my television in disgust, my political cynicism was complete. How could anyone consider this brutal chaos "peace with honor?" "Peace with honor" was a vicious lie that interfered with our ability to reconcile and learn from what had happened in South Viet Nam. It allowed us to push the lessons away. Again, our leaders let us down. We must be ever vigilant and always willing to challenge what we are being told. The Bush Administration raised my suspicions considerably when they began to attack those who questioned their decision to go into Iraq. It's an old ploy, and should be immediately recognizable by anyone who experienced the American war in Viet Nam. Still