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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (269292)	1/20/2006 12:19:19 AM
From: combjelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1571409

"then only admits it later when he decides his medals are actually worth something, even in a war which he considered to be wrong." Two different issues. The ones in the trenches don't generally have much of an overview of a war until they get back. The decorations are tied to what they did, and the emotions are complex. How complex? Well, it reminds me much of the relationship between the races in the South. My father, for example, is a Korean War vet. He has an unbridled hatred of Koreans in the abstract. But when he talks about the Koreans that attached themselves to his division, it is another story. Apparently there were a lot of stories going around that were either retreaded or repeated later in Vietnam. Like vendors selling Cokes with ground glass in the bottles. Child beggars with knives, or grenades. And so on. The general belief that they could fight their way to the North, but then they would have to fight their way all the way to the South to leave. From what I know talking to people who have served, the decorations can come to mean much more as they get older and try to integrate their experiences. They tend to represent what they went through. When my father got back from Korea, he did everything he could to distance himself from it. Korea was a political war, it wasn't as black and white as WWII. Given its ambiguous ending, much like Vietnam, the vets were left hanging. It is only recently that he started to take some pride in his service, it is hard to argue that South Korea would have been better off if we hadn't of intervened. Sure, you can argue that we could have done things differently, but that is another story. Bottom line, if Kerry was uneasy about his decorations when he left Vietnam and only later truly recognized their value to him, that doesn't reflect poorly on him. Purple Hearts and Stars of any flavor are symbolic of the experiences. It takes time to come to terms with the experiences, and it takes a lot more time when the results aren't a clear victory. The Greatest Generation was lucky, their sacrifices were clear. the poor suckers that followed them don't have that, despite their bravery and courage. They carry the cloud that they didn't live up to some standard that isn't their fault. Their leadership failed them, just as it failed them in Gulf War I and II.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (269292)	1/20/2006 5:02:14 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 1571409

I stand by the gist of what I said. Kerry was brave enough to actually volunteer to go into a war zone. What he did afterwards, however, is a different story. It tells me everything when he tosses someone else's medals as if they were his own, then only admits it later when he decides his medals are actually worth something, even in a war which he considered to be wrong. I see. Bush can have DUIs up the wazoo, trash XMAS trees, snort cocaine, get some freebies off an oil company but let Kerry throw some war medals in anger, and he is a serious flipflopper who can't decide what side he is on. What you consider calling a spade a spade I consider to be hypocrisy. At least his flipflopping was over serious issues like war.........Bush's flipflopping was over which would be his drug of choice........alcohol or cocaine. ted