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For over 20 years I've been very close friends with a man who is now a very successful broadcast executive. When we met, we were at a small station where we turned in some record years and had a great time. Tom is a Vietnam vet...a green beret, who served in the Mekong Delta in the days and months following Tet.
For the first several years we worked together, Tom would never talk about his military experiences other than to say he was a Captain and was proud of the military and how it made a positive influence in his life. It wasn't until several long nights bending beverages that the stories started to come out. He shared some of his search & destroy stories where it was ambush or be ambushed and shooting anything that moved was SOP. It was a crazy time and one he would always say was surreal and must never be repeated.
Politically Tom is a "rock-ridge" Repugnican...is an NRA memeber, several Veterans organizations, the local rotary, Kiwanis...his lapel looks like a military uniform. Politically, we would agree to disagree...he called me the "Protesting Hippie" while I called him "Sargent Slaughter"...all in jest, but we did have several occasions where we stated where we were during those days and agreed that those who protested brought the war to a quicker end and saved more lives than it ever cost.
Last year, we chatted about the Iraq situation. I wasn't quite sure where he stood on things...especially since he now had a 22 year old son who was in the reserve and another who was thinking of enlisting in the Marines. As I suspected, he was very supportive of the regime and all the objectives of the time...WMD, torture, threat to oil and so on. He felt pre-emption was necessary and that this regime wouldn't go into a war without having every t crossed and i dotted...ya know, Powell doctrine, overwhelming force and so on. That was then...
As is custom, I gave a call around Memorial day to say hello and was surprised when he told me he had just sent John Kerry a donation!!!! Whoa! But that wasn't all...he said many others in his VFW lodge had done the same and the contempt for this regime is starting to take on some very heated tones. He said these guys feel like Bunnypants and company used the military for their own profit and has gutted the thing...just to waste more of our money to build it up again. The objectives of the invasion have been distorted and "revised" that now ensures we'll be stuck there for years to come with no real "endgame" in sight.
He went on to say that recently a local Repugnican pol (and he joked every other person in that town is a Repugnican pol) stopped in to "keep the faith"...and was run out of the place. The same person stopped back in the next day and pretended like he never said anything in the first place...he just sits quietly. These people are getting very angry...and Tom says that this is happening at other VFWs around the country and specifically in the Midwest.
He passed along one thing to me I think is worth sharing here, and that's to be ready to really support the military once this mess starts hitting our streets. Right now there are thousands of returning injured in VA hospitals and thousands more who still haven't "mainstreamed"...all with incredible horrors on the inside and a lifetime of nightmares ahead. We must be prepared to assist these real victims of Bush's War (I got him to use that term) and not shun even the most militaristic returning vet. If we play the cards right this time, the military will join forces with the Democrats and together we can find the best end to this terrible situation. Something to think about.
Cheers!
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