Why Are We Fighting the Viet Nam War?

[MaryH]

I lived thru it once and that was bad enough. I don't need to hear all about it again.

Kerry was right. Our soldiers did terrible things. I heard about them myself from friends who came back. The Viet Cong did horrible things. It was war. And war, no matter how you try to cloak it, is still war.

Right now things are just awful in Iraq. The whole country is blowing up. Why aren't we fighting that war?

There are so many things to go after these guys on and we seem to just be hung up on 1 little battle 35 year's ago. We need to let it go. But we can't. So bash them with the facts.

I just hate this. We might lose another battle to the Bush Smear Dogs. And he will just stand there with his little snear on his face.

[sallyseven]

1. Because the swift dogs are making a big

deal of it. can';t run on his record.

[aquart]

2. Stop that right now.

Attacks must be answered. Lies must be answered with truth.

Truth contains details and facts.

NOBODY wanted to relive this. Veterans are coming forth who have NEVER spoken. Real heroes rarely do.

It is our job to hear the truth and refute the lies. Not hide. Not moan. Not whine.

That's why we gather in this place.

Bush is NOT winning. This is happening because he's losing.

[Bluebear]

3. Because it distracts from news like this....

Five US troops have been killed in Iraq and another wounded in the past 24 hours in a series of attacks and an accident, the military said on Sunday.

One soldier was killed when a roadside bomb exploded at around 4:45pm local time, in the main northern city of Mosul, said a statement.

Three US marines were killed in separate attacks in the volatile western province of Al-Anbar on Saturday, one in action and two died from wounds received in separate attacks on the same day, said another statement.

Another marine also died in a road accident when his Humvee ploughed into a US tank, flipped and crashed in the province, which is home to the infamous flashpoint cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

[DemoTex]

12. What a cute picture of Michelle!

:puke:

[madrchsod]

4. why? because the coward who hid

out during the viet nam war now portrays himself as a leader who has the god given right to order the deaths of thousand upon thousands of people because god told him to. he was a coward then and a coward now-i just wish that kerry would call him one

[Philostopher]

5. Because Bush* can't win

if he runs on his record. Discrediting Kerry's service records is a way of taking the sting out of his own questionable 'national service' during the same period. It looks bad enough -- running on the cock-up Bush*'s people have made of Iraq would be just as useless; hence the deliberate misinterpretations of things Kerry's said about Iraq.

When these guys played 'capture the flag' as kids, I'm sure they put rocks in their water balloons to make sure they not only got their points, they also hurt the other kids they were playing against.

[pop goes the weasel]

6. I think it's because

we never really finished fighting it. We left without a consensus on what we had done or why. "Vietnam syndrome" was not overcome by Reagan's "morning in America." Rather, he used it to build his political fortunes on the already existing divisions in the nation, and his political heirs have carried on the same way.

Like the Great War with the Germans, Vietnam has left a festering sore on the body politic. Like with the Weimar Germans, radical conservative forces have found it expedient to use charges of treason against their political foes. Like with Weimar Germany, those radical conservatives have imposed a corporatist regime built on the demonization of outsiders.

[Kanary]

11. Quite right....... it got buried, not resolved fully and put to rest.

Also, because Kerry hasn't taken a vocal stance against the Iraq war, those who feel strongly about the war get hushed, so it morphs into the past, and very similar, war.

There's a lot working below the surface, and will continue that way as long as people can't talk about it.

Kanary

[Jacobin]

7. Because it's just too unpleasant to contemplate the current war in Iraq

I think that it's a kind of pyschological projection. There is enormous angst about the loss of IraqNam, but neither party will fucking talk about it.

So, while our troops are being killed and maimed everyday in a ridiculous quagmire, do we talk about that openly? Fuuuuck no. We don't talk about what a clusterfuck it is...we talk about VIETNAM!!!

I'm sure our soldiers just fucking love this shit.

[IkeWarnedUs]

8. We are not fighting the Viet Nam war

We are fighting lies. Period. Pure and simple.

You're right that it is painful for many to remember and relive the memories of Viet Nam, but that doesn't mean we are fighting that war, just fighting the lies.

Thank God we are. They WILL win the battle if we don't use everything we have to overcome their perennial tactic of lies and smears.

[the Kelly Gang]

9. so we don't talk about Iraq or the economy or jobs etc etc etc

[emulatorloo]

10. This is just 2004's "Gore Said He Invented The Internet!"

Lies and Distraction. . .hopefully GWB will pay this time, Because John Kerry will not back down.

[troublemaker]

13. Because the chickenhawks know they won't get shot fighting it this time

[Junkdrawer]

14. Next week will be real rough for the country....

The last two weeks were pathetic "prove me wrong" type Swift Boat lies. And look how much traction that got.

Next week will be nuclear because it will be based on an "out of context" lie. And that context will be the central nightmare of a generation - Viet Nam atrocities.

I'm guessing most boomers will tune it out. My heart goes out to the Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome victims who can't.

Fuck Rove.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. This country has never come to terms with Vietnam.

In it, we went from being the mythical "good guys" staunchly defending little people from fascism, Nazism, communism, etc, to the murderers and torturers of the little people. The pictures of smiling GI's being greeted by ecstatic crowds in Paris or Rome were replaced by visions of children burned by napalm and smiling GI's burning down villages.

There are those who try to revise the history of that most ignoble of wars by clinging to the notion that what the American's did there really was noble, that the troops were "stabbed in the back" by the liberals and demonstrators.

It isn't whether Kerry volunteered for Vietnam and won medals or is lying about them that is the problem. It's that the whole thing stirs up the controversy over that war and what all that happened there implies. It asks uncomfortable questions that are applicable today.

Is America a bastion of democracy and freedom or a rapacious nation of hypocrites who prey on the weak? Did those 57,000 who killed and died there die for a just cause or were they merely cannon fodder for the ambitions of politicians? Were they heroic warriors defending us or were they murderous tools of the powerful?

The question isn't whether Kerry was there and Bush wasn't. The question is, Why was America there? Just as it is today. Why is America in Iraq?

[berry]

22. Thank you! You are right (and eloquent)! n/t

[Cleita]

16. Evidently telling the truth is not a good thing to do in

this country.

[BeFree]

17. It has to be done

Kerry, once in office, will call the Vietnam war what it really was: BS

Ever since that last hellicopter left Saigon, America has been told that Vn was a noble idea... BS

Kerry, as he did in congress, will testify to the world that Vn was stupid BS.

We need the truth exposed. I wish every interviewer would ask these SBV what they think about Vn, and if it was good for our country?

The answer is, of course, that our involvement in Vn was no good BS.

Kerry On!

[EST]

19. Fifty eight thousand, two hundred forty five

Yes, this is the proper battle. This is the one place a clear difference can be shown that will finally force many millions of American citizens to stare into the abyss. This will finally end the Vietnam war and only this fight will deeply rub the noses of our fascist leaders in the garbage of what they are up to--with almost everyone in America and half the world watching. We either get our conscience and our integrity back or the world ends.

[stavka]

18. For the same reason we re-fight the Civil War - the losers don't get it.

We LOST THE WAR IN VIETNAM because it WAS THE WRONG WAR

nobody cost us the war in South East Asia except THE ASSHOLES WHO PUT US THERE.

We lost in SE ASIA

The Soviet Union still collapsed
We still launched a space shuttle dozens of times
The INTERNET and computers dominate the way we live and the US and her allies reaped the bulk of the windfall
Americans with disabilities act was passed
Not a single US soldier died to save Kosovo from further racist murder
A blood test can find prostate cancer
The microwave has changed the way people live
We bitch about how costly our cell phone bill is
There are so many varieties of Soda stores can't keep them in stock

Remind me what it was we lost? - and what we were fighting for? - Remind the Cambodians while your at it, I'm sure it remains a little murky for them.....

[mandyky]

20. The VietNam War era was when the war between Libs and Cons

really started. It was the war and the civil rights movement that while so many wonderful changes were made became a dividing line. Bill Clinton said it best - if you liked the 60's you are probably a liberal Democrat, if you feel the 60's were decadant and the root of all evil you are probably a right winger. The right wingers want to take us back and undo all that has been done since the 60's - civil rights, womens' rights, the great society. Worse than that, they want to go back even further, and undo what FDR did, as well. The VietNam War is an ideological symbol.

As a veteran, I know most of the Army and Marine guys I spoke to who were in combat in VietNam tell stories like John Kerry tried to relate to in the Senate hearinf testimony he gave.

[Zero Gravitas]

21. Because Bush* is a coward

The Dems have emphasized Kerry's service as a contrast to Bush cowardice so the GOP has to try and tear it down (they can't run on Bush's record as the worst President in US history) Frankly in their usual dishonest sleazy way they are doing a good job of it. The focus is not where it should be on Bush's cowardice, drug use, lie, stupidity & incompetence but things that happened 30 years ago. It also distracts attention from the Iraq debacle.

[Karenina]

23. WHY???

Why? It is because the American populace is woefully undereducated about the effects of its government's foreign policies and the DEVASTATION wrought on others in their names. It's because Americans have been SWIMMING IN LIES about their "equality, justice, righteousness and goodness" for DECADES. It's because too many Americans have become fat, lazy and stupid, concerned only about the price per gallon, which poisonous fast-food outlet to patronize, who's on "Survivor" tonight and the latest gadget at Radio Shack. It's because chickens come home to roost.

Actually, I'm swayed to the opinion that this whole debacle is a good thing. Maybe some who have held grudges against Kerry for decades for SPEAKING THE TRUTH TOLD TO HIM BY THOSE WHO EXPERIENCED IT will be able to purge themselves of their demons. Maybe the MYTH of America as the "good guy" can be laid to rest. There are THOUSANDS of 'Nam Vets on the streets of major cities. Many THOUSANDS more committed suicide after their "service." The current "conflict" has already replicated the pattern ON BAD ACID. Limb loss, blindness, brain injuries etc. ad nauseum as their benefits are cut by an *asshole who wears medals to which he is NOT entitled and like his mother, won't bother his "beautiful mind" about them.

This shit is pretty EXTREME kids. I've asked myself for almost 4 years now... WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU TO "GET IT?"