Conservative veteran says Kerry's 71 testimony true.

[blm]

Now we hear that many Vietnam veterans are upset with John Kerry, because he testified to Congress back in 1971, about Americans committing war crimes while serving in Vietnam.
The sad thing is that Kerry was telling the truth. While the vast majority of veterans behaved honorably, there were still thousands and thousands who did not. Even if only ½ of 1% committed a crime, that could add up to 45,000 bad American soldiers and Marines.

Just maybe the men offended by Kerry’s testimony never saw any combat or they were the ones committing the crimes and are feeling guilty. It has been widely reported that between one and three million innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed in the war. Somebody did that killing and that is a crime.

People ask why if Kerry knew about these crimes he didn’t stop them. Here is the attitude I had over in the Nam: you f___ with me and you are dead. Somebody shoots a gook and you start to say something, chances are pretty good that you will be dead too. I cannot tell you how many senior enlisted men and officers were killed by our own troops, but I bet it was in the thousands.

Some sick Americans just liked to kill gooks. "The only good gook is a dead gook." I saw guys with collections of ears and fingers. They were pretty strange and scary. Lots of guys were strung out on smack and who knows what they would do to get more.

ROK Marines kept heads on sticks in front of their compound. War gets crazy and some Americans got crazy too. They kill and rape and do even more terrible stuff than that. It made me sick. My government tortured women and children to death.

Kerry was telling the truth and some Americans cannot handle the truth.

War is a crime.

August 26, 2004
Jim Glaser , a Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran and Commander of VFW Post 3869, works to educate the American public on the consequences of war. His personal website is JamesGlaser.org
http://www.lewrockwell.com/glaser/glaser22.html

[Inland]

1. Implicit argument is that telling the truth during wartime is wrong

and it isn't just about the Vietnam war, either.

[bryant69]

6. You mean they might want it to apply to Iraq to?

Anybody who criticizes the Iraq war is a filthy unpatriotic scumbag? That kind of thing?

How poisenous to a democracy when you aren't allowed to question or criticize.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. Unfortunately, yes

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-310684.php

[Inland]

16. Exactly. Whether Vietnam or Iraq is right or wrong,

keep your yap shut.

[JI7]

2. and he was calling on the LEADERS , the policymakers at the top

to do something. his criticism was mostly aimed at the policymakers o the top, many of who are civilians and NOT military people who were not doing anything about this. they knew what was going on, just as the case today with iraq and afghanistan.

[Rambis]

3. Tell it like it was and maybe...

We won't make another mistake like Iraq. War is a primal, sick and dirty business. This isn't a John Wayne movie for christ sakes! When are we going to quit romanticizing death and carnage:kick: Thank you sir

[finecraft]

4. Kerry was telling the truth

and our government has tried to bury it for over 30 years.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031022/SRTIGERFORCE/110190169

Elite unit savaged civilians in Vietnam

(snip)...It was an elite fighting unit in Vietnam - small, mobile, trained to kill. Known as Tiger Force, the platoon was created by a U.S. Army engaged in a new kind of war - one defined by ambushes, booby traps, and a nearly invisible enemy.

.....Women and children were intentionally blown up in underground bunkers. Elderly farmers were shot as they toiled in the fields. Prisoners were tortured and executed - their ears and scalps severed for souvenirs. One soldier kicked out the teeth of executed civilians for their gold fillings. (end snip)

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Why it's "Unpatriotic"

Simple.

The bulk of the blame falls on the brass.

When they fail to exercise proper discipline on their subordinates, MAHRFUs* like this are bound to happen.

Grunts like William Calley and Lynndie England are hung out to dry, while the chain of command feels nary a tug. And, if I'm not mistaken, that was the point of the Winter Soldier hearings.

War is hell, and when you send kids to march into hell, you need someone around to make sure the Devil doesn't claim their asses lock-stock-and-barrel. It's called leadership, and there was a tremendous failure of that leadership in Vietnam -- and now, in Iraq.

--bkl
* MAHRFU: Massive Atrocious Human-Rights F*ck-Up
Yeah, I just made it up.
It's my gift to all military personnel who serve(d) honorably and for humanitarian ideals.

[Dogmudgeon]

8. And don't stop there ...

http://www.jamesglaser.org/

An exceptional collection of essays. Easily on a par with David Hackworth, and with less sentimentality -- as if Hack was a sentimental guy to begin with!

Go. Read.

--bkl

[cheezus]

9. Sadly, the prisoner abuse scandal shows not much has changed

We have in place policies that allow bad people to do bad things. I wouldn't even be surprised if good people got caught up doing bad things. That such a thing occurred isn't an attack on all soldiers.

[michigandem2]

10. a veteran on Hannity and Colmes last night

admitted he did hear of atrosities as well...and I don't think Hannity expected that...

He was brave to go to war...and then he was brave to come home and tell the truth that the Government was completely wrong...

what is wrong with that?

[A_Possum]

17. Please, can you tell me which vet this was?

Anyone know of a transcript? I can't seem to find my way around the Faux site.

[KC21304]

11. I don't think Kerry knew about the worst atrocities

until the Winter Soldiers' investigations. He came to realize while still in Vietnam that the free fire zones were not right and probably spoke about them at that time or soon after.

Kerry should hold a press conference soon after Labor Day where he reads his entire testimony from 1971. I think this would be very powerful.

I find it interesting that in the Swiftliars for Bush ad, they mention the rape, cutting off of ears etc, but they don't mention the hooking up of genitals to telephone wires. I guess they know the image that would pop into people's head when they hear that. The one from Abu Graib and that would lend credence to Kerry's claims.

[blm]

13. I agree. I'm hoping for a no holds barred press conference where EVERY

question is asked and answered. Something Bush would NEVER do.

[kwolf68]

12. This is a reason to VOTE FOR Kerry

Talk about leadership and conviction.

John Kerry knew what he was getting into. He was taking on an establishment that could literally run him through the meat-grinder. Kerry could have been the “good solider” and ignored the injustices of that war. He could have placated the military brass, “saved” his career, and no one would have been any worse for the wear right?

I mean after all…it was just a bunch of “gooks”, no?

Well, GOD BLESS John Kerry for standing up and saying, “THIS IS WRONG!” A man with enough understanding of loyalty and dedication that volunteered to serve in a war he could likely die in also had the empathy and understanding of WHAT IS RIGHT when he came home and tried to end that military excursion that essentially placed young men on the altar of military-industrial complex greed.

Kerry took on the one behemoth NO ONE is man enough to tackle: OUR OWN government and its military.

What did Kerry stand to gain by congressional testimony? NOTHING. He isn’t an idiot. He knew that most military “leaders” would banish him and any ascent to power in this nation would be met with say…a Swift Boat Veterans For Truth group.

But Kerry did what WAS RIGHT. I sit back and listened to NPR this morning as they were interviewing voters in Missouri who were saying how they were voting for Bush because of his “morality”. In my view, morality is nothing but code words, platitudes. If you want to measure a man’s morality do it when the chips are down, when he has nothing to gain and everything to lose, when he puts his ass in the sling for nothing more than basic principles of human decency.

To see a Presidential race between such different men with different character I am amazed that W.Bush can get 30% of the total vote when compared to Mr. Kerry. I am sick and sad that lies, money, distortions, the National Enquirer mentality, complicit news propagandists are potentially altering the perception many Americans have of these two men…One a Neolithic coward who lets other people do his dirty work and the other, a man, who stands on the firing line first…whether in Vietnam or in Congressional testimony.

God Bless John Kerry...He has done more for our country, for human decency, for humanity that that evil, vile piece of shit prick W.Bush ever could have dreamed of doing. I want that fucker out of our White House.

[IndianaGreen]

14. "Now we hear that many Vietnam veterans are upset with John Kerry..."

I don't know where some people have been all this time, but many veterans have been upset since 1971 at what they see as Kerry smearing their service during his Senate testimony. They are also upset about Kerry's own admission that he met with a Vietcong representative (Madame Bihn) during peace talks in Paris while the war was still raging.

For someone to say that "now we hear that many Vietnam veterans are upset with John Kerry" is a distortion of the facts to make them fit a political talking point.

This is a 33-year old wound that has been reopened by virtue of Vietnam becoming a theme of Campaign 2004.

And I thought the 1991 Gulf War had finally put to rest the ghosts from Vietnam. I guess I was wrong!

If you want to talk Vietnam, let's talk about the parallels between the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and the Iraq War Resolution, and "Peace with Honor" with "Stay the Course."

End the war, bring the troops home NOW!

[Toots]

15. People ask why if Kerry knew about these crimes he didn’t stop them.

Isn't that exactly what he tried to do by testifying before Congress? I mean come on people use your head. Kerry did everything within his power to stop the war crimes and the war itself. He should be praised as a true hero for this fact alone. Forget his Valor on the field of battle.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

18. Kerry voiced concerns while he was in Vietnam as well

But Kerry does recall a harrowing incident, which he has never previously publicly discussed, in which he said a crew member shot and killed a Vietnamese boy of perhaps 12 years of age. A member of Kerry's crew announced he was shooting, and the air filled with the ack-ack-ack of gunfire. The rounds blasted into a sampan, hurling the child into the rice paddy. The mother screamed as the flimsy craft began to sink, and Kerry, shining a searchlight, yelled, "Cease fire! Cease fire!" Kerry said his crew rescued the mother, took her aboard the Navy vessel for questioning, and left the child behind. Due to the dangerous location, and the possibility that the gunfire had drawn the notice of Viet Cong, Kerry never had a chance to see whether the woman was hiding weaponry in the sunken boat, and does not know to this day whether his crew faced a real threat. "It is one of those terrible things, and I'll never forget, ever, the sight of that child," Kerry said. "But there was nothing that anybody could have done about it. It was the only instance of that happening.

"It angered me," Kerry said. "But, look, the Viet Cong used women and children." He said there might have been a satchel containing explosives. "Who knows if they had -- under the rice -- a satchel, and if we had come along beside them they had thrown the satchel in the boat. ... So it was a terrible thing, but I've never thought we were somehow at fault or guilty. There wasn't anybody in that area that didn't know you don't move at night, that you don't go out in a sampan on the rivers, and there's a curfew."

The details of the episode are murky, however, because none of Kerry's crewmates remembers it the way Kerry does. The closest recollection comes from William Zaladonis, a crewmate on No. 44 who vividly recalls killing a 15-year-old boy, but does not remember a mother being rescued. "I myself took out a 15-year-old" when the crew came across a sampan in a free-fire zone, Zaladonis said. "It was all legitimate. We told them to stop. When we fired across the bow, people started jumping from the boat. At that time my officer, whoever it was, told me to open up on them, and I did. And there was one body still in the boat, a 15-year-old kid. But over there, 15-year-old kids were soldiers."

In any case, Kerry said he was appalled that the Navy's ''free fire zone'' policy put civilians at such high risk. So, on Jan. 22, 1969, Kerry and several dozen fellow skippers and officers traveled to Saigon to complain about the policy in an extraordinary meeting with Zumwalt and the overall commander of the war, General Creighton W. Abrams Jr. ''We were fighting the (free fire) policy very, very hard, to the point that many of the members were refusing to carry out orders on some of their missions, to the point where crews were starting to mutiny, (to) say, `I would not go back in the rivers again,''' Kerry recalled during a 1971 television appearance on the Dick Cavett Show.
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml