Kerry's Real Heroism Came After The War

[LynnTheDem]

By my hubby's pal, Harley Sorensen. GREAT op-ed! :)

(Kerry's) real heroism revealed itself when he became a front man for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. We Americans don't like to admit it, but we live in a culture that adores war. Our World War II veterans were long ago promoted to sainthood, and our younger men deliriously want the same kind of respect. The nation as a whole sees our success in WWII as "the good old days."

So in our national psyche, war is good. By logical extension, people who oppose war are bad.

The war in Iraq is, in a way, a continuum of World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. So America in my lifetime went from its most noble war, to its forgotten war, to its unjustified war, to the hopeless quagmire we're in now in Iraq.

Does John Kerry still have the courage he exhibited after returning from Vietnam? If he does, and if he's elected, our troops will be out of Iraq by next February.

Kerry is a peace-loving American's only hope.

The incumbent president (Mr. Bring It On) has signaled he'll be sending others off to fight for as long as he holds the office.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0830-16.htm

[Old and In the Way]

1. It took a lot of guts for Kerry to make his hi-profile anti-war position.

VietNam was a real generational/cultural chasm. Seems that public opinion broke against the war in a big way after Kerry and the other VVAW joined with the anti-war protestors to give it respectibility. He could have taken his medals and made his way quite nicely, but he followed his conscience and did what was right.

What I'd like the talking heads to ask O'Neil or any of the boat liars is: what was to be accomplished by prolonging the war? How many more American soldiers had to die before they would have joined Kerry? 100,000? 250,000? 500,000? No one ever asks those relevant questions.