sundevil777 94 #1 March 14, 2004 In effect , it seems to me like he's saying that everyone that served should be considered a likely war criminal, except me. Kinda like when John McCain says that all of congress is corrupted by campaign contributions, except me. That's the way I see it.People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
winsor 187 #2 March 14, 2004 When I went to the American Imperialist War Crimes Museum in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) they had a big display on the Song My/My Lai 4 massacre. The gist of the presentation was that innocent people were killed, who were, BTW, to a very large extent "Heroes of the Revolution" - Viet Cong. Were women, children and the elderly killed? Yes. Were most of these women, children and elderly active participants in the preparation and implementation of booby traps/mechanical ambushes, and pivotal infrastructure to the insurgency in the area? Yes again. Were the actions of the Americal troops justified? Not by any standard other than removing a real and present threat to their continued survival. All in all it was a propaganda coup for the opposition. The seeds of the conflict go back many, many centuries. General Vo Nguyen Giap used the same playbook that defeated Kubla Khan's forces when they tried to subjugate the same real estate some time back. Our idea of "History" doesn't go back much further than 1776, and we appear to think that our country was created from a vacuum. Thus, we tend to try to put the puzzle together with only a small subset of the pieces, and the resulting picture is just plain wrong. In "Blazing Saddles" The Kid hung up his guns after he reflexively drew on a six year old - and the little bastard shot him. In Vietnam it wasn't a joke but an ongoing reality. For Kerry or anyone else to take such a simplistic approach to the Southeast Asian fiasco is absurd. If you want a simple take on the subject with any merit, it was Truman renegeing on the agreement that had been struck between Ho and FDR's people that set the wheels in motion for the disaster that resulted. Had Lee Harvey Oswald been unsuccessful in 1963, JFK would have pulled out in 1964 after the elections. For either party to bitch about the other getting the country mired in pointless overseas adventures is absurd. They are both guilty as charged, and should pick other issues to define themselves. If people caught on to the fact that war IS an atrocity by its very nature, rhetoric to the contrary would get short shrift. Blue skies, Winsor Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
leroydb 0 #3 March 15, 2004 QuoteIf people caught on to the fact that war IS an atrocity by its very nature, rhetoric to the contrary would get short shrift. true, true as afghanistan has shown usLeroy ..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
