Article about Veterans against the war

[ProSense]

How an Iraq War veteran turned against the war

War at home
By MIKE MILIARD
December 27, 2006 4:36:54 PM

John Kerry’s famous question — “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” — has been in the news a lot again lately. Apparently, we have not learned the lessons from our ignominious and far-too-late retreat from Vietnam. Iraq is aflame, and our soldiers keep dying in a country that doesn’t want them there. And now, as President Bush contemplates a “surge” (few are honest enough to call it what it is: an “escalation”) sending perhaps 20,000 more troops into the Mesopotamian sinkhole, people are pushing back.

On Saturday, you can meet some of them. Lance Corporal Halsey Bernard, USMC, was deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan. Now, he’s a vocal opponent of the war. Staff Sergeant Joe Bangert, USMC, was a door gunner on a helicopter in Vietnam and, like his friend John Kerry, later became a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

At the First Annual Peace on Earth Event in Jamaica Plain, Bernard and Bangert will be on hand to talk about the similarities and differences in their war experiences, and how they both came to oppose the wars they fought in.

Their discussion will follow a screening of David Zeiger’s Sir, No Sir, which traces the development and evolution of the 1960s antiwar movement — the one that took place not on college campuses “but in barracks and on aircraft carriers . . . in Army stockades, Navy brigs and in the dingy towns that surround military bases.”

Snip...

First Annual Peace on Earth Event | Saturday, December 30 at 6 pm | 85 Seaverns Street, Jamaica Plain | 617.983. 0710 | [e-mail]

[TayTay]

1. You know, I just re-read that post that Sen. Kerry made on DKos

to Gary Norton, whose brother Frank served as a Marine in Vietnam and then went to Washington in '71 with the VVAW protest.

Go check out the second response to John Kerry's reply. Especially read the last line. I like that a lot. There is some symmetry and coincidence here that I really like.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/15/161210/959

[ProSense]

2. Wow, Thanks Tay! n/t

[blm]

3. That's a great post - and a great exchange.

I think I'll hang on to it, and use this post so I don't lose it. I sure do agree with the poster - truth needs to be told.

Welcome Home (38+ / 0-)
Gary, your words mean so much, written with such obvious passion and love not just of your brother, but of our country -- the country we know we still are and always will be.

The act of speaking out -- as your brother did, as my friends Bobby Muller and Tommy Vallely did, as Jack Murtha did -- is the ultimate act of patriotism because patriotism is truth spoken out of love of country. It's the hard kind of patriotism, it's risking friendships and risking scorn because you have a personal obligation to speak truth as you see it. A lot of Vietnam sons fought a lot of arguments with World War II fathers who couldn't understand why we were doing what we were doing.

No Iraq War vet should go through that, especally not those like Patrick Murphy putting themselves on the line running for Congress this year. They're doing what's right because they know it's wrong for old men to send young men to die for a strategy that isn't working.

We still havent mastered the job of separating the warriors from the war. We have a ways to go. It pains me to see the boats I loved, which got us through all kinds of danger alive and in one piece, reduced to a verb associated with political attack. But that's why we each need to step up, stand by those who have the guts to speak the truth, and remember the true meaning of love of country.

Today I'm visiting with my crewmate Gene -- kindest, most gentle person I know. Being with him reminds me of some words we used back when vets spoke out against the war. People would say, "my country right or wrong" -- and wed say "you bet, my country right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, MAKE it right." Things haven't changed. Your brother is a patriot, the best kind. JK

by John Kerry on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 10:12:28 AM PST
Thank you Senator (24+ / 0-)
And Frank thanks you too.

You are so right about Fathers and Sons. Unkind words were spoken between my Father and Frank (and me too) about the war and 1971.

I was just thinking the other day about the Swiftboats and how that word no longer conveys its real meaning. It has been verbified and tortured into something that is odious to many of us. But rest assured, we can separate the boats and the men who served on them from a small group of people whose hatred for our Nation's principles and Veterans knows no bound.

Thank you again for 1971 and today. GLN

by Gary Norton on Sat Sep 16, 2006 at 02:45:39 PM PST
< Parent >
I'm glad you're in the world. And never give in. (0 / 0)
I remember the minute I stopped leaning toward Bush in 2004 and took up arms against him. I was unloading the dishwasher while listening to the news. I heard one of the Swift Boat pieces. I went from wondering what to do, to a burning certainty about it, in a flash of outrage.

I never saw your response to the Swift Boat lies as inappropriate. Not once. I was proud of you. I felt, as you did then, that such a thing was so far beneath contempt that it didn't merit a response. You behavior, for me, strengthened my impression that you were better than them. But I had no idea then of the power of the Dark Side. I don't think you did either. That makes us good people -- not stupid ones. You never assume evil without evidence and how could we have it then? We couldn't -- but we have it now.

We now know that for the Democrats to recapture control of this once-great-and-could-be-again nation we are going to have to bring out the big guns ourselves -- the ones we thought too highly of the Republicans to consider ever having to use. I hereby submit my application for Chief Minister of Information for the 2008 Presidential Campaign. My services are at your disposal free of charge. I'm only half kidding. I will do anything in my power to see you elected in 2008.

Here's what I don't want to see happen. I do want the weapon called Exposing the Truth About The Other Side to be deployed. The weapon we could depend on once, the one known as Depending On The Basic Decency Of The Electorate, has been neutralized. The other side has deployed the strength of The Dark Side amd we can't let the assault go unanswered.

The new weapon must match theirs in strength but we can't use the same ammo they do. It would probably begin to win us more elections if we did, something they are chillingly good at, but we will also end up just like them in a few election cycles if we do. I want the ammo to be truth, justice, and the American way. The other side uses something else. This is going to be our ace in the hole.

If we have to pick up the deadly weapon of personal attack it must only have truth in the chamber. The other side has considered that obsolete for a while now.

I want to see you Mr. Kerry, striding onto the battlefield this time, carrying weaponry equal to that the opponent carries, but superior in its deployment. I want you to be armed with a weapon they don't have anymore. Decency. Like The Crane in Karate Kid, properly used, there is no defense for it.

Part of decency once seemed to be the "rising above" thing you did in 2004. It was a tactical error but the fact that it was is now part of your 2008 strength. The fact is that you had a higher opinion, not only of the Bush team than they deserved, but a higher opinion of the American electorate than the Bush team did. That fact does nothing but make you bigger, stronger, and better still. You aren't the first soldier to be felled on the battlefield by an ignoble foe. It's absolutely nothing to apologize for. Don't ever do it. Once the public recognizes how the other side won you'll be awarded the latest of your many badges of honor for taking the hit and heading right back into battle.

Continue to suffer the wound nobly. Consider to recover and not dwell on it. But don't do the sportsmanlike thing and accept blame for the blow itself. It was a personal foul of the worst kind. Don't let anybody believe you had that coming because you never did. It's got to be framed for the blind-side attack it was.

It's like your favorite quarterback is poised for a Hail Mary pass and is speared by a player on the opposing team. Of course the pass isn't complete and of course it says absolutely nothing about the QB -- it says something about the other team. In football we have refs to handle that kind of thing and the penalty for it is severe. The refs in the 2004 game, the electorate, made one of the worst calls in history. There's a reason for that.

What the evil Rove team did to us was something like spiking the beer at the concession stand with some Orwellian mind-hijack drug. Their money, their Dark Side talent, and their chillingly effective war machine stole more than an election. They stole our ability to see the spear tackle and the blindside hit and to penalize it appropriately. They walked off the field victorious because they'd neutralized the refs before they stole the game. We didn't let that happen -- it happened to us. It simply wasn't a fair fight -- not between you and Bush, and not between Rove and us.

You have another weapon they can't buy no matter how much money they have. You have the fury of the defrauded electorate, and you can't deploy it if they don't know it happened. This is the effort your election depends on: standing the truth back up, dusting it off, and getting a spotlight on it.

Once that happens and we can see you, the man robbed of the hail Mary pass by the Rove machine, on his feet heading right back into battle, you just might hear a Hosanna Shout that could blow the enemy completely off the field. It's a sight I would just about give my right arm to witness.

If we can, starting now, figure out some way to paint that truthful picture -- that not only did the Dark Side rob you of the presidency, they robbed us of the ability to cast an informed vote and the possibility of a President of Churchillian stature and ability -- you will have an Army at your side that defines the word invincible.

It may take the skill and talent of Stephen Spielberg and George Lucas combined to do it without looking like sore losers but don't think for a minute it can't be done. If the Dark Side can defraud the electorate with enough money to buy the right tools we can vanquish the Dark Side the same way.

The talent to make this plain is out there. It's probably expensive. We can't afford to do without it. There's nothing wrong with pulling out all the stops to win an election -- if you tell the truth.

You need to not lose your admirable tendency not to toot your own horn. As you head towards 2008 you'll need a phalanx of highly visible supporters doing that. It's vastly more powerful that way, and that's how it seems to be shaping up. Continue to let it rip though -- I can't get enough of it. But your persona does an excellent job of announcing you as a warrior. You're tall, physically imposing, and a decorated combat war veteran. So before you've said a word, you've said volumes about who you are.

It's an infuriating paradox that the Republicans have won so many elections because we're better than them, but it's true nonetheless. It's past time to quietly keep letting it happen. We've labored under the laudable delusion that it's easy to see moral superiority. We now know it's only easy to see in an election if everybody fights fair.

We need to get the message out that we're better than them as effectively as they get their perversion of that out. When both messages are finally really side by side for the electorate to judge, the Dark Side will have been decisively vanquished.

Until the next election.

“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor, and good sense.” WC

by AnarchyRules on Wed Sep 20, 2006 at 09:47:25 AM PST
< Parent >