Tag: Vietnam

The Dark Side of Hero Hagel

My new Special Forces friend had a problem.  The VA said the wars he fought in never happened.  His other Special Forces Indian buddies were growing marijuana he said and there would be a raid next week but not where the Special Forces that never fought wars were.  Even the drug warriors knew better than to take them on outside of spraying them from the air.

It was much the same with a childhood friend of my son.  The pains were all in his head as were his wars.  That he spent months in a wheelchair with doctors declaring he would never walk again was probably his own damn fault as was the conviction of convenience that cost him his freedom and loss of all pay for doing some real hurt to a South Korean officer who had put a pistol to his ear to enforce an illegal order.  The penalties in that case were shortly overturned and pay and rank were all restored after the diplomatic problem blew over but not before his lovely family declared they knew he was no good and would never amount to anything.  I finally understood the chip on Steve’s shoulder when he was young.

I didn’t really fight in one of those non-wars but I was blown up on a bus.  One buddy somehow made it to the Wall in D.C. though he was another peacetime veteran of a war that wasn’t happening then.  When I got out of the non-war, Jack F. Kennedy was promising a real non-war with assassination squads which would really fix those dang commies if he got elected. JFK also promised to close that horrid Eisenhower missile gap that was pure imagination.  I foolishly told a very large bar fighter that his hero JFK would get us deeper into a war that we would lose.  The sucker punch I never saw coming did more damage than the Viet Cong bomb had.

Some of us idiots never learn.

Oh yeah, Hagel.  At least he was in a recognized war and no doubt he was a hero.  And he has shown some ability to learn despite being a Republican.

The sickening effort to defame Chuck Hagel as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel has been comprehensively debunked, in detail, while its neoconservative authors – notably the convicted liar Eliot Abrams – have once more disgraced themselves…

http://www.nationalmemo.com/ha…

Ridiculous.  No neocon was ever even embarrassed, let alone disgraced, for being shown to be an unconscionable liar.  That is the definition of neocon.

I like Vietnam vets, official or non-official, because [blush] I am one.  And Hagel has some admirable qualities, like that strange rudimentary ability to learn despite being a Republican.  And maybe particularly because he is no general.

But his statements as a right-to-lifer are a match for those of Akins and Mourdock.  I am delighted to learn Rachel Maddow has caught on.  Bright lady though a bit late on that.

Do we really need such a hero as Defense Secretary?  Will women now love him, so to speak?

Beats me.

Best,  Terry

Veterans Unemployment: 1mil.

No New Taxes or Tax Loopholes Closed!!!


Those who brung us these two wars of choice and rubber stamped the cost for including no bid contracts, that’s their message!


Those who cheered on these wars of choice, teabaggers and more, that’s their message! As they still claim almighty patriotism with their flags, dress up history costumes, magnetic ribbons, flag lapel pins and the great time and laughter with their purple heart bandages as we were sending soldiers into two occupation theaters!


Their wealthy funders, who reaped huge wealth over the decade from these wars either directly or indirectly as well as from huge tax cuts, and the FOX no news 24/7 war drum pounding and cheer leaders of these wars of choice, that’s their message!


Their once #1 grifter riding during a solemn motorcycle procession, just the roar of the bikes, sitting on the back of one waving and smiling, like Memorial Day in Washington was a parade for her highness, that’s her message!
 

On Fathers Day ‘Think!’ of the ‘Gold Star Children’

And yes I do realize there are ‘Gold Star Children’ who have lost Mothers, especially in these two long conflicts, not minimizing the fact that many of the women soldiers killed were possibly Mothers as they all were Daughters, Sisters or Nieces and Aunts, the greater numbers killed still in war are male.

CBS sought out a message with meaning for Fathers Day, that aired June 17 2011, and I totally agree with the one they found which among many messages it should send ties our long war of choice, Vietnam where this Country said it would remember the lessons of, to both current wars of choice, Afghanistan and Iraq, lessons forgotten five minutes after Vietnam and so many DeJa-Vu’s of then repeated with many enhanced and coming on faster.

A Revolutionary Speech by the Secretary of Defense

Gates

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking at West Point today…

In my opinion, any future Defense Secretary who advises the President to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.”

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wasn’t just cobbling together yet another version of the wishy-washy “Powell Doctrine” enunciated once upon a time by the former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, with all its easily miscontrued conditions: Is a vital national security interest threatened? Do we have a clear attainable objective?

Yes, of course the Vietcong, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein, penguins, liberals, and lolcats threaten vital national security interests!

This shit meant nothing, not even to the whore/general who dreamed it up and then turned into a cheerleader for invading Iraq, the Land of Imaginary Weapons of Mass Destruction!

But there isn’t nearly as much wiggle-room about a big American army in Asia!

Or Africa!

Or the Middle East!

“Don’t go there!”

And after enunciating the “Gates Doctrine,” Gates launched a full-tilt attack on the bureaucratic imbecility of the Pentagon!

To find inspiring work for its young officers after combat deployments, the Army must encourage unusual career detours, Mr. Gates said, endorsing graduate study, teaching or duty in a policy research institute, Congressional office or other branch of government. The defense secretary urged the cadets to master foreign languages and cultures.

Mr. Gates said his main worry was that the Army might not overcome institutional bias that favored traditional career paths. He urged the service to “break up the institutional concrete, its bureaucratic rigidity in its assignments and promotion processes, in order to retain, challenge, and inspire its best, brightest, and most-battled tested young officers to lead the service in the future.”

Master foreign languages and cultures!

War as a liberal art!

What next? A Department of Peace, and an honest citizen for President instead of a cowardly, sadistic thug like George W. Bush, or a sociopathic con-man like Barack Obama?

kucinich_wife

 

Unfinished Business: The Wake of Agent Orange

The Cleveland Plain Dealer staff , has published a six part series of reports in the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the still lasting effects of the defoliants we used in our destruction of Vietnam. Reports from Vietnam as well as about the daughter of a brother Vietnam Veteran.  

Dec 26th 1971-Statue of Liberty, Liberation

Back on Tuesday, December 26, 2006 I posted this VVAW Anniversary-Dec 26th 1971-Statue of Liberty, Liberation on my first blog, still in my infancy of blog posting but I had gotten better, like embedding links etc.. This action took place only months after I returned from Vietnam, my last year of my four, and getting discharged back into civilian life. I wasn’t with these brothers but I had already started down the path of activism against Wars of Choice and those that create them for profit and power. That post is below slightly refined and updated, had to find a link and embedded a document pdf player.

Over the past couple of months I have also moved my **IN HONOR TO THE FALLEN in Iraq and Afghanistan** posts from that original site to a stand alone site, this is a page listing each post on that site.

Vietnam Conflict Over? Not By A Long Shot!

And you may be living real close to more then one ‘enemy’, though was once a great allie of ours, weapons of mass destruction that lingers on today!

After Vietnam the country made a collective “We will never forget the mistakes!” statement than quickly moved on, forgetting everything as to the lessons of guerilla insurgent warfare, the why those invaded and occupied fight back, the results of War, Everything, even the Military who’ve shown in these two modern Wars of Choice, Afghanistan stopped being anything about 9/11 with the drums beat pointed at Iraq and us Not keeping the promise of helping them rebuild, after we rid the country of a brutal regime and international criminal terrorist and stopped going after them, just ask the bush, he even stated he stpped even thinking about bin Laden.

Discussion After Premier of “Wartorn 1861 – 2010”

DCoE – Defense Centers of Excellence

11 November 2010 – Military leaders, vets discuss invisible wounds of war and getting help after viewing HBO documentary about PTSD

HBO’s Wartorn 1861 – 2010

On This Veterans Day 2010



{Click on banner to view the trailer, film clips and more}

Veterans Day 2010: “Caring for the invisible wounds”



{This video is some twenty two minutes long so you might want to visit the stories, links below, at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and view each separately as you have the time}

Must See TV on PBS Tonight!

Cross-posted at Dkos.  http://www.dailykos.com/story/…

Tonight on PBS (check your local listings for time), POV will present The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.

If you don’t know anything about the Vietnam war, Daniel Ellsberg, or the Pentagon papers, and want to bring yourself up to speed, or, if you just want a good refresher on what you already know, here’s your chance.

From the full description of this film, below the fold:

WOW: “The True Cost of the War”

The above, without the ‘wow’, was the title of a Congressional Hearing in the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs: 30 September 2010.

In this hearing, opening statements to the give and take talk back and forth from the Representatives to the Participants, it lays out Very Clearly how this Country has Failed it’s Veterans not only as to these two present occupations but the long term as we older vets already know, from Korea and Vietnam forward. There was a Support the Veterans since after WWII and all the positives that brought us, even then they got caught up in the lack of funding and obstruction to veterans issues as to care and much more.

Brothers, Agent Orange Filing Rules Changed, Today!!

Just going to give some updated news on Agent Orange without much commentary, but wanted to get out this information, especially related to the just released, today, rules for compensation for the Brothers of the Vietnam Conflict but also continuing, and growing Action as to contamination from Agent Orange and Defoliants sprayed near bases here in the United States as well as Overseas.

The Kristen Renee Foundation Continues Its Fight for Frederick, Md.


FREDERICK, Md., Aug. 31 PRNewswire — Angie Pieper, President of The Kristen Renee Foundation will be holding a second press conference to release remarkable information that has transpired over the last four weeks, including the foundation’s future plans in its fight against Fort Detrick on behalf of many residents in Frederick County who have been affected by what is believed to be a cancer cluster. {read more}

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