War Records
I think if I have to listen to another lying fascist prattle on about Kerry’s anti-war activism I will scream. A vet on NPR recently put it well when he explained that Kerry had come to learn of atrocities committed in our name (sound familiar?) but these of an unspeakable nature, which amounted to war crimes and that to remain silent about them would make an honorable man complicit in them.
Be warned: the link above is for a story about the My Lai massacre not necessarily related to Kerry’s testimony to congress, but contemporary with it. The story contains images of an extremely graphic and disturbing nature. The results of brutal killing, torture and rape of women, babies and unarmed villagers was captured on film. The horrific story is tempered by the honorable actions of men in uniform who acted to save the villagers and to blow the whistle on the subsequent cover up. This is what the Bush team *doesn’t* want you thinking about: that Kerry may have had a conscience. He had served his time in the military honorably. He could have gotten back to the task of positioning himself for some office, but instead he decided to speak out against war crimes. How horrible, what a bad American.
Comment posted on 8-31-2004
I was suprised to find that Colin Powell was in the middle of the My Lai cover-up, what a good little soldier. (Some things really never change.)
Comment posted on 9-1-2004
Then last night at the RNC, band-aide’s with little purple hearts. How crass. Garrison Keillor is so right.
Anyway, I just finished reading the book "A Rumor of War" by Phillip Caputo. If you get a chance read the prologue of the book (or the whole thing) . In it Caputo talks about the difficulties a soldier faces in a war zone when it is nearly impossible to tell civilians from the enemy, when victory is declared by body count, and how every day one or two Marines died in small ambushes - rarely fighting a battle of historical significance. He goes on to talk about the inner turmoil he experienced when he came back from Vietnam and joined the anti-war movement (just like Kerry). Very good book, if you haven’t read it already head down to the library - it’s a very quick read.
Comment posted on 11-1-2004
Good article / interview with
Richard Moser at HNN
” Interview with Richard Moser: Was Kerry Right About Vietnam Atrocities? ”
Moser: I can’t speak directly to John Kerry’s allegations of war crimes and
atrocities. What I can speak to is the question whether war crimes and
atrocities were committed in Vietnam. The answer to that is very clear. Yes,
indeed, war crimes and atrocities were committed in Vietnam.
The simple fact is that war crimes have occurred in every war. That is a
clearly proved part of the record and I’d like to see anyone prove otherwise.
Attempts to suggest there were no war crimes in Vietnam is part of an
ongoing attempt to sanitize war in general. And of course it begs the
question of what a war crime is.
What people don’t know is that as far back as World War I we hit a historic
crossroads where more civilians died in conflicts than soldiers. That was true
as far back as World War I and it’s been true of every single conflict since. So
if war crimes are the killing of civilians in war then war crimes have occurred
in every war since World War I. In Vietnam it was particularly egregious. The
best estimates are that somewhere around fifteen civilians were killed for
every combatant. So that was a very lopsided ratio
Comment posted on 11-2-2004
I received another anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans “for Truth” email
yesterday which prompted me to send back a long email about the case for
atrocities in Vietnam (the ad seems to deny that war crimes occurrred in
Vietnam - and since war crimes are the killing of civilians we can safely say
they did. More civilians have died in every conflict since WW1). But beyond
the obvious, I pointed out that only one of the supposed “Swift Boat” fellows
actually served with Kerry while most of those that actually did have praised
him (I sent quotes from many of them). The ad made me pretty mad since
it amounts to the same kind of white washing of the truth that anti-
Semetics try to pass off when they claim that the Nazi holocaust didn’t
happen. Well, some of the kids that got sent off to Vietnam at the end of
the war (against their will - it was a draft) ended up under some pretty piss
poor leadership as the My Lai incident suggests. By the way, did you know
that Lt. Calley, who organized the slaughter only got 3 and a half years of
house arrest for the rape and murder of over 300 women and children?
More interesting stuff on the trial here:
mylai.htm" class="external">http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/
mylai.htm