Replies

Here is something this same treasonous bastard wherein he pats himself on the back for ending the was in Vietnam and calls Bush "AWOL":

A Marine's Reponse to Flak Attack on Kerry

The following is a reply to an essay posted on GOPUSA and other web sites by Rick Erickson, Director of Americans for Military Readiness, accusing Senator John Kerry of disgracing the nation and in particular the Marine Corps Memorial during antiwar protests in 1971.
By Joe Bangert
Special to VAIW, February 25, 2004

I was one of those Marines who marched in Northern Virginia with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War alongside John Kerry and many personal friends with whom I served on active duty in the United States Marine Corps in Viet Nam.

Erickson belies the actual scene with words like ‘mocking’ and ‘ridicule’ as we merely passed by the Iwo Jima Memorial. My uncle fought at Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Saipan and Okinawa. Yes, I am what Erickson refers to as ‘Kerry’s cronies’ and I was on that march. Erickson lies when he wrote of ‘our flag’ being flown upside down and why.

Prior to this freeze frame photo at the Iwo Jima Memorial, our very clean column led by new Gold Star Mothers attempted to enter Arlington National Cemetery where the crying newly motherless merely sought to lay a giant floral red white and blue wreath in memory of not only their own sons but in honor of all who had by then had fallen in the still running battles in Viet Nam. The White House under Richard Nixon ordered the gates to Arlington shut. It was then that our colors were inversed as a sign of ‘international distress’ and never in ‘sedition and treachery’ as Erickson propagandizes like an atavistic Soviet avatar. Our march never even lingered near the Iwo Jima Memorial, for we marched back into Washington D.C. to our encampment on the Mall.

It itches Erickson to no end that two very special groups of constituencies lifted Kerry’s campaign when some thought it was moribund, the IFF or International Fire Fighters association and Kerry’s band of brothers, including his shipmates from the Mekong Delta in 1969 and many many other veterans, from World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, the Gulf War and loads of active duty GI’s. For Erickson to attempt to wrap the war dead from Iwo Jima around his shoulders is sacrilegious. Those Marines and Corpsmen died defending freedom and democracy and never to squelch its voice at home in any manner.

As we Marines, sailors, soldiers and Airmen and Coast Guard personnel returned home in waves we became sick and disgusted along with John Kerry, angry and at a loss for words about how the war was going. It was killing our own brothers and sisters- and each night Walter Cronkite would show flags and body counts for the day. The insanity of that war was that no one was negotiating an end to it all and the human toll kept growing.

The Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) started in 1967. Some of its members had their heads bashed in in Chicago. This is why we joined in. Sure there was opposition by then by students, parents and others. VVAW generally ran our own show because we valued our message as veterans. The Vietnam War was a gross atrocity at least by those of us who sat in door gunner canvas chairs. This is why I resent you alluding that Kerry and me and my VVAW comrades were betraying those still fighting.

Those of us who spoke out and marched were saving lives! Our actions were out of principle and conscience. We shortened the list of the names on the ‘Wall’. We saved Vietnamese lives as well. These actions affirm life and betray nothing but our bold humanity put into practice. We were hounded by a paranoid Nixon and his minions. John Kerry aided in the construction and dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Kerry has helped veterans for over 19 years in the Senate. He lead the fight for service-connection for Agent Orange and supports our Gulf War vets and stand up now for the lack of protective equipment for our GI’s in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush has said he supported the war in Viet Nam but personally he saw fit to use his priviledged position to sit it out in the Texas National Guard, and you and I both know what happens on active military duty- if any airman, soldier, Marine or sailor missed even a few days of work, there were consequences. One faced an Article 86 under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The president went AWOL and cannot disprove it.

Now we cut to the heart of the matter. Erickson would have readers believe that Kerry and other antiwar veterans ‘ betrayed his fellow servicemen who remained at war’. Sheer poppycock. Now I don’t pretend to be omniscent but I did work on Kerry’s campaigns in NH and Virginia. Most of the veterans who support Kerry do not look like those which Erickson cites in Phoenix. And we are committed to John Kerry precisely because Kerry is the ONLY veteran in the race. Logical don’t you think, as well as in our mutual self interests.

http://www.vaiw.org/vet/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=546

This is but one of several articles by Bangert that show up on Veterans Against The War In Iraq, which is a rabid hate-America site.

Big surprise, huh?

How North Vietnam Won The War

Taken from The Wall Street Journal, Thursday August 3, 1995

Bui Tin, a former colonel in the North Vietnamese army, answers these questions in the following excerpts from an interview conducted by Stephen Young, a Minnesota attorney and human-rights activist. Bui Tin, who served on the general staff of North Vietnam's army, received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. He later became editor of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of Vietnam. He now lives in Paris, where he immigrated after becoming disillusioned with the fruits of Vietnamese communism.

Q: Was the American antiwar movement important to Hanoi's victory?

A: It was essential to our strategy. Support of the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda, and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle along with us.

Q: Did the Politburo pay attention to these visits?

A: Keenly.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1076188/posts

Marine Corps Viet Nam Vet Bump! Thank you for your efforts, Hon. Semper Fi, Kelly

Funny that he would use the term "AVATAR"

(pronounced AV-uh-tar): The word is Sanskirt for the earthly incarnation a god takes on Earth. Vishnu, the Hindu god responsible for maintaining the existence of the universe, has 10 important avatars, including Krishna, the philosopher king, and Varaha, the boar who rescues the planet after it is inundated by the oceans. The 10th avatar of Vishnu, Kalki, will arrive in the future to destroy the world with fire and begin a new age of purity on the planet.
http://www.sonoma.edu/it/faq/glossary.htm

Hinduism - when you break it down to it's basic - there is no good nor evil ... just feeling good or feeling bad.
Sounds like the perfect leftist radical thought to me.

This turd definitely qualifies himself to be referred to as an "EX-Marine". He sure as hell isn't a Marine, in my book.

>> My uncle fought at Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Saipan and Okinawa.

I find this claim to be very difficult to believe. Perhaps this is the first lie in this piece. I'm not sure about the naval history, but since Bangert was talking about the Iwo Jima Memorial, I assume his uncle was a Marine. At first blush, I thought it would be increbile odds to make it through all four battles without being wounded or KIA. And of course Bangert would *have* to mention that. Then it occurred to me, that unless you transfered all over the place, it wouldn't be possible to be in all those battles. Here's where the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine divisions were at that time of WWII:

2nd Marine Division: Guadalcanal, Tarawa, Saipan, Tinian, and Okinawa
3rd Marine Division: Bougainville, Saipan and Iwo Jima
4th Marine Division: Roi-Namur, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima
5th Marine Division: Iwo Jima and Kyushu as Occupational Forces

I can't be certain that I got all that right, if anyone knows any better, I'm open to the correction.

By the way, my great-uncle was in the 5th Marine Division and he was shot on Iwo Jima. He spent over a year recovering in a hospital. I remember as a kid trying to get him to tell me stories about WWII. He never had much to say about the war. I always considered him a war hero, but it had more to do with the way he carried himself and acted in day-to-day life than in anything he ever said.