Posted on 08/28/2004 5:02:31 PM PDT by mylife
Who's to blame for nation's Vietnam wounds? Kerry
August 29, 2004
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST Advertisement
Every serious nation, in the course of history, loses a war here and there. You hope it's there rather than here -- somewhere far away, a small conflict in a distant land, not central to your country's sense of itself. During America's ''Vietnam era,'' Britain grappled with a number of nasty colonial struggles. Some they won -- Malaya -- and others they lost -- Aden -- or, at any rate, concluded that the cost of achieving whatever it was they wanted to achieve was no longer worth it.
No parallels are exact, but the symbolism of the transfer of power in Aden (on the Arabian coast) is not dissimilar to the fall of Saigon. On Nov. 29, 1967, the Union Jack was lowered over the city, and the high commissioner, his staff and all her majesty's forces left. On Nov. 30, the People's Republic of South Yemen was proclaimed -- the only avowedly Marxist state in Arabia. A couple of years earlier, the penultimate high commissioner, Sir Richard Turnbull, had remarked bleakly to Denis Healey, the British Defense secretary, that the British empire would be remembered for only two things: ''the popularization of Association Football [soccer] and the term 'f-- off.' "
Sir Richard was being a little hard on his fellow imperialists, but those two legacies of empire are useful ways of looking at the situation when the natives are restless and you're a long way from home: Faraway disputes you're stuck in the middle of aren't played by the rules of Association Football, and it's important to know when to "f-- off.'' Aden had been British since 1839: that's 130 years, or 10 times as long as America was mixed up in Vietnam. And yet in the end the British shrugged it off. Just one of those things, old boy. Can't be helped. As the last high commissioner inspected his troops at Khormaksar Airport on that final day, the band of the Royal Marines played not ''Land Of Home And Glory'' or ''Rule, Britannia'' but a Cockney novelty pop song, ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be,'' as a jaunty reflection on the vicissitudes of fate.
So when John McCain sternly warns the swift boat veterans of ''reopening the wounds of Vietnam,'' it's worth asking: Why is Vietnam a ''wound'' and why won't it heal? The answer: not because it was a military or strategic defeat but because it was a national trauma. And whose fault is that?
Well, you can't pin it all on one person, but, if you had to, Lt. John F. Kerry would stand a better shot at taking the solo trophy than almost anyone. The ''wounds'' McCain complains of aren't from losing Vietnam, but from the manner in which it was lost. Today Sen. Kerry says he's proud of his anti-war activism, but that's not what it was. Every war has pacifists and conscientious objectors and even disenchanted veterans, but there's simply no precedent for what John Kerry did: a man who put his combat credentials to the service of smearing his country's entire armed forces as rapists, decapitators and baby killers. That's the ''wound,'' Sen. McCain. That's why a crummy little war on the other side of the world still festers. That's why the band didn't play ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be'' and move on to the next item of business. Because Kerry didn't just call for U.S. withdrawal, he impugned the honor of every man he served with.
In his testimony to Congress in 1971, Kerry asserted a scale of routine war crimes unparalleled in American history -- his ''band of brothers'' (as he now calls them) ''personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads . . . razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan.'' Almost all these claims were unsupported. Indeed, the only specific example of a U.S. war criminal that Kerry gave was himself. As he said on ''Meet The Press'' in April 1971, ''Yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I used 50-caliber machineguns, which we were granted and ordered to use.''
Really? And when was that? On your top-secret Christmas Eve mission in Cambodia? If they'd taken him at his word, when the senator said ''I'm John Kerry reporting for duty,'' the delegates at the Democratic Convention should have dived for cover.
But they didn't. So Kerry is now the first self-confessed war criminal in the history of the Republic to be nominated for president. Normally this would be considered an electoral plus only in the more cynical banana republics. But the Democrats seemed to think they could run an anti-war anti-hero as a war hero and nobody would mind. As we now know, a lot of people -- a lot of veterans -- do mind, very much. They understand that, whether or not he ever mowed down civilians with his 50-caliber machinegun, Kerry is responsible for a lot of wounds closer to home.
In the usual course of events, Kerry's terrible judgment in the '70s would render him unelectable. Instead, over two decades he morphed into a respectably dull run-of-the-mill pompous senatorial windbag. Had he run for president in the '90s or 2000, he might even have pulled it off. But the Democrats turned to him this time because the tortured contradictions of his resume suited an anti-war party that didn't dare run as such. Ever since the first cries of ''Quagmire!'' back in the early days of the Afghan liberation in 2001, the left have been trying to Vietnamize the war on terror. They failed in that, but they succeeded in the Vietnamization of the election campaign, and that's turned out just swell, hasn't it? Remember that formulation a lot of Democrats were using last year? They oppose the war but ''of course'' they support our troops. Kerry's campaign is a walking illustration of the deficiencies of that straddle: When you divorce the heroism of soldiering from the justice of the cause, what's left but a hollow braggart?
The Vietnamese government used Kerry's 1971 testimony as evidence of American war crimes as recently as two months ago. In Aden, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be, but in Hanoi Kerry's psychodrama-queen performance is a gift that keeps on giving. It would be a shame if they understood him more clearly than the American people do.
I hope and pray that this episode in the history of America is cleansing to the souls of many Americans.
The far reaching effects of Kerry's actions are astounding.
111 posted on 08/26/2004 7:50:29 PM CDT by Delta 21 (MKC USCG -ret)
...at the very least "W" will win by a landslide, Kerry will slither off into oblivion not even getting reelected to one of the most liberal states in the country.
If he keeps pressing the lies of his past in the face of America there very may well be treason charges brought against him and then the real fun will begin. Kerry is a traitor and they are keeping a cell nice and cold for him in Levanworth.
<< theres 'aught wrong with rugby, pints and free will >>
Yep.
[Why, when raising one for the 'Hong-Kong-Sevens,' just ask any one of the Once-FRee-British Hong Kong's seven and a half million Once-FRee-British Citizens]
<< In Aden, Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be -- but .... Hanoi Kerry's psychodrama-queen performance is a gift that keeps on giving. >>
Pretty much says it all.
Excellent article!
Bump...
Thanks for the ping!
Misty CA
I've already pinged everyone to this thread.
BUT I'll post your FReep mail here.
"..Raven at Swiftvets gave his permission for us to use this quote..."
This thread is about the same Sun Times article that he was responding to
"Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 2:09 am Post subject:
The issue of Vietnam extends far beyond the losing of that conflict. It became one of the Twin Towers of the pseudo-morality the Left has predicated its very existence upon. And the Left's view was a lie and an immoral attempt to denigrate men who bled for this country and their commanders, not to mention the entire concept of fighting for freedom - a freedom upon which this country was founded. The Left sold this country, via the media and the wholesale confusion of the 1960s and 70s, the Big Lie. And everyone bought it and accepted that it was legitimate. There were no real outlets for disseminating the truth in those times and everyone was made to feel this incredible shame for the United States' involvement in trying to save another country from Communism. Where was the truth in all that was being said? It was well-hidden by the media and the purveyors of "enlightenment", and a country too shaken by the loss of so many of its sons and the turmoil of the changing political atmosphere left too many people too bewildered to search for the truth. Thus, the Left's Big Lie of Vietnam became an accepted "truth" and evidence of our own immorality as a country.
Kerry, Jane Fonda, and the entire establishment of anti-war activists did far more to this country than scream about the "horrors" of war. They brought down the sense of morality and righteousness of this country's belief in and willingness to shed blood and treasure for the freedom of people we don't even know.
The relevance even today of Kerry's actions in 1971 and thereafter is more than an election year issue. His actions tore apart this country and allowed people to wallow in a lie that has had deleterious consequences to our nation regarding views toward the military and the use of our Armed Forces."
Here is a win/win for the left. Since they ultimately do not want to see America endure as a sovereign nation, there is no downside to risking national security for temporal "domestic political POWER"
Hence thy can never be trusted with national security.
Three quarters of a century ago they could be entrusted with the national security but only so long as the foe was the right: Fascism. Half a century ago they demonstrated they could not be trusted when the foe came from the left: Communism.
Today the foe comes from the right and the left, for there are elements of both in militant Islam, but the left has so debauched itself that they would actually prefer to lose if winning is not done their way. Doing it Bush's way buttresses America as an independent nation state. A significant portion of the Democrat party and the American Left does not want America to endure as an independent nation but want it melded into some sort of utopian world government.
That is why the international outcry against the Bush doctrine and its implementation. That is why the Left can not be (en)trusted with our childrens' fate.
the band of the Royal Marines played not ''Land Of Home And Glory'' or ''Rule, Britannia'' but a Cockney novelty pop song, ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be,'' as a jaunty reflection on the vicissitudes of fate.
LIL: I used to lead a lovely life of sin, dough! I charged a ton
Now it's become an undercover game;
Who want to read a postcard in a window, "Massaging Done?"
Somehow the business doesn't seem the same
It's a very different scene
Well, you know what I mean...
There's toffs wiv toffee noses, and
Poofs in coffee 'ouses and
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
There's short time low priced mysteries
Wivout proper histories
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
There used to be class
Doing the town
Buying a bit o' vice.
And that's when a brass
Couldn't go down
Under the union price,
Not likely!
FRED: Once in golden days of yore
Ponces killed a lazy whore
Fings ain't wpt they used t'be.
Cops from universities
Dropsy wot a cuse it is,
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
There used to be schools,
Fahsands of bounds
Passing across the baize.
There used tobe tools
Flashing around
Oh for the bad old days
Remember
LIL: How we used to pull for 'em
I've got news for Wolfenden
Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
FRED: Did their lot they used ter
LIL \
| Fings ain't wot they used t'be.
FRED /
Thanks, Tonk. I think this quote by Raven is well deserving of our attention.
Your Welcome!
An entire World religion has declared war on us and is dedicated to killing us.
You DO understand that there are NO cash prizes for making the stupid statement of the day.
The issue of Vietnam extends far beyond the losing of that conflict. It became one of the Twin Towers of the pseudo-morality the Left has predicated its very existence upon.
Bingo! We have a winner.
I'm not going to do what our parents generation did in that regard.
The left will be in full force in NYC tomorrow.
Oh I hope us. And I hope they are out in all their "glory".
You wrote:
". . .smearing his country's entire armed forces as rapists, decapitators and baby killers."
Geez, if that's what all US forces were doing in VietNam
(according to the DU crowd), why aren't they more grateful
that President Bush never made it over there?
From their worldview, his 'cowardice' in hiding in the
Air National Guard would be a point in his _favor_ !
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