Veterans
- "People like you caused us to lose the war." (to a disabled Vietnam Veteran)
- MSNBC (Source)
Posted on 06/10/2006 8:35:42 PM PDT by Sam Hill
With the selective outrage over Ann Coulter's comments about the "Jersey Girls" we are seeing for the hundredth time previous examples of Coulter's over the top rhetoric.
The mother of all of Ann's insensitive remarks being the oft-cited but never explained comment to a (always described this way) "disabled Vietnam veteran."
The quote is usually presented as it is in the Daily Kos disinformation encyclopedia dKosopedia:
Veterans
- "People like you caused us to lose the war." (to a disabled Vietnam Veteran)
- MSNBC (Source)
The source link Kos provides, like all of the links for this, does not work. Maybe for a reason.
Because then you would be able to discover who the disabled Vietnam Veteran was.
For it turns out that the Vietnam Veteran was Bobby Muller.
Bobby Muller is none other than one of the founders of the Vietnam Veterans Against The War. The VVAW, you may recall was the virulently anti-war group that John Kerry became the spokesman for.
Muller's involvement with the VVAW was noted in passing during PBS's loving bouquet to John Kerry, during the 2004 campaign, Frontline: The Choice 2004:
NARRATOR: John Kerry was still in the Navy, but he was increasingly troubled by the war. News that one of his swift boat mates had been killed back in Vietnam was devastating. The war seemed a terrible mistake. Returning to civilian life, he married his fiancée, Julia. He wanted to enter politics. He joined a small but vocal anti-war group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Bobby Muller was an early member of the VVAW.
BOBBY MULLER, Vietnam Veterans Against the War: When veterans for the first time in American history, you know, came back from the war that they had fought in, took to the streets and openly condemned the very war that they had fought and had their buddies die and themselves wounded in, it was stunning.
[from the film "Winter Soldier"]
VETERAN: And the next slide is a slide of myself. It's me holding a dead body and smiling. I'm extremely shameful of it.
NARRATOR: In January of 1971, Kerry joined veterans in Detroit, where, as seen here, he listened to accounts of atrocities.
JOHN KERRY: Is there something that you could-- that you really kind of want to say, in terms of the crimes and why--
NARRATOR: It was called the Winter Soldier investigation.
BOBBY MULLER: People don't understand that the Winter Soldier hearings were held throughout the country, and it was very powerful because in many cases, it was the first time that guys would actually talk before an audience.
VETERAN: Everyone in our platoon took two bodies, drove them through a village for show and dumped them off at the edge of the village.
BOBBY MULLER: It was just an incredible emotional release, sort of like a confessional, you know, for these guys to just publicly admit to what had gone down in the war.
NARRATOR: They continued to hold hearings and organize veterans in other cities. Kerry became their spokesperson.
BOBBY MULLER: He was clean-shaven, presentable and rational. [laughs] I could say a lot of us were irrational, you know, and really, you know, caricatures of the counterculture of the day. You know, think of Woodstock. John was very presentable, in all seriousness. You know, he spoke eloquently. He spoke in measured terms. And he was somebody that didn't turn off a lot of the people that we, at the end of the day, really needed to be talking to.
In truth, Bobby Muller was not just a VVAW founding member, but he helped to organize and promote the "Winter Soldier Investigation," in which he and Kerry and others claimed US troops regularly committed every conceivable atrocity against the Vietnamese.
Indeed, Muller even contributed a chapter to the book that John Kerry wrote about the Winter Soldier investigations, The New Soldier.
Now, even long after the Winter Soldier Investigation has been questioned by every objective observer and subsequent historian, Mr. Muller still stands by its outrageous claims.
From the Baltimore Sun:
Bobby Muller, president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and a Marine Corps veteran of the war, worked with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He stands by the Winter Soldier project and was unaware of any investigation that called into question the truthfulness of the participants.
So Ann Coulter's remarks were amazing accurate. In fact, more accurate than even she was aware of at the time.
By the way, the actual exchange on MSNBC's "NewsChat" show (which aired on November 11 1997) went like this:
Bobby Muller: In 90 percent of cases that U.S. soldiers got blown up. Ann, are you listening? They were our own mines.
[Muller was misquoting a 1969 Pentagon report that found that 90% of the components used in enemy mines came from U.S. duds and refuse.]
Ann Coulter: (sarcastically) No wonder you guys lost.
Bobby Muller: Say that again.
[The show's host, Felicia Taylor, interrupted.]
Felicia Taylor: OK, we're not going to get into that conversation. Ann, that was unnecessary! Mr. Muller, please continue....
Howard Kurtz at the Washington Post and others turned her line into a more personal attack now regularly cited: "people like you caused us to lose that war."
(In fact, all the quotes attributed to Coulter at the hate site anncoulterisac***.com [vulgarity redacted] and its imitators are invented quotes. Every single one. Maybe Ms. Coulter isn't so outrageous after all.)
Also, it should be noted that Ann didn't know at the time Muller was disabled, since she was only hearing his voice through an audio satellite feed. Still, it was this very exchange that cost Coulter her job as a pundit at MSNBC.
For his part, Mr. Muller has airbrushed any mention of his involvement with the VVAW out of his history. His Wikipedia entry does not note it at all. Nor do the numerous fawning biographies of him all over the internet.
Still Muller can't resist listing his VVAW participation in his movie bio at IMDB.
Once again, bear in mind that Ms. Coulter's remarks were amazingly accurate.
But oddly enough, everyone chooses to ignore that minor detail.
Sorry for the confusion.
A "speaking truth to power" ping!
Kind of helps make Ann's point of the left use of using human shields to prevent any criticism doesn't it?
And disabled or not, Muller gave aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war so, "F" HIM!
I watched that show....I truly believe, at the time, Ann did not know who Bobby Muller was nor did she know of his infamy.
Bump
They may be afraid that the curious will buy her book and begin to understand her arguments. It will give some of us former namby-pamby conservatives a little more spine! And they sure don't want that.
You're right. They are backing off....
I agree with Ann. People like Bobby Muller caused us to lose the war in Vietnam. Ann hit the nail right on the head again. The truth hurts. Ann delivers the truth. Hence, all the p*ssing and moaning from the lefties.
This lie has traveled round the world before the truth gets it's boots on.
The libs howling is doing nothing but proving Ann's point.
Something in the back of my mind from the swift boats news is that Muller was never near a military base in his life. His military service was a rouse to promote himself in the anti-war movement.
Some one please correct me if I am wrong...
VVAW ping.
(Denny Crane: "Every one should carry a gun strapped to their waist. We need more - not less guns.")
bookmark
Ms. Coulter's remarks were amazingly accurate
They always are. She's above being great.
Thanks. I knew it was one of the VVAW "royalty" who was not legit.
A bullet transformed him from bad-ass Marine to peace activist. A Vietnam vet triumphs over his disability and educates others.
When he was a young soldier fighting in the Vietnam War, says Bobby Muller, he was well on his way to becoming "an asshole, an arrogant, bad-ass Marine.
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