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Vietnam war draft dodgers reunion opens in British Columbia town
Seattle Post Intellingencer ^ | Associated Press

Posted on 07/07/2006 12:00:44 PM PDT by siddude

CASTLEGAR, British Columbia -- For Craig Wiester of Minneapolis, fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war meant losing a country, a way of life - and his father.

"He felt it was a man's duty to go when his country called," Wiester said Thursday at the opening of a four-day reunion and peace event to honor U.S. draft resisters who fled to Canada and the Canadians who assisted them.

Organizers were expecting hundreds of draft resisters and their Canadian supporters to attend the gathering, which includes workshops and panel discussions at Selkirk College and the nearby Brilliant Cultural Center in this town about 120 miles north of Spokane, Wash.

Speakers and participants include former U.S. Sen. George McGovern, 83, the Democratic presidential candidate in 1972 who lost to Richard Nixon; former California state Sen. Tom Hayden, an anti-war student activist during the 1960s; and Arun Ghandi, grandson of Mahatma Ghandi.

(Excerpt) Read more at seattlepi.nwsource.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: americanchicken; andstaythere; antiamericanism; awol; bc; canada; cowards; dishonour; draftdodgers; failingmemory; peacesymbol; revisionisthistory; unamerica; veterans; vietnamnonvets; vietnamwar
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Egoism at its best.
1 posted on 07/07/2006 12:00:46 PM PDT by siddude
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To: siddude

What a helluva thing to be proud of.

Sheez!


2 posted on 07/07/2006 12:01:35 PM PDT by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: siddude

Bill Clinton feels left out. He loathes the past.


3 posted on 07/07/2006 12:01:51 PM PDT by weegee (Seasons greetings and happy holidays this June-July!)
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To: weegee
He loathes the past

Fear not!! His people are busy rewriting it.

4 posted on 07/07/2006 12:04:11 PM PDT by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)
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To: siddude

I wonder if they will offer any thoughts of appreciation to the men who went and died in their place -- that they may have the right to be a coward?

F'em all, including Carter that pardoned them, Clinton that should go to Canada and celebrate with his fellow draft dodgers and Kerry who figured out a Three Purple Heart scam to dodge the war zone in 4 months and build a career telling lies about the war and the men who fought it...

F'em all.

Semper Fi


5 posted on 07/07/2006 12:06:21 PM PDT by river rat (You may turn the other cheek, but I prefer to look into my enemy's vacant dead eyes.)
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To: siddude

"I wanted to validate the experience." What an a-hole. He wanted to validate the moment he turned his back on his country, his family and himself.

Sounds like this guy is heavily into great, big rationalizations. He needs'em.


6 posted on 07/07/2006 12:11:14 PM PDT by RexBeach ("There is no substitute for victory." -Douglas MacArthur)
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To: river rat

You forgot to mention Hanoi Jane.


7 posted on 07/07/2006 12:11:58 PM PDT by mbynack (Retired USAF SMSgt)
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To: siddude

8 posted on 07/07/2006 12:13:22 PM PDT by pabianice
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To: weegee

Bill conducted his own draft-avoidance studies in the UK.


9 posted on 07/07/2006 12:13:59 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: siddude

I heard they were having the reunion in B.C. and I thought, "Not far enough. Bomb 'em back to the Stone Age."


10 posted on 07/07/2006 12:15:25 PM PDT by RichInOC (Jane Fonda likes it long and hard. Just ask the Vietnamese Army.)
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To: RichInOC

I cant imagine taking their kids to this cowards convention.







11 posted on 07/07/2006 12:19:51 PM PDT by sgtbono2002 (The fourth estate is a fifth column.)
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To: pabianice

That's the first I've seen such a letter. Is it authentic?


12 posted on 07/07/2006 12:23:56 PM PDT by moonman (`)
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To: siddude
What was often described as the "anti-war movement" and "peace movement" during the Vietnam War was actually an anti-draft movement. Upon being discharged from the Marine Corps in 1969 I returned to college and found that most protesters were not really concerned with the ideological or moral issues of the war but simply didn't want to suffer the inconvenience of serving their country for two years. When Nixon instituted the draft lottery and then the all-volunteer army the protests died down proportionately. Later, when Pol Pot and the Khimer Rouge overran Cambodia and slaughtered millions, there was no moral outrage from this peace movement.
13 posted on 07/07/2006 12:25:49 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (Anything a politician gives you he has first stolen from you)
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To: siddude

I have a cousin among them. He left after graduating college. His father was a career Army officer, serving during three wars.

My cousin was never drafted, so he could freely return to the US, but stayed and changed to a Canadian citizen.

He is about 62 years old today, but intellectually he has not developed beyond 60s hippie anti-war nonsense. He can rant all the predictable left-socialist mantras.

I met and spoke with him five years ago, a few weeks before 9/11/2001. It was disappointing.

At the time I got my draft notice in December 1968 I knew of my cousin in Canada. Unlike him, I reported and served my time. To this day I consider my service as a one of the few but most defining times of a lifetime.

I'll give him one thing. He is a western individualist, making his home in Kelowna, BC. Cold winters with wood burning fires. He is an artist. It is hard to make a good living as an artist, so I expect it is comforting to have socialized medicine, for example.

His son studied business at University of British Columbia, and stayed on to live in Victoria. I can see why somebody would stay in Victoria--nice place.

The son could become a US citizen, as both parents were US citizens at the time of his birth.


14 posted on 07/07/2006 12:28:47 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: pabianice

Your craftsmanship is far superior to that crackpot who scammed CBS and Dan Rather.


15 posted on 07/07/2006 12:29:24 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee (Anything a politician gives you he has first stolen from you)
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To: siddude

They missed a couple of guests to keep with the motif. Of course I'm talking about Chicken Man and Super Chicken.


16 posted on 07/07/2006 12:30:45 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (The man who said "there's no such thing as a stupid question" has never talked to Helen Thomas.)
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To: Brad from Tennessee
"What was often described as the "anti-war movement" and "peace movement" during the Vietnam War was actually an anti-draft movement. Upon being discharged from the Marine Corps in 1969 I returned to college and found that most protesters were not really concerned with the ideological or moral issues of the war but simply didn't want to suffer the inconvenience of serving their country for two years."

My view is also that the "peace" and "anti war" movement was not those things. But it was I think, not even an anti draft movement, but a socialist movement, and thus an anti American movement. It's probably true that a popular following was able to be developed simply because of a desire to avoid risking life and limb in a war about which most cared little, but the organizers were, I believe, all committed leftists, many even having been raised as communists.

The same type of people are now protesting the Iraq war, committed leftists all. Before WWII, there was also an "anti war" movement, probably also led by the Left. The national media, being leftist itself, has consistently neglected pointing out, both during the 60's and today, the socialist origins of the so called anti war organizers.

17 posted on 07/07/2006 12:40:10 PM PDT by Sam Cree (Delicacy, precision, force)
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To: moonman

Read the last line of the letter.


18 posted on 07/07/2006 12:48:50 PM PDT by mbynack (Retired USAF SMSgt)
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To: truth_seeker
He is about 62 years old today, but intellectually he has not developed beyond 60s hippie anti-war nonsense. He can rant all the predictable left-socialist mantras.

I live in the West Kootenays, home to thousands of these characters. Almost every community here has a large faction of "watermelons" led by these Yankee "idealists".

At least they aren't erecting a statue to the 'dodgers in Nelson. That was last year's plan.

In the Believe It Or Not file, I actually meet the odd old hippie who likes George Bush.

19 posted on 07/07/2006 12:50:09 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Genocide is the highest sacrament of socialism.)
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To: siddude

Maybe they had other priorities.


20 posted on 07/07/2006 12:51:17 PM PDT by Wolfie
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