Help me debunk this crap!

[Maestro]

Okay, my uncle is a great guy, but he and most of my family on that side, my father's, and I do not see eye to eye politically.

Here is one of those dubious letters he got a hold of and sent to me. Please read and help me debunk this or send me links so I can read to debunk this. Some of this just doesn't sound right.

Text of letter:

An Open Letter to John Kerry:

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again.

After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: "They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."

I was a Green Beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts were open to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me, and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and
I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human rights Bill HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribes people in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW's, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collierâs International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.

"Hanoi John," now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere. Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern Colorado.

_________________________________________________

[RobertSeattle]

1. Not a response, but check out his response to critics page...

http://www.donbendell.com/DonAnswersCritics.html

:puke:

[CO Liberal]

5. Colorado Has More That Its Share Of Nitwits

Don Bendell is one of them.

[jmowreader]

16. My favorite "answer"...

Every time someone says something bad about Bush's National Guard service, he responds with the same canned answer: "Tell the mothers of the 6,077 Reserve and National Guard troops who died in Vietnam that..."

Don, I really hope you're lurking, because listen close: Those 6.077 fine soldiers who died in Vietnam WERE IN VIETNAM! YOUR HERO NEVER WAS!

[BeachBuckeye]

2. In no way did Kerry accuse ALL Viet Nam vets of that behavior

I have many friends who were in Viet Nam and they have told me countless stories that back up every one of Kerry's words. It happened! Sad but true. War sometimes clouds mens sense of morality.

[Ksec]

3. Bendell is obviously politicising

Hes just part of the smear machine. Guys like this are the types who have no problem smearing Kerry over his politics while ignoring the obvious nightmare in office. I give him no credibilty or the satisfaction of me getting all upset over his charges. Just laugh at these clowns . Thats all theyre worth to the world.

[Career Prole]

4. Send him this link...

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE
"Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths"...a series which ran in the Toledo Blade.
Virtually every atrocity mentioned by John Kerry took place, and as he testified they did go largely ignored by the brass, right up the chain of command all the way to the Nixon White House.
He did not testify everyone was doing it...but he did testify it was happening. Should he have lied about it? I think not.

[Maestro]

6. Thanks

for the responses. Any more? I haven't had time to check the links. My wife just called. She's had another accident in the car. Argh!!!! Second one in two months. My insurance is going sky high!!! Oh well. That is another story.

[oasis]

7. "Butcher Bendell" is working to enable the Rove and the Bush murders

of innocents to continue.

[northzax]

8. Gee, Mr. Bendell seems to really identify with indigenous peoples

good for him. I assume he is advocating for the return of native lands to the American indigenous peoples as well, Colorado, hm? can anyone remember which treaty stole THAT little plot of land from the locals?

[gizzi51]

9. Wingnut Chain Letters

It's an incomplete quote. Kerry was at a meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, maybe their first, when he heard of all these atrocities committed over there. He NEVER said that HE saw them. This meeting was called "Winter Soldiers" or something like that. There were all sorts there. Green Berets, Marines, heroes, medal winners, regular grunts, etc. He then testified in front of Congress of what he had heard from all these soldiers who came back from Vietnam with these stories. There's a couple of these letters making the rounds on the wingnut circuit, google search Lt. Col. Glenn Lackey. He wrote another letter to Sen. Kerry demanding an explaination & apology for things Big John never said.

[frylock]

14. thanks for the 411..

welcome to the board.

[Redleg]

18. Good find and welcome to DU.

EOM

[thetone]

10. Bendell rebuttal

The Vietnam War Memorial has over 50,000 names of American service men killed in that atrocious war. For every American killed over 50 Vietnamese men, women, and children were killed by every conceivable wartime device that could be conjoured by a military superpower. Some by napalm, some by carpet-bombing, some by indiscriminate land mines, some by artillery, but most died from American hand-carried weapons--automatic rifles, shot guns, machine guns, grenades, and mortars. Body counts were the measure of a US military unit's effectiveness. John Kerry along with many others that served in Vietnam found that unconscionable and spoke out against it, while still others, like Don Bendell, chose to glorify it. Individuals have developed all kinds of ways to rationalize the absolute horrors of participating in that war. Some still cling to concept that US involvement in Vietnam was, at worst, benign while others know it was any but. At that time, no indigenous population had ever suffered as much as the South Vietnamese at the hands of a superpower in the history of modern warfare.

[NewJeffCT]

12. great response - welcome to DU

Not a lot I can add, but your 5th post is more eloquent than anything I've written in over 1000...

[keithyboy]

15. I think Native Americans suffered as much...if not more.

But i agree with your rebuttle...it was great.

[NinetySix]

11. One possible response...

The contention of the writer of this letter is that, sure, maybe some of this sort of thing might have happened very rarely in one place or another, but I never did it, I didn't know anyone who did it, and I never saw it done.

This anecdotal testimony, if true, goes nowhere toward proving that events like this didn't happen, or even that they were not widespread. Kerry's testimony was not an eye-witness account of his experiences in Viet Nam, but a second-hand account of those stories told by servicemen who had themselves testified with remorse to war crimes that they had committed in Viet Nam. Kerry was simply repeating what he had heard others saying about the guilt they were carrying from actions committed during their own service.

This is why Kerry never reported any instances of crimes he had seen. He had no proof; all he had to go on was the word of people who were reporting their own individual dishonorable actions during wartime, about which they had no reason to lie.

[Cleita]

13. A word about John Wayne.

I'm amazed at how many Repukes think of him as a war hero because he played them in the movies. John Wayne got a deferment in WWII because he was the father of four children and men with four or more children were exempted from the draft. He was never in the military or fought in any war.

[WoodrowFan]

17. so what's the story with HR 2883?

It sounds like more RW crap, but what's the story behind it?

(on edit) it was 2833 and McCain opposed it as well. Tom Delay sponsored it. I found this in google..

but the Vietnam Human Rights bill threatens that progress. It would require any humanitarian, educational or business organization working in Vietnam to submit an annual report on human rights progress in Vietnam, or lose federal support. Under the bill, Vietnam's favorable trade status would depend on continued progress in human rights as reflected in these reports.

Affected groups have been quick to point out that the proposed legislation is an attack on their independence and autonomy. They say the act threatens to politicize their work and make their credibility in Vietnam tenous. Some fear that many organizations will reject government assistance or refuse to make reports if the bill is passed. They also fear trade cutbacks, the curtailment of educational and humanitarian exchanges and an overall erosion of Vietnam-U.S. relations.

They fear the result will be only more bad feelings and setbacks for economic and human rights progress in Vietnam.

Some believe this scenario may well be the aim of the legislation, that it is just another in a continuing series of efforts to punish Vietnam . They point out there are already mechanisms in place for reviewing human rights, performance, and that last week the House voted 388-91 to continue Vietnam's current trade status.

http://www.fva.org/200208/story06.htm

[Maestro]

19. Great info here.

Much appreciated. I have a fine line to walk as both my uncle and father served in the military. In fact, my father served two tours in Viet Nam as a pilot although I have persuaded him to vote democratic the last two elections. :7

My uncle seems me this sort of propaganda all the time. Again, he is a good guy, but blinded by right wing rhetoric. His only source of news of Faux News so you can imagine where he comes from. I'll let you know what happens.