Are US Troops being treated like Viet-Nam vets...?

[imax2268]

I was told by a rethug that our troops are being spit on and called names when they come home...
This rethug says that our troops should come home with honor...

Ummmmm...does anyone one know of a situation where our troops are being spit on and called names upon their return from Iraq...?

I have a feeling that this rethug is listening to to much conservitive hate radio...

[soothsayer]

1. I haven't heard anything like that and find it hard to believe

No one's mad at the poor soldiers---they get our pity.

[imax2268]

2. I'm serious...

I posted that video of that soldier blowing away the Iraqi and then the troops cheering about it...with the kid saying it was awesome...and then I get that from a rethug...

[Maine-i-acs]

3. I'm seeing them welcomed by a horde of well-wishers

At Bangor Int'l airport.

Of course more Guardsmen are shipping out from there - but mercifully after the holidays.

If anything, GW vets are being treated like Nam vets by the government.

[arewethereyet]

4. better not do anything like that near me

if the soldier doesn't teach you a lesson, I will.

[durutti]

5. *Vietnam* vets were never treated like Vietnam vets

The whole urban myth about soldiers being spat on was invented out of whole cloth by right-wingers. Anti-war folks crossed the line sometimes, but it was nowhere near as bad as it's made out to be. There's a great book on the topic called The Spitting Image.

And Iraq vets aren't being treated that way, either. I haven't been to an anti-war rally where they didn't chant, "Support our troops/Bring them home now!"

[mikehiggins]

6. It didn' t happen then, and it isn't happening now

It is unalloyed, 24 k, GOP lies and everytime you hear it you should call them on it.

There is an overwhelming regard for our soldiers which is really no surprise to me: they are getting screwed by this administration just like the rest of us.

And if someone spat on a soldier, how likely would it be that he would walk away in one piece anyway?

All Bush, all lies, all the time.

[BOSSHOG]

7. More orchestrated right wing propaganda

And of course, its liberal doing the spitting. Those who aren't coming home in body bags are coming home with honor. The homecomings in Louisiana and Mississippi have been patriotic, high spirited, loving. Your neocon acquaintance is a typical conservative dumbass lemming who is happy living a sheltered, ignorant life.

[imax2268]

8. from a relative

who was in Vietnam...when he came back...he wasn't protested or spit on either...but with the reports that came back of "some" soldiers killing women and children seemed to spark some anger...he told me long ago that's where the term "baby killers" came from...but I really don't know...I was only 5 when the war over there ended...

I don't know...but I think it's rediculous that they would say this drivel without sources or anything to back it up...Is this what the Hannity's and the Limbaugh's are passing on to these knuckleheads...?

[JanMichael]

9. I hate to say this but the "They spit on me" Veteran claim is disputed.

There are no documented incidents. There are a couple of DU'ers who claim that it happened to them personally and all I can say is that anomolies can and do occur.

But I doubt that ANY soldiers today have had that happen.

It's a load of shit.

[BCAtlanta]

13. Are US Troops being treated like Viet-Nam vets...?

You might want to read this from MSN Slate:
Drooling on the Vietnam Vets

-BCAtlanta

[newyawker99]

20. Hi BCAtlanta!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Ernesto]

10. urban myth allert

Vietnam veterans were not spit on except maybe in some extremely rare case. It never happened to me or anyone I ever knew or heard of.

[rapier]

11. notes

You better believe they are being spit on. Remeber the story about the hospital/warehouse and the waiting for treatment? There have been 9000 + wounded already. Do you see stories about them. Of course not. Wounded soldiers are losers. Ask any Viet era vet. Much better to forget about them. Shuttle them off to the side and forget about them.

Exactly one year ago, 11 years after Desert Storm the DOD officially recongized Gulf War Syndrome as legitimate. That after all those years of a concerted propoganda campaign against it. To this day anyone saying they are suffering from its effects is considered a liar, a slacker, a loser.

Remember the story about the complaining troops circa late summer, and the Seargent in the story and five others who assumed their military careers were over. Stars and Stripes reported that a platoon just back from patrol was refused service at the mess where Bush was to appear for his money shot with the fake turkey. Only preselected troops were allowed in. Is that spitting on them or not?

The wounded better shut the fuck up and the families of the dead should do the same. No public questioning of The Party will be allowed in the ranks.

For expressing this I assume I would be suject to assault or worse as the eliminationists anger against anyone not totally in step with The Party rises in praise of violence daily.

[Eric J in MN]

12. Ask the Republican who said this where he got his information (nt)

nt

[Another Bill C.]

14. I agree.

I always forget to ask the most basic question when someone suddenly springs an absurdity like this and that is: "What's your source for this?"

[AntiCoup2K4]

17. Why, the only reliable sources of info on the planet, of course...

You know.... FAUX news and Clear Channel radio :eyes:

[imax2268]

15. I did...

either they are refusing to answer or they don't want to admit that they are full of shit...!!!

[Hubert Flottz]

16. Some are coming back in the dark in coffins!

But you wouldn't know it!

[ajacobson]

18. Definitely an urban myth

I've read on a number of lists that studies have been done and no one can substantiate widespread or even isolated incidents of this happening.

On edit: referring to Vietnam era, never ever heard of this happening now certainly.

[Hubert Flottz]

19. From www.VetFriends.com...............................................

A Soldier's Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
In a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone.

I had come down the chimney with presents to give,
And had to see just who in this home did live.

I looked all about, a strange sight I did see,
No tinsel, No Presents, Not even a tree.

No stocking by the mantle, just boots full of sand.
On the wall hung pictures, of a distant land. MORE....

http://www.vetfriends.com/soldiers_christmas.cfm

http://www.VetFriends.com

To this sad but sweet poem I'll add one sadder note,
His Commander in Chief never counted his vote...............

[frustrated_lefty]

21. If and when Jane Fonda pops up

and starts calling people "baby-killers" maybe they'll have a point. Otherwise, no, I have neither seen nor heard of anyone spitting on troops, the troops are generally held in high regard for doing their duty.

[IndianaGreen]

22. Rightwing drivel, the real truth is actually much worse

than the overblown and rehashed Vietnam-era stories about returning vets. There are no parades for returning vets, and no interviews, and there are also no TV pictures of the burials of dead GIs or of the Iraqi civilians we killed. This is the first fully sanitized, pasteurized, and homogenized war. Nothing will be allowed on the airwaves that will weaken the American people's knee-jerk support for this criminal war.

The question seems hard to answer at first. It is intended to intimidate the listener or reader. No one wants to feel obligated to defend Saddam Hussein's actions.

But then the answers hit you.

The 9,000 Iraqi civilians killed

The 20,000 Iraqi civilians injured

The 352 United States servicemen killed

The 2,014 United States servicemen injured

The 51 British servicemen killed

These people were killed and injured in a war that was not necessary in the first place. The decent and humane decision would have been to continue weapon inspections.

We all know there were no imminent threats of an attack on the United States or Britain, no weapons of mass destruction, no connection to 9/11 and no connection to Al Qaeda.

There is no justification for the occupation and colonization of Iraq.

John Hartman, “Who could possibly think that the world would be better off with Saddam Hussein still in power?” (Oklahoma, USA, 10/27/03)


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