John Warner: "I regret that I was not more outspoken" on Vietnam

[MH1]

Will the American Legion and other so-called "veterans" organizations now set out to smear him like they have Kerry?

"I regret that I was not more outspoken" during the Vietnam War, the former Navy secretary said in an interview in his Capitol Hill office. "The Army generals would come in, 'Just send in another five or ten thousand.' You know, month after month. Another ten or fifteen thousand. They thought they could win it. We kept surging in those years. It didn't work."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2706526

[wisteria]

1. This is a very strong comment coming from Warner. It actually is chilling

when compared to what is going on now. I had a 19 year old cousin who lost his life in Vietnam right before it ended and when I hear things like this it makes me angry. My cousin didn't have to die- damn it.

[beachmom]

2. I will be calling my senior senator when the time is right, and

Kerry has an amendment to encourage him to support. I think both Warner and Webb are worth trying to persuade on this. Warner is a Republican, and it's obvious that he likes Bush on a personal level, but this moral dilemma has prompted him to speak out. With him, a lot of patience is required, but I think that colliquy from last June with Kerry was a telltale sign that he is deeply troubled by the Iraq War.

[karynnj]

3. Do you think that Senator Kerry's decision

freed him to say this? It was clear from the comments of the since the fall seemed to suggest that the "timing" was right on Iraq.

It's interesting because I had questioned last spring why Webb, against Iraq, couldn't re see Vietnam. He was, like Kerry, a soldier who didn't control the policy - it should have been easier for him to rethink it. I wonder if it might not be the very thing Kerry fought with in his journals from Vietnam - wanting to hope that he friend, Preshing died thinking the war had some meaning. One of the hardest things to read in Tour of Duty was a passage when Kerry accepted that he had to go to the base (can't remember name) where they were fighting in the canals - where he accepted knowing he might die and he was convinced it was for nothing.