No yellow ribbons from this ex-marine

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.tanosborn.com/columns.html?subaction=showfull&id=1143658801&archive=&start_from=&ucat=12&

<snip>A bold pronouncement saying, “I do not support the troops,” is not something that you expect to read or to hear in the mainstream media. And I hadn’t… not until March 27, when a former marine of the Vietnam era had his sentiments unmistakably expressed in a letter sent to The Oregonian. Defiant and angry, he started his letter to the editor this way: “OK, if no one else will say it, I’ll say it: ‘I do not support the troops.’” No words minced with this marine… as he stood tall, at attention, with a “semper fidelis” to truth!

A paragraph in his letter summed up how he felt: “When I was 18 and as stupid as all the troops over there now, including the square-jawed, talking-head generals, I was supposed to be bringing democracy to a Third World country. It was baloney then and it’s baloney now. All we did (I was a grunt in the Marines), was make a thousand Viet Cong for every one we killed. And the ones I killed have haunted me since.”

Maybe A.B. was a “stupid grunt” at that tender age fighting in the jungles half a world away… but what he saw and did in Nam turned the lights on for him, humanized him; and that “stupidity” did transform into wisdom, not just for him but for the rest of us.

What’s wrong with our nation? Why are the military, Capitol Hill, the White House… and the rest of us watching this Vietnam re-enactment in Iraq without batting an eye?

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. I think part of it is guilt.

I thought this during the Swift Boat fiasco. I think these Vietnam Veterans that were pissed off at Kerry for his whistle-blowing were all ones bashed him to cover up their own guilt, even the ones who didn't take part in the atrocities. They feel the same guilt as A.B., even if they aren't admitting it.

Same thing is happening today. If everyone else says it's right, it's right, even if you know in your heart that it's wrong. Pride and ego overwhelm the consciences of many of these people.