Green Beret & John Kerry

Retired Green Beret Takes on Kerry

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 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 tribespeople 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 Collier's
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
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.

the letter is fake, we've seen those before, but what is true:
"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."
"

remember Songmi?
American soldiers responcible for those autrocities went to prison.

Republicans who wrote this fake can't find Vietnam on the map! if their lives depended on it.

While I don't know if the actual facts against Kerry in the letter are true, it IS an actual letter:

http://www.donbendell.com/

Peaches,
let me find 10-12 links to collaboirate Kerry's testemony:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/books/reviews...28_mariner.html

make your own judgement

tell Serge

thank you

tell Serge

thank you[/b][/quote]
http://slate.msn.com/id/105552/

I would be very interested in seeing a comparison between Iraq and Vietnam as far as the percentage of forces that were from the National Guard. The last figure I saw was that approximately 6,000 Guardsmen served in 'Nam over the course of the entire war. I would not doubt that there are more than that currently serving in and around Baghdad.

The point is simple. Comments about the nature of Guard service during the Vietnam war cannot possibly reflect on current Guard personnel because the way the military is set up is so vastly different.

As far as Kerry's involvement in antiwar activities ... SO THE FUCK WHAT. I've heard stories far worse than anything Kerry said in front of Congress, all from people who were there and did the things they told about. They happened - they were real. The man went and did his time ... while he "only" served 4 1/2 months, he also managed to pick up three purple heart-shaped baubles in that time, so he was entitled to go home - and he was entitled to speak out when he came home.

Granted, he could have done something honorable - like defend Texas from the Mexican Air Force ...

SO THE FUCK WHAT?

Fuck Kerry that's what.

On March 16, 1968, US troops murdered 504 civilians in the village of My Lai, including women, children and the elderly.

The worst of the killers was Lt. William "Rusty" Calley, who herded some 100 unarmed people into a ditch and had them machine-gunned to death. Calley personally shot and killed a baby that day.

Not a single shot was fired at U.S. troops.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam.../img/mylai.gif

Joe, tell us more about Australian genocide against aboregenes

Joe ... what you have repeated is true. There were far too many incidents like it (although few with anything close to that kind of numbers).

But what nobody seems to point out any more is that the number of innocent civilians slaughtered in My Lai-type incidents by the Americans with no provocation is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the Viet Cong did to their own people - some for suspected collaboration (which could be as benign as taking American food to replace food "commandeered" by the Cong), or letting the Americans build them a school (that results in planting the heads of a school faculty on stakes in a town square). The Viet Cong, among other things, DELIBERATELY sent children into the midst of American servicemen with bombs and grenades, forced civilians to store weapons, and fired THROUGH villages in order to DELIBERATELY PROVOKE My Lai style incidents.

So it just ain't as simple as "bad Yankees (or Aussies)". Pointing out incidents such as My Lai without putting the war into context is probably MORE dishonest than the people who are pissed off at Kerry for telling the truth.

The absolute truth is that Vietnam was a clusterfuck of galactic proportions. There are more than enough unpleasant truths to go around - for the left and the right, the forces who fought it, and the folks who stayed home.

we're faced with choosing between two men.

one of whom served 9 days in the coast guard the other who served 4 months in vietnam.

unless you're mkaing a stupid and emotional judgement it seems clear who has had more military experience.

if Patton was alive, I'd vote for him or..McArtur
;-)

double post.




Last edited by Hooper at Mar 12 2004, 09:49 PM