One thing I know about the Vietnam Vet is that they hate to be wrong about anything. I know I still have a hard time admitting that I’m wrong even when it’s obvious. I think it’s because when we got to Nam things didn’t add up. I wasn’t in country a month when I realized that. I was stopped on the road between LZ Sharon and Quang Tri waiting for the grunts to clean up an ambush. There was a Catholic priest standing there. I asked him what was going on and he told me about the ambush. I asked him “What are we doing here?” He said “I don’t know. My people have lived like this for two thousand years. They will live like this for the next two thousand years. It doesn’t matter what kind of government there is.” He said “It’s wrong for you Americans to be over here.”
I’ve spent my life trying to justify that what I did in Vietnam was right. The innocent people I killed haunt me everyday. I ended up with P.T.S.D. I still see someone at the V.A. who helps me as best as she can. I still take Trazadone so I can sleep at night. It helps me with the nightmares…Sometimes.
I enlisted in ’67 and volunteered for Nam. I agonized over my decision for months. I was aware of the anti-war sentiment in the U.S. The fact that my father and all the other men in my family had gone to their wars convinced me that I was doing the right thing.
I watched Robert McNamara that day when he had his pointer in his hand giving his “Gulf of Tonkin” speech. I believed him. He lied to us. I was enraged when thirty years later he admitted it. Our government lied to us.
The government (Bush and Cheney) lied to us again about going to war. Plain and simple. The government lied to us time after time. Our thirst for revenge has clouded our sensibilities on what is right and what is wrong. I believe that’s why the Vietnam Vets still support Bush. They don’t want to be wrong again. It stirs up to much pain about our war. I think every Vietnam Vet that was in combat has P.T.S.D. to a certain extent… just enough to cling to another lie. The outrage from 9/11 has distorted or morphed into this “kill’em all, it’s okay to torture, hide the facts, don’t let anyone see our dead, use of deadly depleted uranium shells, stockpiling the sick and wounded in Germany and Fort Stewart” it’s all wrong. It does not matter how hard we cling to a lie or how much we wish it was true…it’s still a lie.
Now we have Veteran against Veteran. How sick is that? There has to be more than political motivation behind these Swift Boat Attacks. To attack John Kerry who did his duty and who is not a coward is wrong. He had the guts to testify before congress about his beliefs. Who knows how many lives he saved by helping to shorten the war. He did what most of us didn’t and still don’t have the guts to do…stand up for what is right. So he is attacked by these P.T.S.D. idiots who don’t want to admit that we were wrong. Vietnam was wrong; Iraq is wrong, simple deal. Does anyone really believe that we would be in Iraq if they didn’t have oil? Does 9/11 give us the right to rape and torture? Doesn’t that make us as bad as the terrorists? Killing people for democracy, give me a break.
To my brother Vets I say get your heads out of the sand, stop being anal retentive and study the facts. Look for news outside of FOX and CNN. Get on the computer and study Buzzflash and Truthout. Make an informed decision on November 2nd.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’d love to get binLaden in my sights just once. I’m still an expert shot. It’s a disgrace that we let him get away. Instead we went to Iraq. Why? We see Bush joke about WMD’s, saying binLaden isn’t an important priority anymore. Why? Give the Taliban forty million dollars. Why? Study the facts and you’ll see that Iraq was the wrong war…Again
Tim A