Quote:
Originally posted by Rudey
But it's what Kerry did after the war that upsets me. It's not him wishing that our country would leave Vietnam. I fully believe he has every right to share those sentiments - especially after being there.
-Rudey
|
So, this is personal with you. You believe Senator Kerry had the right to do what he did, but it upsets you. That's somewhat conflicted isn't it? You respect his right to do it, but hold it against him. OK, that's not uncommon.
Vietnam Veterans Against the War were a big presence on our and many other campuses. Kerry, because of his rank (and, of course his social position) was simply in a place where he could become a leader of, and spokesperson for, many.
Very much like the present war, there were many who questioned our reasons for being there in the first place. That was their right -- especially since they heeded the call and did their time as required by law. There were a lot more who didn't join the organization, but still questioned the war.
There are a lot of us today who went through those conflicts who question the present situation.
President Bush says that if his unit had been called, he would have gone. I believe that. But it wasn't and he didn't. Senator Kerry volunteered to go, although he didn't believe in the cause. To me, that's patriotic in itself -- to put yourself in harms way for something you don't fully believe in, but your country asks for. That happened to many of my generation. A few more, who had political pull, were able to snag Reserve and Guard positions that many of the rest of us couldn't. Unlike this war, not many Reserve and Guard units were called up -- probably due to the Draft.
By the way, the founders of our country -- our first patriots -- were considered traitors by their mother country. But they spoke out against what they believed was wrong. They participated in civil disobedience, and finally a full scale rebellion.
Thank God for that.
So, here's the way I look at it. Kerry went. Bush didn't. Kerry then elected to use his Constitutional rights to speak out against something he felt was wrong. His right. That's important. It's a large part of the beliefs on which our country was founded.
It doesn't say anywhere in the Constitution that if you choose to use those rights that it will be held against you in your future. That's called Free Speech. I think that the way it's supposed to work is that people on both sides of an issue debate respectfully, and may the right side prevail.
I would also argue that, in the end, Kerry's position in this particular matter won. The majority of my generation -- and the rest of the American public -- finally questioned that conflict and our reasons for being part of it -- and we pulled out. Although I don't like the way we finally did it.
It struck me this morning as I listened to news broadcasts that one of the organizers of yesterdays large protest march in New York was Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Finally, while I am as aghast at the happenings on 9/11 as any American, there really isn't any real comparison politically between the two, except ones that have been manufactured. One was an act of terrorism by a relatively small group in which about three thousand people were killed. One was a military action between countries, in which over 50,000 (on our side alone) died.
They are simply not the same.