[A must-see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvJ8nFa5Qk]nnWhen Senator John Kerry ran against George Bush in the 2004 presidential race, the...
[A must-see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvJ8nFa5Qk]nnWhen Senator John Kerry ran against George Bush in the 2004 presidential race, the Conservative group "Swift boat Veterans for Truth" attacked Kerry's 1971 appearance before Congress saying that he was unpatriotic and speaking against and degrading the troops that served so bravely in Vietnam. In reality, though, it was a coordinated Conservative misrepresentation of the point of Kerry's intentions and a complete distortion of the facts. Back in 1971 Kerry was making the point that the savage environment of the Vietnam war was making soldiers do things to the Vietnamese people that was destroying their morale and ruining their emotional and physical lives, as well as turning the world against America......and for nothing since the Vietnam war could accomplish nothing, as history has shown to be true, and the Tonkin Gulf incident did not really occur as McNamara finally admitted in a videotaped interview. Kerry wanted the U.S. to pull out of Vietnam as Nixon finally did. The "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" attack on Kerry's patriotism was used successfully against him in the 2004 election. nnKerry was speaking to save lives nnHistory repeats itself if we are not able to learn from it. [ http://youtu.be/1Pd-ivU4pR0 ]nForty-one years ago John Kerry spoke to Congress about much the same subject as American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are facing and speaking out about today.nnJohn Kerry spoke quite eloquently at the April 22, 1971 Congressional hearing about the Vietnam war, describing the effects it was having on soldiers both fighting and those who returned home from the war. He spoke of the atrocities American soldiers were inflicting on the Vietnamese people and placed the blame largely on the system which placed those young men in such unbearable circumstances that caused them to react in ways that were often otherwise unimaginable. When asked about Lieutenant William Calley, who was tried and convicted of murdering 22 civilians at what came to be called the "My Lia Massacre" he had this to say: nn"My feeling, Senator, on Lieutenant Calley, is that what he did, quite obviously, is a horrible, horrible, horrible thing, and I have no bone to pick with the fact that he was prosecuted. But I think that in this question you have to separate guilt from responsibility. And I think clearly, the responsibility for what has happened there lies elsewhere. I think it lies with the men who designed free-fire zones, I think it lies with the men who encouraged body counts, I think it lies in large part with this country which allows a young child before he reaches the age of fourteen to see twelve-thousand violent deaths on television, which glorifies the John Wayne syndrome, which puts out fighting-man comic books on the stands, which allows us in training to do calisthenics to a four-count -- on the fourth count of which we stand up and shout "kill" in unison, which has posters in barracks in this country with a crucified Vietnamese with blood on him, and underneath it, it says "Kill the Gook." And I think clearly, the responsibility for all of this is what has produced this horrible aberration. Now, I think that if you are going to try Lieutenant Calley, then you must at the same time - if this country is going to demand respect for the law - you must at the same time try all those other people who have responsibility. And any aversion that we might have to the verdict as veterans is not to say that Calley should be freed, not to say that he's innocent, but to say that you can't just take him alone." Less
