Showing posts with label VietNam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label VietNam. Show all posts

01 January 2013

Of Benghazi, Concussions, Treason and Reasonable Expectations

H/T to a Brother Marine

All actions have consequences . . .

It is notable that Secretary Clinton is recovering from her concussion right on schedule with her planned departure from the State Department. It is equally notable that the media has had little interest in exploring the connection between the Benghazi disaster, its cover-up, Clinton's fall and the concussion that ostensibly was the reason for her not testifying. But now that the time for her departure is rapidly approaching, she is getting better and will emerge from sequestration just as soon as her departure date passes. Good, honorable behavior, precisely what Americans expect of their public servants, not.

Enter Senator "Swift Boat" Kerry, the darling of every America-self hater, a latter day liberal and pariah for most Vietnam, Iraqi and Afghanistan Veterans.  The Senator has an earned reputation of maligning the sacrifice and service of American Servicemen and women and now looms large as Obama's nominee for Secretary of State.  Had he been a patriot who supported military members, he would at the least be tolerable despite his insufferable arrogance.  Kerry has consistently engaged in disinformation and defamation of the nation's military and is unworthy to represent the United States of America to the world. But alas, consider who is nominating him.

He was deservedly "swift boated" by all but one or two of his Navy, Vietnam cohorts during his candidacy for President. Upon his separation from military service he maligned military members in a self-promoting monologue at Senate hearings; tossed his military awards onto the White House South Lawn in protest against the Vietnam War; consorted with North Vietnamese during the same; cultivated relations with the Sandinistas during U.S. efforts to liberate Nicaragua from Communist domination; the same with Assad of Syria and Hussein of Iraq during those tyrants' reign; and both the Soviets and Chinese Communists during the Cold War. 

That any Senator would sully his reputation by endorsing much less voting for Senator Kerry's confirmation is all but incomprehensible. Take Senator "Maverick" McCain who spent five and a half years as a POW in Vietnam at the precise time that Kerry was consorting with the enemy for example.  Yet, McCain has evidently endorsed Senator Kerry...and whereas that is a magnanimous gesture at the personal level, it is an unforgivable insult to every serviceman and woman who served in Vietnam and the Middle East. One hopes he changes his mind otherwise he will go down in history, not as a great American hero who did and stood for what is right, but as a pathetic ineffective loser who wasted his own life and desecrated the service of millions of brave and patriotic Americans.

One understands that elections have consequences...but consequences do not spell "anything he wants." If that is the case why not give Obama everything he wants, close up shop and go home...regardless of the effects on the nation?  Whether Secretary of Defense or State, confirming Kerry would be a slap in the face of the 58 thousand patriots who gave their lives, the hundred fifty thousand plus who were wounded and the 8 million who served in Vietnam...not to mention 600 plus POWs (except the turncoats and Senator McCain); and all service-members'  families. 

I believe in forgiveness...have written as much on a number of occasions. But forgiveness presupposes penitence and neither Benedict Arnold nor Senator Kerry have been penitent nor sought forgiveness. Senator McCain and all other right thinking Senators should show some political spine, forget Senate collegiality and do what is right for American service men and women, not to mention America, by voting against Kerry's confirmation. 

13 April 2010

Rally In Philly

Veterans Rally to Halt Memorial Vandalism

PHILADELPHIA, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Veterans and other volunteers will gather Wednesday, April 14, at noon at the Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial to voice their concern over vandalism and to offer their support by patrolling at the site.

The Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is organizing veterans and others to monitor activities at the Memorial starting this week through Memorial Day. Veterans will be asked to speak at the noon press conference to voice their concern about the desecration of the Memorial.

More detail will be provided about the patrols and other measures to halt the vandalism from skateboarders and inline skaters, who have actually been destroying devices designed to halt such activity. Scores of veterans already have contacted the fund volunteering to patrol at the site on Front and Spruce streets.

A limited number of copies of the surveillance tapes showing the vandalism will be available, as well as new, more prominent signage outlining illegal activities at the Memorial. The Fund is a nonprofit organization that provides oversight at the Memorial in cooperation with the Fairmount Park.

Three juveniles from the Philadelphia suburbs were apprehended March 7 by police who have charged them with desecration of a memorial, a third degree felony that is punishable by fines and imprisonment.

Coordinating the Veteran activities will be Dennis Best, vice president of the Memorial Fund, assisted by James Moran, Memorial Custodian.


(Excerpt) Read more at prnewswire.com ...

28 September 2009

27 September 2007

Who Do You Trust?

moveon.org or a Medal of Honor Recipient Air Force Col. George "Bud" Day?

WASHINGTON, D.C. — "American pilots do not conduct air-raids on villages, killing civilians, nor are our troops cold-blooded murderers or terrorists," said retired Air Force Col. George "Bud" Day, America's most decorated living veteran and former POW. "But, if you believe some current members of Congress who have accused our men and women in uniform of all that and worse, you would have to conclude our military is a barbarian horde, just as John Kerry had previously said."

"It was a lie then, and it's an even bigger lie today," Day continued. "The truth is that some in the U.S. Congress and their mouthpieces in the media now represent a much bigger threat to the lives of our men and women in combat, and our national security, than any foreign enemy."
Among his many decorations from World War II, Korea and Vietnam, Col. Day is a Medal of Honor recipient and a combat pilot held captive for more than five years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison. He is also the Chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (VVLF) which has been embroiled in litigation with Kerry campaign aides since Kerry's failed Presidential bid. Those lawsuits were recently withdrawn, and the VVLF is now able to reveal the results of its research and investigation efforts. But the VVLF needs your help.

"We were forced to spend over $1 million to defend ourselves in these frivolous lawsuits. In fact we still owe over $250,000 in legal bills. We paid the price of freedom 35 years ago to protect the basic liberties of all Americans, and now we're paying all over again, to protect our own freedom of speech," said Col. Day, a practicing Florida attorney.

"Unfortunately, as former Prisoners of War, we do not have the money that MoveOn.org has. Nor do we have the ability to obtain special discounts from the New York Times to run full page ads. That is where you can help."

Col. Day and several other POWs, including the wife of a POW, were sued numerous times by Kerry campaign associates after they participated in a 2004 documentary, "Stolen Honor: Wounds that Never Heal." In that film, Day and other POWs detailed the direct impact Kerry and his fellow anti-war activists, including many U.S. Senators, had on their survival in captivity and even the eventual loss of the Vietnam War.

The producer of "Stolen Honor," Pulitzer Prize-winner and Marine combat veteran, Carlton Sherwood, was also sued in a vain effort by the Kerry Campaign to prevent the documentary from being broadcast or even shown in theaters. It was eventually released in the closing days of the 2004 campaign, primarily on Northern Ohio cable outlets where, according to most post-election news analysts, Sen. Kerry lost his presidential bid.

"Our brave soldiers were and continue to be sold out today by many of those same people, abetted by a new crop of politicians and journalists," Col Day said. "They may say they 'support the troops,' but they have nothing but contempt for those serving in the military. The reality is many in Congress and the media are hoping for, and invested in, America's defeat in the Global War on Terrorism just as they forced America's defeat in Vietnam, years after the last U.S. military combat units were withdrawn."

Col. Day continued:
"The problem is that it was all a lie, staged theatrics, choreographed by the Communists and spoon fed to the American public by unconscionable, ambitious politicians and the press. We now have the hard evidence to prove that. We have obtained documents, records, eyewitness accounts, even the CONFESSIONS of those who originally made those despicable accusations and have now recanted ever witnessing an atrocity, much less committing one. The facts are incontrovertible and compelling."

"Our findings prove the accusations made against our military in Vietnam were pure enemy propaganda used by American turncoats to advance their political ambitions and agendas, all trumpeted, by an unquestioning, complicit media," Day said. "Today, other phonies have taken their place, people like Jesse MacBeth and Scott Thomas Beauchamp, whose slanderous accusations against our men and women in Iraq made world-wide headlines even though those reports were baseless, the accusers frauds. Then, as now, the media has been all too eager to hand the microphone over to anyone who wishes to defame America's soldiers, whether it's an ambitious politician or a wannabe who never spent a day in uniform, much less a combat zone.

See this post.

Col. Day said his VVLF organization plans to release its findings once they secure funding to do so.

"This is not over," said Day. "Now we are able to reveal the results of the research and documentation that we acquired. This material will reclaim once and for all the good name and good reputation of a generation of servicemen. It will help make sure that the brave men and women fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan don't have to go through what we did."
Armed with these testimonies and documented research, the VVLF plans to demonstrate to the American public the truth about those who accused our troops of atrocities and war crimes and those who promoted those falsehoods. The former POWs also intend to show the motives of those responsible and the media propaganda that lead to an entirely false history of Vietnam, just as the press is doing today in Iraq. That is where we need your support.

To present our findings to the American Public, the VVLF needs your help. It is critical that we reveal the truth before Congress repeats the mistake it made over 30 years ago.
Please forward this message to everyone you know who could assist us.