To all the vets on DU.

There are well over 100,000 members on DU. I don’t know how many of us are veterans, but I’d venture to guess that there are people here from WWII, through Korea, through Vietnam, through Grenada, Panama, Gulf War I, Somalia, Kosovo, the present FUBAR in Iraq, the under-manned and under-funded effort in Afghanistan, and a few other ugly scuffles that I may have left out. Some saw combat, some didn’t. But all sacrificed to some degree or another, and far too many lost limbs, their sanity, or their lives. And it’s still going on at this very moment.

Yet, we all have one thing in common. We were all there and we didn’t get to pick our war. (And yes, some went to Canada or elsewhere, but I won’t judge them. I believe that most had as much integrity and as much of a moral code as those who stuck around.)

For a few decades now, the Republican Party has painted all Democrats as people who won’t stand up and fight for their country. And yes, we all know that we’re talking about a Republican Party filled with “chicken-hawk-politicians” who had “something better to do” when things got ugly and dangerous. But let me get to the point.

We cannot, under any circumstances, let the Republicans run another campaign in which they portray themselves as the “true” defenders of our country, (not to mention their “love” of “Truth, Justice and the American way”). They have been selling their snake-oil for far too long, and far too many people who lack common sense have been buying it. Somehow, our candidates and our party must let the vast majority of Americans know that we are the real party of “values.” We don’t wear our religion on our sleeves, we don’t wear our patriotism on our lapels, and most vets that I have known don’t need to display their medals on their walls.

But whether or not anyone here served in the military is but one issue. The overriding reality is that, for the most part, the ethos of most members of DU is that we are decent people who care about the quality of life of our fellow human beings. And we can no longer allow Democrats to be portrayed as second class citizens who are not up to the standards of “REAL AMERICANS” like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, and the rest of the herd of incredibly beastly people who have been spitting on our honor, our empathy and our basic humanity for the past few decades.

I started out by addressing American vets and I realized that I’ve ended up talking to all people who have a sense of decency. Let’s find a way to once again become what we once were and can be again. And then, let’s convince the rest of the world that tyranny is unacceptable.

THANK YOU to all of our vets on this site and in this nation. We owe each of you a debt that can never be repaid.

God bless you all.

:patriot:

We have for to long "allowed" the Rethuglicans to define who we are and what we believe.

We must stand face to face and toe to toe with these bastards and let them know that we will not back down..

A Kick for Cyrano!:kick:

for mistreatment at either a VA facility, or by being ignored by the VA, is a crime.

Your son is a victim of a system that is, at its very core, corrupt and evil. He died for our country, yet his country evidently did not care for him as much as he cared for it.

My tears and my sympathy go out to you.

Those who ran from service castigating anyone who wore the uniform for being unpatriotic will always be one of the sorriest and most vile examples of shrub and the neocons legacy.

It defines Who They Truly Are.

Thank you my friend :patriot:

:pals:

Never would I ever fight or let my son fight a war of lies.

a very deep skepticism of government, particularly when it comes to military action. Back in the 80's I read General Shoup's scathing invective against the war profiteers he made in 1966.

General David Monroe Shoup was a World War II Medal of Honor recipient and the twenty-second Commandant of the United States Marine Corps (January 1, 1960–December 31, 1963). After his retirement, he was a vocal critic of the Vietnam War.



"I believe if we had, and would, keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. That they design and want. That they fight and work for...and not the American style, which they don't want. Not one crammed down their throats by the Americans."

This statement ties back to an assessment made by Shoup that "in every case..every senior officer that I knew..said we should never send ground forces into Southeast Asia."

After his retirement, Shoup became an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. He publicly supported the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) VVAW by 1971.

General Shoup died on 13 January 1983 after a long illness and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

This quote I hung on my dingy apartment wall for years.
It was an obsession I have to confess. It infuriated me in a way nothing else does. Maybe it was because it was personal.

Then I read about the Kissinger inspired 1968 "October Surprise" where he and Nixon deliberately derailed the Paris Peace talks to give HUbert Humphrey a political black eye. The war would drag on for another 7years with 20,000 more GIs dying. This was even more personal because I could have been one of those casualties.

Then I read General Smedley Butler's "War is a Racket" and dedicated alot of my time to simply revealing the truth.

I am writing a book on those who run that racket. Alot of the book deals with how the perception managers kept most of the people fooled most of the time and a large minority all of the time and got rich in the process. A dynamic that goes back to the Civil War and before.

I would like to hear more from you.

It has been many years in the making.

owned by the same people who own the MSM. You'll probably have to send out many, many letters to find someone who's willing to take a look at it. And don't ignore the literary agents. They have far more contacts and influence than the average person.

I'm not sure if there are comprehensive on-line lists of agents and publishers, but every library has a huge research book that lists them all and what they specialize in. Again, the best of luck with this. I hope to see it in print.

The Rethuglicans HAVE, for far too long, been allowed to paint Democrats and others who don't march in lockstep with them as unpatriotic, as hating the troops, as hating America, as hating all that is good, and in bashing us for speaking out when things are bad, or wrong, or misguided.

They are wrong! They are the ones who don't support the troops, because they DO support the FUBAR in Iraq; they DON'T support funding for the equipment the men and women who are there need to try and stay safe, alive, and in one piece; they DON'T support funding to take care of the ones who come back bloody and broken; they DON'T give a fuck about all the troops who are homeless after serving this country.

And to go further, as you did, they also DON'T support the idea of a government infrastructure that needs to be there to help those who are down and out; they DON'T support funding for single mothers, though they sure get their rocks off by putting these women down, and trying to turn their children into a punishment for having sex, and they sure as hell DON'T support birth control which WOULD help cut down on the number of "unwanted" children and abortions.

They come from a place of hatred, of bullying, of fear. They don't love this country; they use it to bludgeon those like us who DO love it, even when we are speaking out about how things can and should be better.

They come from a place of hatred, and I will not be put down by them without speaking out. I will not stand silently by while they continue to trash everyone who doesn't join them in their bile-filled hate spewing attacks on everything and everyone who isn't THEM.

_______________________________________

And, lastly, I want to say that I do sincerely thank every single one of you who has ever served in any branch of this country's military, in whatever capacity you served. You deserve much better than what you get from the likes of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Coulter, Bush, and Cheney.

:patriot:

USASA 65-69

I could not agree more. What these neocons did to John Kerry, Max Cleland, John Murtha, and yes, even John McCain during the 2000 primaries is despicable. Cyrano is absolutely correct, we must call them on it every single time. I feel another LTTE coming on, and then on to the asshats at CNN and FAUX.
A big K&R!
:kick:

He isn't much of a talker or reader, but he does have thoughts when he will say, "Post that on DU for me and see what the response is."

He works alongside two repukes - one who thinks Bush can do no wrong, the other who thinks Bush is an idiot but has no plans to vote for a Dem anytime soon ( :eyes: )

They don't know what to make of Mr. WMU - a pagan, Iraq War vet who engages them on every talking point they gurgle. He has said a few times how much he appreciates the way I help keep him up on what is going on.

He would agree with your post. He hasn't read it yet because he's sleeping. I will show it to him tomorrow. Thanks!

:hi:

I'm tired of hearing that as a liberal I hate my country or don't support the truth. It offends me as a veteran and as an American.