Green Beret & John Kerry

[PornoDoggy]

Joe ... what you have repeated is true. There were far too many incidents like it (although few with anything close to that kind of numbers).

But what nobody seems to point out any more is that the number of innocent civilians slaughtered in My Lai-type incidents by the Americans with no provocation is a mere drop in the bucket compared to what the Viet Cong did to their own people - some for suspected collaboration (which could be as benign as taking American food to replace food "commandeered" by the Cong), or letting the Americans build them a school (that results in planting the heads of a school faculty on stakes in a town square). The Viet Cong, among other things, DELIBERATELY sent children into the midst of American servicemen with bombs and grenades, forced civilians to store weapons, and fired THROUGH villages in order to DELIBERATELY PROVOKE My Lai style incidents.

So it just ain't as simple as "bad Yankees (or Aussies)". Pointing out incidents such as My Lai without putting the war into context is probably MORE dishonest than the people who are pissed off at Kerry for telling the truth.

The absolute truth is that Vietnam was a clusterfuck of galactic proportions. There are more than enough unpleasant truths to go around - for the left and the right, the forces who fought it, and the folks who stayed home.