Vietnam was not a nice war

Incredibly, I'm hearing people on a number of 'mixed' boards outraging over Kerry's congressional testimony in '71 because they believe there were no US atrocities in Vietnam. I can only hope that these posters are... youthful. If they grew up in the 60s-70s, they ought to know better, and if they don't, it's because they don't want to hear it.

Read James Glaser's column, Sad To Say, Kerry Spoke the Truth

Excerpt:

The sad thing is that Kerry was telling the truth. While the vast majority of veterans behaved honorably, there were still thousands and thousands who did not. Even if only ½ of 1% committed a crime, that could add up to 45,000 bad American soldiers and Marines.

Just maybe the men offended by Kerry’s testimony never saw any combat or they were the ones committing the crimes and are feeling guilty. It has been widely reported that between one and three million innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed in the war. Somebody did that killing and that is a crime.

...

Some sick Americans just liked to kill gooks. "The only good gook is a dead gook." I saw guys with collections of ears and fingers. They were pretty strange and scary. Lots of guys were strung out on smack and who knows what they would do to get more.

...

Kerry was telling the truth and some Americans cannot handle the truth.

Jim Glaser, a Marine Corps Vietnam War veteran and Commander of VFW Post 3869, works to educate the American public on the consequences of war. His personal website is JamesGlaser.org

Given that what took place at Abu Ghraib was so much less gruesome than what was documented to have taken place in Vietnam, I considered the public outrage at the prison photos to be a sign that we had grown as a people. Apparently it was just a sign of a nation's memory-loss.

Yet another Bay Hap River veteran weighs in to challenge O'Neil's memory of events here. While in profound disagreement with Kerry's anti-war activities after the war, and planning to vote for Bush, Lambert, who was on Thurlow's boat, and earned his own bronze star for pulling Thurlow out of the water challenges Thurlow's account that the boats were not under fire.

How many times are these guys going to be refuted before they are discredited? How long is the media going to continue to pretend that offering up two sides means they're being 'fair', regardless of credibility?