steve wrote:6-4-3 wrote:Steve, none of those other "criminals" went to Vietnam during the war to shake the hands, hug and congratulate those who shot down our planes - all in front of the Vietnamese cameras to share with the troops to keep morale up. None of those "criminals" volunteered to broadcast anti-American sentiments over Vietnamese radio to the troops to keep morale up. None of them asked POW's if they feel guilty for bombing babies, or called them liars when they returned with horror stories of how they were torchured.
You're right. They only did little, forgiveable things like burn entire villages to the ground after killing every living thing in them, rape women by the hundreds, illicitly bomb uninvolved neighboring countries, lie to the entire American public, press tens of thousands of our citizens into service, make criminals of those who resisted, engage in chemical warfare, drop napalm on civilians -- all in service of a ridiculous notion that we could kill enough people to direct the march of history in a country where we had no direct interest. But fuck Jane Fonda and her photo-op. She's worse.Like it or not, Jane Fonda is the universal symbol of the Anti-War movement in the U.S. back then - and always will be. She is singled out for her unforgivable actions - dim-witted actress or not. Footage of her and her braless tits chumming around with Vietnamese soldiers will most certainly be flashed across our screens when the networks do a videography of her life when she dies. It's her legacy.
And given the legacies of Robert MacNamara, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger -- hell, even the troops on the ground who were coerced into conducting bloodthirsty killing sprees -- it's one to be proud of.
Yes, proud. She was wrong in specifics, and stupid in presentation, but she was on the right side. The Vietnam war had two sides: For and Against. To suggest that being For is better than being Against (however dim-wittedly Against) is to side with pure evil."brave" veterans
Why the quotes around the word brave? I won't try to guess.
Because it is not brave to do as you are told when you fear the consequences. It is brave to do the right thing, despite the consequences. Did those soldiers think they were right? Then they were brave, and probably assholes. Did they do what they were asked, because they had a sense of duty to their country? Then they were being compliant. Did they do what they did because circumstances forced them into immediate situations that required bravery? Then they were brave, and pitiful. Did they do it because they didn't want to be punished? Then they were coerced. Individual acts of bravery are ultimately less important than the arc of a lifetime of behavior, dictated by one's morals. A brave moment in a career supporting evil and cowardice is not bravery, it is a moment.
I have great sympathy for the soldiers on the ground. They got fucked whole-dong in this one. They suffered and were not appreciated for it. But they were fighting a war they had no business in, and I say fuck the men who sent them.
Here are some statistics on the Vietnam conflict that have been RESEARCHED, just so you know. http://www.vhfcn.org/stat.html
In terms of actual facts, it was about 10 % of American soldiers who committed atrocities in Vietnam because of the conditions they were in. Yet all of the negative publicity (because it was an unpopular war with the media) would like you to demonize more of the soldiers that fought in Vietnam as having done war crimes. What about the unspeakable acts of the Viet Cong, that Fonda was associating with? You need to look at the other side of the coin.
