SwiftVets.com

[fortdixlover]

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/9591683.htm

The Phila. Inquirer is at it again, taking gratuitous swipes at the SwiftVets through the "some" game.

The "some" game is a Main Steam Media (a.k.a. Fogosphere) ploy to use the example of one or two people who the reporter digs up as supposedly representative of a larger group or even a majority.

So, my fellow SwiftVet admirers, when you read any article in the MSM that begins with "Some blah-blah-blah feel blah-blah-blah", you can safely use the article to line your bird cage, or pick up after the dog, as your tastes in animals necessitates.

Deeply embedded within the article is the following passage:

Retired Army Col. Richard Taylor, 60, a Vietnam vet who served from 1967 to 1968, praised the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for creating the ads about Kerry ... "What I now find has not healed is my bitterness at being spit on by my countrymen during and after the war," said Taylor, who lives in Atlanta and wrote a personal war history, Prodigals: A Vietnam Story. "I thought I had pushed those feelings aside until the one face and voice that I have come to attribute to all my bitterness stood before us and declared himself a hero of Vietnam. John Kerry's lies... have weighed on me ever since that time."

Towarnicki also was disturbed by Kerry's talk of atrocities and by the number of fellow veterans who "are coming forward to denounce him."

If the Inquirer prints things like this, then John Kerry is truly in deep doo doo.

-- FDL

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http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/9591683.htm

Vietnam vets jolted back
Campaign furor reopens wounds for some.
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer

Vietnam veterans thought they had put the war behind them. They had gone on with their lives for three decades, had children and grandchildren. They put aside sad memories of lost comrades and chilly homeland receptions.

Then came the presidential campaign - and Vietnam was back. It was on their doorstep when they picked up the newspaper, in their car when they flipped on the radio, and in their homes when they turned on the television.

It was also in the ubiquitous political ads, portraying President Bush as an AWOL Air National Guard pilot and Sen. John Kerry as the Navy Swift boat veteran-turned-peace activist who testified about American atrocities in 1971, then discarded his military medals.

"We were finally getting to a point where we could forget the bad stuff, and now they're dredging it all up again - for no other reason than partisan politics," said Blake Magner, 54, a Navy vet who served in Vietnam in 1971 and now lives in Haddon Township.

"What annoys me is that they're using this to get away from the issues. I want to know about jobs, about education, about the [Iraq] war; I don't care about something that happened 40 years ago."

The controversy over war service has divided the nation's 2.5 million Vietnam veterans, reopened the emotional wounds of some - and made many feel like pawns of the politicians again, this time in the battle for the White House.

Last week, veterans of the "first living-room war" found it in their living rooms - and creeping into minds - as they watched scenes of the antiwar, anti-Bush protests at the Republican National Convention in New York, an echo of the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Steven Silver, director of the inpatient program for posttraumatic stress disorder at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Coatesville, said the political hoopla and its impact on the vets were nothing new.

"It's called 'waving the bloody shirt': making military service - or the lack thereof - an issue during a political campaign," said Silver, a psychologist and former Marine captain who served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1970.

"It was used for 40 or 50 years after the Civil War; Northerners and Southerners used it. It generates a lot [of reaction] for the survivors of the conflict."

Silver said his program was seeing more veterans because their memories of Vietnam and other wars had been triggered by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - and by the presidential campaign.

"This clearly demonstrates that the nation as a whole was traumatized by Vietnam, not just the veterans," he said. "Everyone was affected and walked away with scars.

"We haven't dealt with it as a nation; we're like an individual who tries to cover it up so it doesn't come out. When it comes up, the reaction is personal, and that's the measure of this lack of healing."

John Towarnicki, a combat medic who served in the Army's Seventh Cavalry, said he just wanted the political controversy over military service "to go away."

"I don't have nightmares, but I do wake in the middle of the night and think about things," said Towarnicki, 58, who lives in Northeast Philadelphia. "A word will trigger a memory. The guys in my outfit are ever present.

"I want to move on now. Let's move the country forward."

Vietnam veteran Paul Curcio, 56, of Trenton, said the debate over war service had "separated some of the vets, and I don't think it should be that way."

"We were all brothers over there," said Curcio, a member of an aviation battalion who served from 1969 to 1970 and recalled being severely beaten by antiwar activists at a Pittsburgh airport when he returned home. "I don't care what [Kerry] did with his medals when he came home. We should let it go."

Many veterans - though wanting more from Bush and Kerry on the issues - have found the debate over Vietnam service revealing.

Retired Army Col. Richard Taylor, 60, a Vietnam vet who served from 1967 to 1968, praised the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for creating the ads about Kerry. The group's fourth ad was released Tuesday and focused on Kerry tossing his medals at a 1971 Washington protest rally.

"What I now find has not healed is my bitterness at being spit on by my countrymen during and after the war," said Taylor, who lives in Atlanta and wrote a personal war history, Prodigals: A Vietnam Story.

"I thought I had pushed those feelings aside until the one face and voice that I have come to attribute to all my bitterness stood before us and declared himself a hero of Vietnam. John Kerry's lies... have weighed on me ever since that time."

Towarnicki also was disturbed by Kerry's talk of atrocities and by the number of fellow veterans who "are coming forward to denounce him."

Military service, he said, "makes brothers out of the most incompatible people, so when so many say you're no good, something is wrong."

Kerry and supporting groups, such as the MoveOn.org political action committee, have, in turn, used the campaign's Web site and TV ads to question Bush's alleged absences from the Air National Guard.

Richard Grubb, 66, a former member of the Army's Seventh Cavalry who served in Vietnam from 1966 to 1969, said he was not sure what to believe or who to vote for.

"It's unfortunate that the vets are involved, but the situation is such that we feel we need to be," said Grubb, who lives in Harrisburg. "A lot of folks feel they need to speak out; that's the American way."

Magner, a Kerry supporter, said that "the politicians on both sides are using the veterans. I just shake my head and say, 'The argument is not worth it.' "

Carmen Miceli, 59, a Seventh Cavalry veteran who lives in Forked River, N.J., said he did not approve of the political ads.

"That's all smear," Miceli said. "I don't see a difference between Kerry and Bush. I support the soldiers. They are my brothers. I will vote for the lesser of the two evils."