SwiftVets.com

[ROTC DAD]

I received the following as a private message. I see no reason for it being so, so I shall post it here with my reply:

Let me guess: you're not a Vietnam vet. Are you a vet at all, or just another Kerry operative? Just wondering, but you guys are pretty obvious. Are you taking over for sparky, or is it just coincidence that you started posting the day after he said he was "taking a breather"? Semper Fi (if you know what that means) ....

Dear Mr. Jones,

Whether or not I am or am not a Vietnam Vet has nothing to do with debating the issues. If you wish to debate the issues, debate them in the open like everyone else. The fact that you do not agree with my position does not invalidate it. The whole point of this is the debate about what can or cannot be said and done.

I have decided to post this to the public forum where I believe it belongs.

Thank you.

PS: "Always Faithful"

[sparky]

Man, conspiracies permeate their outlook! "kerry operatives" Sheesh.

Obviously they're new to posting in conferences where opposing viewpoints are allowed.

[ROTC DAD]

For some reason waltjones seems to believe that private messages to me will make me suddenly stop arguing the issues. His latest is included below:

I notice you don't claim to be a vet, much less a Vietnam vet, so you have no knowledge or experience to understand; you are, in other words, invalid.


As I really don't know how to reply to this, I won't, except to say this has nothing to do with the debate.

[Craig]

[sparky]

I've noticed they try that "you just couldn't understand" crap when they can't come up with a reasonable response to our posts.

Personally, I think that their time in the service skews their perspective and makes a disattached understanding impossible, especially if they were actually experiencing heavy combat in Vietnam. In such cases, the raw emotions overwhelm their objectivity and anyone who suggests that the war was a mistake from its inception is a traitor to their cause.

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

[ROTC DAD]

My comments stand; you have no standing here. It's obvious you haven't even read Kerry's testimony; he said everyday, commonplace, known to all levels of command. Go read it, but without our experience, your opinions are invalid. Thatisall ........

waltjones

I do not deny Mr. Jones his anger. I'm sorry he feels this way. I just don't understand why he won't discuss this on an open forum?

[academicanarchist]

I have seen some of the most bizarre posts here. The idea that only vets, excuse me vets who support Bush, can discuss Viet Nam? Can somebody other than a Viet Nam vet who supports Bush point out mistakes in the war? I thin so. Mistake #1, back in 1954. Obstruction by the United States of the peace agreement between France and the Vietmin brokered by the United Nations. That led to another 21 years of war in which thousands of Americans and many more thousands of Vietnamese died. McNamara asking for thousands of more American troops in a war that could not be won. The United States supporting first a member of the Vietnamese royal family that had collaborated with the Japanese, and then a frequently changing group of corrupt generals who enjoyed little support outside of the francified urban elite. Underestimating the Viet COng and North Vietnamese just before Tet. Operation Phoenix. The CIA running heroin out of Laos. Expanding the war into Cambodia in 1970. These are just a few.

[academicanarchist]

When any man or woman enters the military, one of the first acts is swearing an oath to defend the constitution and the laws of the constitution. Last time I checked, the first amendment was still in force, and the military does not run the government and has no legal authority to engage in censorship.