SwiftVets.com

[coldwarvet]

"There they go again" - Our future veterans deserve an honest media

In 1971, which seems like yesterday to many Vietnam veterans, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) organization produced testimony given before a Senate hearing that focused on the alleged actions of a few, and with one broad brush implicated 2.5 million members of the military as supporting a free fire zone mentality of death and destruction. The media picked up the story and pounded away at the American psyche with that huge lie day after day after day. The result of this coverage was a much distorted public opinion of the American troops, and as the Vietnam veterans came home they were treated with a spirit of non-approval from not only strangers but former school mates and even members of their own family. America also had several hundred men in captivity that were presented with this same VVAW dogma daily by their captors in an effort to break their spirits.

Fast forward to 2004 - "There they go again" : The media finds a story about uniformed Americans behaving badly and they pound and pound and pound away at it, eroding public opinion. They will stay on this story until there is another story about uniformed Americans behaving badly and then the drum beat will begin to pound away some more. I am not saying these stories should not be covered, but when they cover a story beyond the point of no new information being added and at the expense of the positive things that the American public should be informed about, it is an abuse of the troops in harms way that have kept us out of harms way for over 32 months now.

Questions informed Americans should be able to answer:

1. When was a military and intelligence base established in the heart of the terrorist world?
2. How many corpses were uncovered from mass graves?
3. How many non terrorist Iraqi corpses have been added to the grave yard over the past 12 months?
4. How young were some of the prisoners found in Saddams prison?
5. When was the Iraqi constitution drafted?
6. What percentage of the al-Qaeda’s leadership has been killed or captured?
7. Why haven’t we had another terrorist attack in more then 32 months?

If this was a quiz, how many of these questions could you answer?

Perhaps we would know the answers to these questions if they were being covered by the media - or is the media too busy looking for the next American behaving badly story? For example, how can we put another fresh face on the prison abuse story today?

There is a grass roots movement of veterans who do not want to see this generation of troops abused the same way the Vietnam veterans were. The veteran community is asking the American public to support our troops by completely removing CBS from their life. Veterans are going to utilize the parental control feature on their televisions and put a lock on CBS. This is a very serious issue and we need to send a very strong message and apply punishment that will be felt in every board room of every media outlet across the country. The troops in harms way have given so much to us, so we can carry on with our normal lives in a very hostile world. I think we can go without CBS , at least until they show some respect for the people fighting the War on Terror!

Thank you for listening -

Please feel free to send this to the editor of your local paper

Stephen R. Jelinek - Edited By Walt Jones
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Defender of the honor of those in harms way keeping us out of harms way.

"Peace is our Profession"
Strategic Air Command - Motto

USAF 75-79 Security Police