Reps/Dems switch positions on Vietnam?

[SamSpade]

Kerry has come out sword rattling to prove he isn't weak on terror. The republicans countered with the fact that he shot a kid in nam. So it is kind of a switch from what was happening 35 years ago when the left was totally anti-war (remember McGovern) and the right was totally kill them all (remember Goldwater).

I *still* don't know what the heck you're talking about. The right isn't aghast that he killed a commie - they're p*ssed that he embellished a story to the point where he was charging in under a hail of bullets and won a medal, when all he really did was shoot a defenseless kid in the back.

The vets aren't p*ssed that he exposed their war crimes; they're p*ssed that he grossly overexaggerated stories he got second-hand to the point of outright lies over the atrocities done there, to the point that the public grew more and more convinced that atrocities were *everywhere*, when these veterans he served with claimed they never saw it, once. They're p*ssed that he met with the North Vietnamese and made a mockery of their misery in POW camps, all the while trashing their reputation. But they were content to let it go until he made the point "I'm a war hero, vote for me". The hell you say.

 

[Ken King]

... but Iraq did nothing but be beligerant with weapons inspectors. They had nothing to hide and now it's proven. But here we are at war anyway.

You know not of what you speak. Iraq never complied with the UN agreement to bring Gulf War I to a halt, they continued to fire at aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones, they continued to build arms beyond the sanctions imposed upon them, the failed to destroy and document their weapons stockpiles, and the list goes on and on. All of this was continuing behavior over a 12 year period and was accompanied by direct threats to our security.

So keep your head firmly planted in the sand and while there remember to say a prayer for those that see what is going on and act on our behalf. Bush did what was right even if it is not popular and that makes him a leader deserving to continue in office.

 

[itsbob]

You know not of what you speak. Iraq never complied with the UN agreement to bring Gulf War I to a halt, they continued to fire at aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones, they continued to build arms beyond the sanctions imposed upon them, the failed to destroy and document their weapons stockpiles, and the list goes on and on. All of this was continuing behavior over a 12 year period and was accompanied by direct threats to our security.

So keep your head firmly planted in the sand and while there remember to say a prayer for those that see what is going on and act on our behalf. Bush did what was right even if it is not popular and that makes him a leader deserving to continue in office.

Can I hear an Amen!!

 

[Penn]

If I recollect rightly, the biggest beef the conservatives had over the Viet Nam conflict(it was never officially a war, was it?) was that it was classically, and wrongly run from the Pentagon in the United States.

The commanders from the 4 services transmitted intelligence, bombing results, (and who can forget "body counts"?) enemy troop movements and such to the Pentagon, and they would issue "Frag Orders" for that day and/or that week.

Our soldiers and airmen would report enemy concentrations, airbases that their Migs were flying out of and asking permission to attack these positions and airfields, and they were being denied!!

Instead of giving these commanders the authority to fight the enemy as they saw the threat develop, they had to wait for people like Robert MacNamara to authorize any action that might be taken.

Our fighter pilots would actually see Migs taking off from an airbase, fly up to meet them, but couldn't pursue them back to that airbase, and bomb the
$h!t out of them like they should have.

Desert Storm was fought the way a conflict should have been fought. The commanders in the field ran it, and did it well, I might add.

 

[Tonio]

Penncam, did you see MacNamara's mea culpa a few years ago? He pushed for the US to get into Vietnam. At the time, the generals were telling him that we couldn't defeat North Vietnam and the Viet Cong without going nuclear. But apparently the Kennedy administration was stung by the humiliation of the Bay of Pigs invation and didn't want to look weak again.