Help me debunk this freeper email...

[devilgrrl]

Get those air sickness bags ready!

==============================

Open Letter to John Kerry:

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens,
and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being
cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become
cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or
the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John
Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered.
But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again.
After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry
testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he
supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: "They personally
raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to
human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies,
randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun,
poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South
Vietnam."

I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought
in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi
Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action.
Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we
built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and
clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of
Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere
American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations
to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those
horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled
liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam
veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw
it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it,
or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of
you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators
arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are
not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity,
and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of
my life.

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have
been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows
and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger,
conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the
patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet
pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and
his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President
Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam
and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our
Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human rights Bill, HR2883,
in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of
pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could
have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee
on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all
veterans to report sightings of living POW's, when you held those reins in
Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize
relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin
C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a
contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier's International
to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of
Vietnam.

"Hanoi John," now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your
Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You
are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that
comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.

Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

Don Bendell Canon City, Colorado

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a
best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee into
the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern
Colorado.

========================

:eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

Now help me respond to this swill.

Thanks bunches.

[Dogmudgeon]

1. Your first two words

"Prove it."

Chances are better than excellent that Bendell can't.

"Just prove it. I don't believe accusations without evidence. Support Bendell's accusations, or join the long list of conservative liars who spam the internet with their political paranoia."

Here's a better one for a few minutes into the wingers' tantrums:

"Support what you've said, and I promise you, I'll write a damn letter to John Kerry myself."

Don't fall for their mind-fscking. Tell them to put up or shut up. And if they put up, check it out. If you are true to your word, it will shame the liars into cowering away.

They fear the truth. That's all you need.

--bkl

[Th1onein]

9. I'm sorry but I just can't...

It's just such bullshit, I can barely stomach reading it, much less responding to it. It is such a waste of time.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. And that's the point

It is bullshit.

It's not important that he prove it to you -- it's the peanut gallery that counts. When a Freeper calls you out in public, if you back off without cutting his freepy bits off and stuffing them back down his throat, you've "lost". In this way the bully secures his "realm". The other "sheeple" he bullies will be put on notice not to mess with the Big Man.

Right-wing bullies have a number of stock methods to hammer down people who dare open their mouths. You need to step back a foot or two and see it for what it is, an attempt at publically humiliating you. Once you can do that, it becomes much easier to strip the hide off the bully one painful ribbon at a time.

"Prove it, or be proven a liar!" always works. Because they never can prove it. And you certainly don't have to answer even one question until they offer evidence. Which they won't.

Don't fall for the trap of answering their every little question. Respond to it as the fraud it is and demand evidence ... "proof". That's all you need to do.

Good luck!

--bkl

[tom_paine]

26. That is IF Bendell exists and IF he wrote this and IF he is who he says

Freepers are notorious for their forgeries and fabrications, particularly in the realm of their phony "blast e-mails".

[SheilaT]

2. Where to begin?

First off, the charge that American soldiers in Vietnam were "cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists" is hardly a new charge. It's been out there for more than thirty years. Is it an accurate charge? In some cases, yes. And John Kerry isn't saying that at all.

A quick google search of Don Bendell of Canon City, Colorado, seems to show him as the kind of Uber Patriot who cannot tolerate any difference of opinion, any suggestion that the war in Vietnam was anything but a noble and pure venture, upon which doubts should never be cast.

So sorry, but there are those of us who have long thought that our little foray into Vietnam was a terrible mistake.

This is the kind of reasoning that shuts down opposition opinion, by suggesting that anyone who was not just like him (a special forces officer) isn't entitled to express an opinion, especially one different from that of Don Bendell's.

Whoop di do. Yesterday someone tried to shut me down in a discussion by asking me if I'd ever met a payroll. Well, no, I haven't, but that hardly invalidates my opinions.

And John Kerry, although I am absolutely not a fan of his, DID serve honorably in Vietnam, and eventually came to the conclusion that we shouldn't be there. Just because Don Bendell seems to think our foray into Vietnam was a good thing, doesn't make him the final arbiter of opinion on this. Differences exist.

Ignore shit like this, is my advice.

[NoKoolAid]

3. Adm. Zumwalt had a different opinion

about Kerry's Vietnam service. Thirty years ago he said Kerry was killing too many civilians and making problems for the brass.

[kixot]

6. How did you tell a civilian from a combatant in Vietnam?

Other than the obvious below. Just wondering.

[ConsAreLiars]

12. SURPRISE! The source for this is ... an undocumented allegation on FR

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1076410/posts

The original source is here:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/02/11/2003098345

Zumwalt was conveniently dead when Thompson (a Reagan operative) first made these accusations a few weeks ago.

Hey, Zumwalt told me "Chimpy is a bloodthirsty sadist who ate Carla Fay Tucker's brains with eggs the day after the execution." And that "Pickles is a partially transgendered guy," which earned her more respect in my eyes.

[tkmorris]

14. Amazing isn't it?

I went and ran a few searches myself. I discovered just what you did, although the "Zumwalt had to restrain Kerry" meme is spreading through the RW sites. It would seem odd to see it quoted here, especially since it's the worst sort of unsubstantiated character assasination, but somehow it's not.

The war has begun folks and it will get worse until November.

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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[efhmc]

23. Facts, please.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ComerPerro]

8. And I suppose your idea of honor

Is a rich cocaine using asshole getting into the TANG because his daddy is important and rich, and then deciding that taking a medical exam (with a drug test) wouldn't be necessary.

So, what, you want a commander in chief who thinks he can just come and go as he pleases?

Does your definition of honor include someone who spent years as a raging alcoholic, who was charged with driving drunk TWICE, who committed insider trading, and whose father helped arm and support a man who, in Bush's own words, is worse than Hitler?

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[leanings]

13. Kerry never committed any atrocities.

If you think that killing a few civilians in the heat of combat is an atrocity, you need to redefine the word.

I'm no fan of Kerry, but the man served just as honorably as any other combat veteran. Attempts to take that away from him are contemptable, whether they originate from his right or left.

[Name removed]

22. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

24. Welcome to DU!!

Glad to have you on board!! :yourock:

[xray s]

4. Tell him Bush's daddy supported Saddam Hussein in the 80's

Tell him anyone who would vote for the people who supported a man "worse than Hitler", counted him as an ally and provided him with deadly weapons is a brain dead fool.

[kixot]

5. Two words.

My Lai.

“The order was to destroy My Lai and everything in it.”

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/mylai/mylai.htm

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/mylai.html

http://free.freespeech.org/americanstateterrorism/vietnamgenocide/Mylai.html

Do you see innocent children in these pictures? I do.

[JasonDeter]

10. Those 4 months in Vietnam fighting a war based on a lie

Was a lifetime to 50000 + soldiers. To deminish that is a sick partisan disgusting thing only a republican would do.

[Elwood P Dowd]

15. Ask him

"What if Kerry and the other Veterans against the war had been successful with their protests and persuaded congress to stop the war in 1970?" Thousands of Americans killed would be alive today. The pain and grief of thousands of American mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and wives would have been spared. Billions of wasted taxpayer dollars would have been saved for more beneficial uses. American would have become a much better place.

I was drafted during Vietnam and participated in the Washington, DC war protest during the spring of 1971 while on active duty at Ft Meyer in Arlington. I can't tell you how many active duty military people were there. I even saw a couple of West Point grads there who were disgusted with the whole thing. Only the lifers and extreme war-loving nut cases supported it by then. There were 200,000 freaking people there, and thousands of them were former military or active duty military. Had to go back to my Army job Monday morning, and that's when the cops and the 82d Airborne Division (I think?) came in and busted a few heads.

[allalone]

16. MY LAI

[mac2]

17. We shouldn't be judge and jury....

about how others fought the vietnam war. Who knows how you would react under the same circumstances?

Where is your anger about Powell and the lies told by our leaders? Was it not the same as Iraq?

Young soldiers in Iraq...civilians trying to bomb them etc. War is hell that's why no one wins. It should be a last resort. Regarding both Vietnam and Iraq...lies were told to bring us to war...in a hurry.

Where is your anger over Bush killing American soldiers for oil profits and Empire building? I hope to see it as angry as it is about "Henoi" Kerry. You can call Bush "sitting out the war Georgie".

devilgrrl did you serve or are you just a God to judge others? Kerry didn't say he did those criminal acts...he saw...he heard.

[myopic4141]

18. Reference to the Mai-Lai massacre

should debunk the letter.

[baldguy]

20. Don Bendell is a wing-nut "hero".

At least, that's what HE thinks he is:

http://www.donbendell.com/

Whether or not his "military service" is actually military service, or - like Bush - a product of propaganda & his imagination is anybody's guess.

[Bandit]

25. I was with the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam in 1968-69

I recall no A-team camps on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. It was not even in Vietnam. It was in North Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia. We had no Camps outside of South Vietnam. We did have teams who ventured into North Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia and we monitered a lot of traffic along the trail but no A-Team Camps were set up along it. We did have several camps within a few miles of the trail and maybe that is what he is referring to. I would like to know the name of any camps he was at. I think there is much BS here. I would like to know also if he was part of the Mike Force and if he even knows what that is.

[bobbyboucher]

27. As for the appearance before Congress,

and telling the dark side of Nam, wasn't he just repeating the admissions that Viet Nam vets made a few weeks prior at an event in Detroit? I cannot remember what the event or meeting was called, but the vets ADMITTED doing everything he said to Congress.

Any help on that forum in Detroit?