John Kerry and other anti-war vets may have saved my life

[NNN0LHI]

I turned 18 years old in early 1973, the same year the draft ended. It was people, especially Vietnam veterans like Kerry, who helped finally put an end to the madness that we now call the Vietnam War. There is a damn good chance that I would have been drafted when I turned 19 in 1974 and more than likely have been shipped off to kill and perhaps be killed in the jungles of Vietnam. I am unable to forget what people like Kerry did to help end that senseless war, and I will feel this sense of gratitude forever. And that is the truth.

Don

[helleborient]

1. If Bush reinstates the draft in 2005, will you give Kerry responsibility

There as well?

[NNN0LHI]

2. Bush won't be around in 2005 to reinstate any draft. Dig? n/t

[helleborient]

4. Clever avoidance of my question (n/t)

[Feanorcurufinwe]

5. What's clear is that we will beat Bush. Will you help?

I'm willing to help if your candidate gets the nod.

[revcarol]

6. Good question.

Kerry, if President, will be forced to draft because he wants to add two full divisions to the army.AND he favors continued occupation of Iraq!!

Whose lives is he saving in THIS war? He favors CONTINUING it.

To paraphrase Kucinich : a Republican war or a Democratic war, it's still war!!

Those who think that there will be massive enlistments just because Kerry is a decorated vet and will try to get "allies" there while maintaining U.S. empire tactics have GOT TO HAVE THEIR HEADS EXAMINED!!

[bigtree]

8. Not true

He will go to the U.N. immediately and rebuild the relationships necessary to gain allegiences and heal the rifts. If we get more cooperation and re-order our priorities, we can achieve a reduction in our committment of forces.

That is John Kerry's stated intention.

[John_H]

7. No, it's called a fact. And you should help make it come true.

if you're really trying to kill a draft, instead of bashing kerry.

[bigtree]

3. Last man drafted: June 30, 1973.

:hippie:

[Hav]

9. Memo to you all

I doesn't matter what one did the last 30 years or what your record and your positions of the last 30 years were. Only one or two votes do change the human being you are.
Unless,of course, your name happens to be Wesley Clark.Then your voting record of the last 20 years is of crucial importance (although the votes of the last 3 presidential elections are irrelevant)and your current positions are worthless as well.

[NNN0LHI]

10. How old are you?

I am not asking this to be snarky. I am asking to see what your chances were of being drafted when I was about to be in 1974. Because if you have never lived though that time you can't have a clue how important it is what someone did 30 years ago. Know what I mean?

Don

[Hav]

11. .

I know I'm bad when it comes to sarcasm (I'm with you on this subject).I actually thought my points were clear by showing the hypocrisy of some people that once said Clark's past cannot be forgotten while Kerry's past can be forgotten really fast.

[NNN0LHI]

14. I am sorry I misunderstood you. My bad. You are just too good at that...

...sarcasm stuff. Peace. :-)

Don

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. You're welcome. But, this vet isn't for Kerry.

There's something to be said for image. I used to wear my dungaree shirt with the USMC label on it when I sat at the draft counseling table we set up at the local mall in '72. It kept the rightwingers from harassing us.

But, being a vet doesn't qualify me or anyone to hold public office. There were a helluva lot more courageous people than I was, who went to prison rather than be drafted, who never wore a uniform.

Kerry will probably get the nomination, and, (sigh), I may even hold my nose and vote for him if it's a tight race. But, he sold out on the IWR vote.

[ozone_man]

13. I may have too.

I protested with hundred's of thousands in Boston and Washington and the majority were not veterans. There were riots over the war and police brutality, Kent state.

It does not impress me that Kerry pretended to throw his medals away, while they now hang on his wall.

What is much more important is what Kerry did to vote for the Iraq war and Patriot Act and what he did to prevent present and future kids from going off to senseless wars.

[59millionmorons]

15. What a man

[NNN0LHI]

16. I agree. I think Kerry is a good man too n/t

[DemBones DemBones]

17. When Kerry first entered the race,

I said I'd never vote for him because he voted 'yes' on IWR. But Clark's out, Dean's all but out AFAIC, Edwards voted for IWR, too, Sharpton's got only a few delegates, and the best man in the race, Dennis Kucinich, who voted 'no' on IWR, is not doing well in the primaries, being last in number of delegates (though he should get some from Iowa and Maine, at least when they have their county conventions -- he did come in 3rd in Maine, after all!)

It's crucial that we elect a Democrat in November. Unless someone enters the race at the convention (the Hillary Clinton scenario that some have fantasized about), we're going to have Kerry, Edwards, or possibly Dean, as the nominee. They all have good qualities but also all have flaws.

Despite the nominee's flaws, if you don't support him, you help Bush win a second term. That's the reality this year.

As you say, John Kerry may have helped save your life. There were many lives saved by the ending of that war, both American and Vietnamese lives. Kerry was a hero in Viet Nam and came home and heroically campaigned to get the government to end the war.

I also think anyone claiming that he or she would never have voted for IWR is being quite naive. If any of us had been in Congress, we'd have been given additional information, info that seemed credible and that seemed to show Saddam had WMD and evil plans to attack us. Senators and congressmen who had to vote on IWR had a hard decision to make. We can't know what we would have done if we'd actually been serving in Congress.