John Kerry on Vietnam -excellent!

[nomatrix]

Hear Kerry's Historic 1971 Testimony Against the Vietnam War

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/20/1535232

"We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped away their memories of us. But all that they have done, and all that they can do by this denial, is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission: To search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war; to pacify our own hearts; to conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ten years and more. And more. And so, when, thirty years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but mean instead where America finally turned, and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning."

FreeSpeech TV ran this the other night from Democracy Now Archives.

Some transcript. I guarantee this will move you to tears.

[Old and In the Way]

1. Makes me proud to say I'm a Kerry Democrat!

[nomatrix]

3. I wish everyone would stop, and listen

I loved this part....

"In 1970, at West Point, Vice President Agnew said, "some glamorize the criminal misfits of society while our best men die in Asian rice paddies to preserve the freedom which most of those misfits abuse," and this was used as a rallying point for our effort in Vietnam.

But for us, as boys in Asia whom the country was supposed to support, his statement is a terrible distortion from which we can only draw a very deep sense of revulsion. Hence the anger of some of the men who are here in Washington today. It is a distortion because we in no way consider ourselves the best men of this country, because those he calls misfits were standing up for us in a way that nobody else in this country dared to, because so many who have died would have returned to this country to join the misfits in their efforts to ask for an immediate withdrawal from South Vietnam, because so many of those best men have returned as quadriplegics and amputees, and they lie forgotten in Veterans' Administration hospitals in this country which fly the flag which so many have chosen as their own personal symbol. And we cannot consider ourselves America's best men when we are ashamed of and hated what we were called on to do in Southeast Asia."

Thank you for honoring those of us who didn't wear a uniform and supported the troops. Remember the I.D. bracelets we used to wear?

[Old and In the Way]

5. Indeed I do.

I also remember how really devisive VietNam was....the Iraq conflict doesn't come close to the cultural schism that existed in the early 70s. I will say that it is because millions of older Americans remembered VietNam and refused to let Iraq become a 10 year war before becoming active in opposition to it.....people our age in the 70s were decidedly "pro-war" in their support of the government.

[teach1st]

2. Wow. A must read

Thanks for the link.

[nomatrix]

4. You are welcome!

If you click on the link at the top you can listen to the segment, because there is more to it.

Kerry is questioned by the senate. One senator, asked him to move the microphone. Then he asked about his medals. How many clusters on his purple heart? Kerry responded. The senator finished with "I have no questions."

The media is quick to link him with Jane Fonda.

But none dare play this. Before you judge anything the media says, find out for yourselves.