Last weekend, my +1 and I went with her mom to a commemorative ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial to read the names of Vietnam vets who have died in the last year.
My father-in-law was an old Navy man who died from cancer caused by exposure to Agent Orange while serving in the Vietnam War on a destroyer in the South China Sea and offshore South Vietnam.
This event, of course, reminded me that this year is the 50th Anniversary of the beginning of American ground combat in Vietnam. One would think that this would be an opportunity to reflect on the service and sacrifice of the many Americans that served during the Vietnam era.
BUT, you would be wrong...the Progressive Loony Left (PLL for short) would have none of that.
The Pentagon’s Pathetic Vietnam Whitewash
Yup, that's the headline for the Daily Beast...written by Sally Kohn, self-described progressive activist and writer that wouldn't know an American hero if one walked up and probie slapped her...(oh, is that being micro-aggressive?). Here's my favorite quote:
The website, for instance, barely mentions the mistakes and atrocities on the battlefield for which America’s military was responsible. Nor does it say much about the extraordinary protest marches and heated political debates that embroiled our nation during the fighting.Just wow...now, of course, being a guilty white PLL she tries to make a weak statement SUPPORTING the troops cuz, of course you can't question the patriotism of the PLL:
The soldiers who served in the Vietnam War, who gave their lives in service of our country and those still alive today, deserve to be honored and commemorated. And those among us who witnessed that tumultuous period in foreign policy and domestic protest can use the occasion of this anniversary to reckon with, or even try and reconcile, the past.So what she is basically saying is thanks for your service you poor misguided lying baby killers...here's a thought MS. Kohn, why don't you just take a big cup of STFU.
Or as Kermit the Frog would say:
Ok, needed a wee bit of humor, because, WAIT, she isn't event the WORST PLL idiot...(oh, name calling...whatever...)
Not content to merely smear the veterans, the draft-dodging, pot smoking hippies from that era, who now sadly infest far too much of the hallowed halls of what passes for modern American academia, want to be ACKNOWLEDGED along with the 58,000 Americans who actually DIED serving their country.
While other American social movements have been celebrated with monuments, medals, memorials and movies, the anti-war movement is usually the subject of official forgetting. And yet it changed the lives of millions of Americans and altered the course of American history....Hundreds of campuses were barricaded and shut down by student strikes. Millions of Americans were viscerally affected for the rest of their lives. Not one top official ever acknowledged moral guilt for the lies that propelled so many to their graves. They continued instead as incumbents in the national security establishment.
Wow, sorry hippies...hell I'm surprised you even remember the '60s with all the dope and free love...maybe Woodstock was the height of your lives...unlike those men that served honorably at Da Nang, Quang Tri and Khe Sanh.
Did the anti-war protesters change history, oh yea, they ensured that the U.S. abandoned our South Vietnamese allies to Communist domination and slavery, ensured the images of millions of "boat people" trying to escape death or concentration camps...yup, they should be real proud.
But, hey, if you want to go there...let's remember that LBJ (Democrat) inherited the mess from JFK (Democrat) and completely bungled the war by trying to fight just enough of a war to negotiate a peace...hmmm..so a Democratic President fought a half-assed war to NOT lose instead of winning. Where have I heard this before?
Oh, and did he lie about the war...probably....was there plenty of blame up and down the chain of command, including the military...OH, yes...LTG H.R. McMaster hammers the military for their role in bungling Vietnam and rightly so.
So, how about the PLL hippies just shut up and thank a vet, and stop trying to pawn off your moral equivalence to men who answered the country's call.
I love movie quotes, and of course Jack Nicholson as Col Nathan Jessup has one of the best, even if he is the "villain" in the movie:
And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post.
BUT, of course PLL are too educated, important and, of course, self-righteous to actually put on a uniform and defend our country...but that's okay...2,709,918 Americans helped do your share, and 58,202 of them paid the ultimate price.
This picture pretty much says it all.
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