Submitted by Don Robertson, Dec 12, 2006 13:39

I've heard and read enough of this from McCain and his alter-ego in the Democratic Party, Kerry, to just about blow my top. Both these two murdering killers are looked at and thought of by a large segment of our numb society as war heroes. John Kerry even had the gall to stand up at the 2004 DNC and proclaim, "When I was a young man I defended my country!" What a crock. Neither of these two ever defended their country. They were both enlistees in a war that was wrong, and that they both have recognized as wrong.

No one who fought in Vietnam or Iraq can claim they defended this country. During the Vietnam War it was well understood the soldiers fighting half way around the world were not defending the country, they were either soliders of fortune, like McCain and Kerry were, or they were conscripted to fight in what most everyone then knew, as they know today, was an unjust cause being fought by the American military for interests other than the American People.

The only ones then as now, who are fighting for their country during these wars are fighting for it in the mean streets of America. They are getting arrested, beaten, and in some cases shot dead by the U.S. military as they protest against the debacle these wars represent.

I am a veteran of the Anti-Vietnam War movement, and I was shot by a Massachuetts state trooper at the My Lai demostration in Cambridge. That trooper, and many others like him wore a black mask that covered his face, and had black electrical tape over his badge number so he couldn't be identified doing what he was doing then in Cambridge, Massachusetts. They were all dressed to the hilt in battle fatigues and bullet proofs. What he was doing was criminal and he and every other Massachusetts state trooper was doing was illegal, and they all knew it. They were waging war against anti war protesters. They came there for one reason, to kick ass.

I took many stiches to close the wound opened up on my leg where the slow moving two pound tear gas canister fired and aimed at body height from a grenade launcher-like weapon into a crowd of innocent, if protesting, civilians in Cambridge. I was specifically aimed at, shot at, and was I not as young and nimble then as I was, the projectile likely wound have shortened my leg permanently by two or three inches. I was in the crosshairs. I was the target. I was fired upon. And, if there were any heroes of the Vietnam War, I, like others who gave their lives at Kent State University only months later, was among them. McCain and Kerry were baby killers, and their likes came home to be hired and man the police forces all across this country in a last ditch effort to keep the debacle of the Vietnam War going.

They can re-elect John McCain and John Kerry as many times as they want in Arizona and Massachusetts. But let the truth be known. These two boys, my contemporaries, did what they did willingly, as a clear choice, a career choice if you will. They both deserve more to be tried as war criminals and hung than they deserve to be honored and made a part of the seat of power in Washington D.C.

I was recruited by Annapolis at the same time. I was brave enough then to just say, no. These two boys decided, yes, and the rest is history. But, get the history right. They made a mistake then, and they are making the same mistake now. There is no glory or pride in war. There are no war heroes, only the crippled, the wounded and the dead.

Don Robertson, The American Philosopher
Limestone, Maine

An Illustrated Philosophy Primer for Young Readers
http://www.geocities.com/donaldwrobertson/index.html

Note: Comments are screened, and in some cases edited, before posting. We reserve the right to reject anything we find objectionable.