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Originally Posted by Kitsune
It seems to me that people are too afraid or too ignorant to admit something is seriously wrong here.
Maybe not fear, but the administration, the media, or the American public themselves has installed a very interesting piece of logic in a lot of people's heads: if you're questioning the war or the government, you don't support America/our troops/you support the terrorists. I think this has even been underlined in a not so direct way in the anti-Kerry ads in which the Vietnam vet says that nothing hurt our soldiers more than Kerry's testimony.
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It's actually very Orwellian. We have a country founded on the principle of dissent - dissent from a monarchy which was taxing us and using the colonies for its own ends without giving any heed to the people who lived here - and now suddenly it becomes "un-American" to question the acts of those in power. How very useful for those in power. "America, love it or leave it." George Jr. and his keepers would love nothing more than for everybody who disagrees with their self-serving and short-sighted actions to shut up and go away.
The protests against the war in Vietnam did not hurt our soldiers. They were killed or wounded by the Viet Cong, not college students in America's streets. The American people as a whole became disgusted by the endless sacrifice of our young men for no real purpose. Kerry's testimony helped to SAVE soldier's lives by bringing to a halt a senseless war that was not in the national interest of this country and its people, much less the Vietnamese.
The soldiers in the current war against Iraq are being hurt by the current administration more than anything. Bush went in for the wrong reasons, he lacked planning and foresight, and the Bush administration refuses to support the veterans who have fought. My friend who is a disabled Gulf War vet said that on his last visit to the local VA center there were 500 men assigned to each counselor. A significant proportion of the homeless people you see on the street are veterans. Bush is cutting funding for medical and social services left and right. He has no idea what it is to be a soldier or fight in a war. He uses the men and women of our military as if they were so many disposable toy soldiers, and then in a truely Machivellian maneuver, he accuses his opponent of being against the men and women who fight for our country. I have never ever seen members of the military as upset with a president as the ones I have spoken with recently here in this major military town near where I live.