We have puzzled compassion for veteran and presidential candidate, Senator and Secretary of State John Kerry, who killed a Vietnamese in his own country before realizing it was wrong.
Even more difficult to have compassion for former Governor, Senator, now President of New School University, Bob Kerrey, who on "60 Minutes" was exposed by his own point man of having had his Seals gun down nineteen young women and children, after having seen to the throat cutting of an elderly man; compassion for his having accepted a medal for doing it, after filing a report of 'enemy successfully killed.'
Did these now highly placed Americans serve us when they killed or ordered Vietnamese killed.? They all had a college education, which must have included a history of colonialism, especially the brutality of French colonial subjugation of the Vietnamese. They must have known that Ho Chi Minh was decorated by our OSS as a dedicated ally of ours against the Japanese and Fascist Vichy French. They must have known that Truman, against Roosevelt's promise, had brought the French army back in US ships to fight an 8-year war against our former allies, the Vietnamese. All this, because Ho Chi Minh was a communist? I don't think so. A top cabinet minister of our ally, the French government was also a communist, but that was OK.
When Americans withdrew from Vietnam, the government was communist, just as it is today. So the millions of Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians and the 58,000 American soldiers were killed for nothing but war profiteering, not to prevent a communist government.'
But enough imagining what dead GIs might say! Here is what the President of the Veterans For Peace nationwide organization has to say about the criminal use of the US Armed Forces, "Our response to the illegal deployment of U.S. soldiers is to support the troops who refuse and resist. "The antidote to racism and hate is love and solidarity. The antidote to illegal use of the military is resistance and support. Now is the time for all to step up to the challenge. Peace at Home, Peace Abroad! Gerry Condon, President, VETERANS FOR PEACE , 11/2/2018
Six of this author's bunkmates in basic training are buried in a mass grave somewhere in North Korea. I can shed tears for them, they were young men - they wanted to live just as all the Korean War victim relatives of my Korean students would have rather lived than die in a war over the economic confrontation of USA with the Soviet Union.
Veterans who loved their country enough to know what the fighting was about are one thing. Veterans who gave their lives fighting for injustice and against human respect, blindly following their officer's illegal criminal orders are quite another.
The world has become increasingly complicated and yet our corporate conglomerate cartel of a mass entertainment media has become increasingly reductive, simplistic and antidemocratic, and I have no compassion for those who work to make war acceptable, even attractive to their audiences.
President and General Ulysses S. Grant once said, "There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. " "Let us have peace."
Veterans, clergy, academics, editors and writers, including people of all walks of life have expressed heartfelt support for a for continuing year around the promotion of a Memorial Day for all victims of war that would especially include innocent civilians alongside the military of all sides. This would engender a desire for reconciliation and opposition to war as an instrument of foreign policy.
We need a memorial day to commemorate all victims of war, especially the civilians. That way people will become aware of the true effect of war and be more ready to oppose war when politicians call for it. "
Let us remember that the non-American families and friends of non-Americans who have died in American wars have the exact same painful feelings of loss and bewilderment.
The millions of Indochinese killed by our fellow Veterans, the millions of Koreans, hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi and and tens of thousands of Afghan women and children - every one of them is worth remembering on Memorial Day as well. Even more so, because they died in their own country, most in their own towns, and many in their very own homes.
I surely want to remember those fellow veterans who perished in criminal US genocidal military action. But I believe sincere Americans will want to remember everyone who died in these many foreign wars, including the 'foreigners' our soldiers killed in their own country.
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