Liberator, until you're one of us, I don't want you speaking for us military folk. Its offensive.
US soldiers and sailors are honorable and noble--if you look at us in the aggregate. Once you start looking at individuals, we're a pretty screwed up bunch. The cream of society doesn't join the military, you see. They're the ones in nice houses, in nice neighborhoods, with nice cars and nice jobs, sneering at us, the soldiers when we ask to get treated better, or get better pay, or get funding for anything other than guns and ammo. The vast majority of the military, at least in the enlisted ranks, is made up of people from poor black and hispanic neighborhoods.
Liberator, let me tell you a little story about US Soldiers and how 'honorable' we are. See, I was stationed, among other places, in Japan. Whilst I was there, three marines kidnapped, raped, and murdered a twelve year old girl. Whilst I was there, two sailors stabbed their wives to death. One airman drowned his child, intentionally, at the base pool. American servicemen stole cars from japanese parking lots and sold them to japanese chopshops. US sailors on one base beat two guys from the JMSDF (Japanese maritime self defense forcE) so badly that one ended up in a coma (he eventually recovered) and both were returned to civilian life on medical discharges. At the same air base, more than 120 sailors were put out of the navy and remanded to civilian authorities for making and selling crystal meth.
EVERYONE illegally sold food and clothing on the black market. See, food at the base commisary and clothing at the base exchange were sold at US prices. The japanese have to import the same stuff from the US and it gets taxed by the japanese government. We could sell a $50 pair of Levi's for $300 easy. Rice? Man we got 25lb bags of rice for $4.50. The japanese paid $55 for the same bag. Cigarettes and alcohol were likewise excellent items.
All of that happened in peace time, away from anything remotely like a danger zone. If we soldiers and sailors do that kind of **** in a friendly country, I don't think we'd hesitate to do far worse in a hostile land to anyone who got in the way.
I'm not saying all soldiers and sailors are animals, but enough of us have impulse control problems, that I have absolutley no doubt that, training or no, religion or no, laws or no, they'll do absolutely EVERYTHING described by Mr. Kerry. Combat, especially the kind of combat seen in Vietnam, does terrible things to a man's sense of self and sense of civilization.
Incidentally, I asked my father, a vietnam veteran who doesn't like to discuss his time there, if any of what Mr. Kerry said was true. Like Mr. Kerry, my father has a purple heart, only his has several stars on it. He just looked at me when I asked, and said
of it was. He won't tell me which parts though. He's never been keen about talking about the stuff he saw in the jungle.
